The Best and Most Authentic French Toast Recipe - Le Pain Perdu

Pain Perdu is a great breakfast or brunch dish that is easy to make, doesn’t ask for much, and taste so good! This French dish, associated with a luxurious and decadent breakfast in America, has not always been so historically. Let’s dive into the history of the French Toast, and look at how to make an authentic Pain Perdu

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French Toast or Pain Perdu?

To answer this question, we need to understand the origin of the dish. People have invented le pain (bread) to live a saucy life! Well, in any way, bread is life, we know it. The symbolism attached to bread is deeply anchored in religion making the disposal of bread in the trash, sacrilegious.

To this day, French people have specific ways of treating bread. There's a way to cut bread, with a special knife (couteau à pain), bread cannot be turned on it’s back, and bread should never been thrown in the trash. Bread can be reused to make breadcrumbs (de la chapelure) to be used in other recipes.

But we are degressing. The creation of the wonderful dish is said to come from this one baker, who was not able to sell his bread and the bread became stale. Since he did not want to throw it away and waste a potential income. Instead, the baker developed a recipe based on eggs and milk and turn the stale bread into a delicious treat, giving it’s name or Pain Perdu (lost bread). So, yes, it is a French invention, but it is not a typical toast. There is a reason behind it. So the real name should be Pain Perdu, but let’s be honest, marketing this name would be a little harder…

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An Authentic Recipe of Pain Perdu

Inspirée d’une recette par Jean-Pierre Coffe

So let’s see what the hype is all about with this recipe and let’s learn a neat secret ingrédient to make the recette more French.

Ingrédients

25 cl de lait (1 cup of milk);
1 cuillère à soupe d’extrait de fleur d’orangers (1 tablespoon of orange flower water);
50 g de sucre de canne roux deux cuillères à soupe (2 tablespoons of brown sugar) ;
un sachet de sucre vanillé (vanilla sugar or vanilla extract) ;
six tranches de pain blanc (6 slices of white bread);
trois gros œufs entiers (3 large eggs);
25 g de beurre (1/3 cup of butter);
1 pincée de sel fin (1 pinch of salt) ;
confiture ou gelée au choix (marmelade or jam).

Recette (Recipe)

1. Dans un saladier, ajoutez le lait, le sucre de canne, le sucre vanillé, et l’eau de fleur d’oranger. (Start by adding the milk, the orange flower water, and sugars in a bowl)

2. Placez les tranches de pain dans un plat creux, mouillez avec le lait sucré, retournez-les pour qu’elles absorbent l’excédent de lait. Laissez reposer pendant quinze minutes. (lay the slices of bread in a hollow dish and pour the sweet milk on the bread, turning them to absorb the excess of milk)

3. Dans une assiette creuse, battez les œufs en omelette avec la pincée de sel et deux cuillères à soupe de sucre. (in a hollow plate, beat the eggs with a pinch of salt and 2 tablespoons of sugar)

4. Faites chauffer un peu de beurre dans une poêle sur feu doux. Trempez six tranches de pain dans les œufs battus, déposez-les dans le beurre chaud ; laissez dorer, retournez et faites dorer l’autre face. (Heat a little bit of butter in a pan). Dip each slice of bread in the beaten eggs and place them in the hot butter. Let them get golden and turn them over.)

5. Servez aussitôt avec les pots de confiture posés sur la table. (serve as soon as possible with your favorite Jam or marmelade)

6. Option: vous pouvez les saupoudrer de sucres glace. (You can also add confectionner sugar on top of a classy effect).

   Bon Appetit!

Let us know how your Pain Perdu turned out! Leave a comment and send us your pictures! Dont forget to tune in on July 14th at 9am for our French Toast demonstration. You can fine the complete line up of events with Time Out New York in this article.