Although the ingredients to make brioche French toast are fairly simple, you’ll want to start gathering them about a day ahead. You can make some substitutions but, as usual, what you put in is what you get out of this recipe.
Ingredient quantities are detailed in the printable recipe card below.
Brioche
We use high quality brioche bread slices in our brioche French toast recipe and you should too. After all, brioche is the best bread for French toast recipes.
We live in Lisbon which gives us ample access to high-quality European bread. However, good brioche should be readily available in most major American cities and even some smaller towns.
You can alternatively use Jewish challah or another egg-based bread as a substitute. You could hypothetically bake brioche at home but, be forewarned, it can be a lengthy process that requires multiple risings to get right.
Pro Tip
Slice the brioche about ¾ of an inch thick and let the slices sit in the open air to get stale for one to two days maximum. One full day is optimal.
Eggs
You should use the freshest eggs available.
In Europe, egg yolks have a bright orange hue. If you can buy similar eggs at a market where you live, go for it. However, grade A large supermarket eggs work just fine in this recipe.
Milk
We use whole milk in this recipe. You can use 2% milk; however, your final product won’t be as tasty or rich.
Pro Tip
Skip skim or 1% milk. The final result will simply disappoint you.
Cream
We don’t know why most French toast recipes, including ours, require cream in addition to milk. Maybe it’s to keep the French toast from becoming too eggy? We’re not really sure why but we do know that the end result is delicious so we’re okay with that.
Pro Tip
In the absence of cream, you could substitute an extra egg yolk.
Vanilla Bean
We use a whole vanilla bean in our brioche French toast recipe partly because Daryl is swanky. But, seriously, there’s nothing quite like the scent and flavor that a whole vanilla bean imparts to this brunch dish.
Pro Tip
You can substitute 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract if you don’t have or choose not to use a vanilla bean.
While it’s possible to add cinnamon to our French toast mix, we choose not to because we want the vanilla flavor to be unadulterated. You can add a ½ teaspoon of cinnamon if you prefer your French toast to have a cinnamon accent.
Buy vanilla beans from Amazon for this and other recipes.
Brown Sugar
We use dark brown sugar in this recipe. While you certainly could use granulated white sugar instead, we find that brown sugar provides a richer flavor.
Salt
As with most sweet dishes, salt provides a certain level of seasoning that amplifies the other flavors in the dish. A pinch should be more than enough in this recipe.
Butter
We cook our brioche French toast in butter for maximum browning and ultimate flavor. You can use other fats like vegetable oil but the end result just won’t be the same.
Fresh Fruit
We choose to garnish our brioche French toast with strawberries and blueberries except when we choose to garnish our French toast with strawberries and banana slices. You can use any fruits you choose. Options include apples, kiwis, peaches, plums and raspberries as well as bananas, blueberries and strawberries.
Maple Syrup
Typically produced in Vermont and Canada, maple syrup is a product usually served with [ancakes, French toast and waffles. Accordingly, it should be no surprise that we use maple syrup to finish our brioche French toast recipe.
We like to use amber Grade A maple syrup in this and other recipes. Canadian cities like Montreal sell the sweet elixir in cans at local markets. In Lisbon, we consider ourselves lucky to have found bottles of Canadian maple syrup at a nearby grocery store.
Buy a bottle of amber Grade A maple syrup from Amazon if you don’t have any in your pantry.
