The. Best. French Toast. Ever.

French toast is one of the best inventions ever.  I adore French toast. Usually when I make it, it’s one of those “toss a few things in” and I’m done with it.  The usual suspects are milk, eggs, cinnamon, salt, pepper, and sometimes a drop or two of vanilla.  But I don’t measure anything, and I just beat it up until it’s nice and creamy, dunk my bread, and cook it.

Last night, I decided to ramp it up a bit.  I had a loaf of Challah in the freezer and I remembered seeing a recipe recently in my Barefoot Contessa Family Style cookbook that specifically called for Challah. I flipped to the recipe and decided it was worth giving a try. I cracked my eggs into a bowl, and then looked at the second ingredient.  Half & half or milk. Um, half & half? While I’m sure that would add a decadence and richness, this was French Toast for dinner, not dessert, so I opted to use the 1% milk I have on hand.  The next ingredient was grated orange zest.  I really went back and forth on this one.  I suspected it would be tasty, but I wondered if the kids would like the orange in the French Toast.  I decided to leave it out, but then two minutes later I decided to throw caution to the wind and I grated the zest of one orange into my bowl.

The only real change I made to her recipe was how I cooked it.  I used my large non-stick electric griddle, so I only needed the barest drizzle of vegetable oil on the griddle to keep the French Toast from sticking.  I didn’t actually fry it up as she suggests.  Doing that, I eliminated the butter completely from the recipe, and overall, since I used about a teaspoon of oil total, I substantially lightened it as well.

And Oh. My. Goodness.  Seriously, when I say this is the best French toast I’ve ever had I mean it.  And I know my French toast.  The orange zest and the touch of honey adds so much to such a simple dish.  This is the perfect example of taking an already great recipe and turning it up a few degrees. In fact, as the kids and I literally inhaled this Challah French Toast, I was thinking that this would actually be good enough to use as a base for a dessert of some kind- maybe a scoop of frozen yogurt and a drizzle of an orange-caramel sauce. Or something.  No matter what, it’s heaven, pure heaven.  You won’t be sorry you tried it.

Challah French Toast

from Barefoot Contessa Family Style by Ina Garten

6 extra large eggs

1 1/2 cups half & half or milk (I used milk)

1 teaspoon grated orange zest

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon good honey

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 large loaf challah or brioche bread

Unsalted butter

Vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to 250ºF.

In a large shallow bowl, whisk together the eggs, half & half, orange zest, vanilla, honey and salt.  Slice the challah in 3/4 inch thick slices.  Soak as many slices in the egg mixture as possible for 5 minutes, turning once.

Heat 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon oil in a very large saute pan over medium heat.  Add the soaked bread and cook for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until nicely browned.  Place the cooked French toast on a sheet pan and keep it warm in the oven.  Fry the remaining soaked bread slices, adding butter and oil as needed, until it’s all cooked.  Serve hot with maple syrup, raspberry preserves, and/or confectioners’ sugar