This recipe for Sourdough French Toast is perfect for using up any leftover, stale sourdough. You can make this for breakfast, brunch or dessert, it’s up to you!

Sweet or Savoury French Toast

I grew up enjoying savoury french toast, also known as eggy bread, which was basically the same as the sweet version, except salt and pepper was used instead of vanilla and cinnamon.

Sweet or American style french toast is a fairly new addition to our weekend breakfasts. And honestly, I love it! It’s a bit of a treat, so we tend to have it at the weekend or for a special occasion breakfast, like Valentine’s Day!

Why This Recipe Works

• Sourdough – sourdough bread is a sturdier bread, you can slice it nice and thick which is perfect for French Toast. It’s also slightly healthier than regular sliced bread.
• Less Sugar – most recipes call for adding sugar to the eggs, I prefer to use less sugar. You can control how much you want to add when you add toppings like maple syrup or powdered sugar.
• It’s super simple – no fancy ingredients and you have a tasty indulgent breakfast!
• Great for using up stale sourdough – I hate wasting food, stale sourdough can be really dry so this is perfect for using up stale sourdough.

What You’ll Need

• Stale Sourdough – two-day or three-day-old sourdough is perfect for this.
• Eggs – four free-range eggs are perfect for making enough for 4 people.
• Milk and cream – to make this french toast nice and rich I add full-fat milk and a little double/heavy cream
• Spices – cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla are perfect for this dish
• Butter – this really is the best thing to cook your French toast in!

How To Make French Toast Using Sourdough

1. Prepare the batter. Whisk together the eggs, milk, cream and spices.
2. Soak the bread. Pour the egg mixture into a casserole dish then add slices of sourdough. Leave the bread in the egg mixture for a little while to soak up the egg mixture then turn the slices over to repeat.
3. Cook the bread. Cook the eggy bread in butter until golden brown. Do this in batches and keep them warm in the oven until they are all cooked.

Tips For Making The Best French Toast

• This recipe calls for stale sourdough. Bread that is 2 or 3 days old is perfect!
• Slice the bread nice and thick. I cut my bread roughly 2.5cm/1 inch thick.
• Leave it to soak. This sourdough will need more of a soak than regular bread because it’s thicker.
• Use real butter. Cook the eggy bread in butter to get the gorgeous golden brown colour! I always use real butter, the salted Irish kind!
• Always check stale bread. Always check for mould, if you see any mould at all do not use it!
• Keep them warm in the oven. I can get about 2 -3 slices of bread on my skillet, depending on the size of your skillet you will have to cook these in batches. So I keep them warm in the oven until they are all cooked and I’m ready to serve them. Place the cooked toast on a baking tray in a warm oven. 90C/195F should keep them warm.

How To Serve French Toast

We usually have this with some kind of fruit, fresh blueberries and strawberries are perfect. Sliced banana and raspberries are great too. We always serve this with a generous drizzle of maple syrup or honey. If we have this for dessert then I will give the toast a light dusting of icing/powdered sugar. My daughter loves this for dessert and has it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.