How Long Should You Be Soaking The Bread For French Toast

When it comes to making homemade French toast, soaking your bread in the eggy mixture is an essential part of getting the perfect consistency for the breakfast food. The mix is typically a combination of eggs, milk, and flavorings like vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar. Since your standard slices of bread won't have any of these flavors on their own, this blend is the key to achieving a delicious breakfast.

The ideal French toast will have a sweet, custard-like texture on the inside after it's cooked. A quick, one-minute dip in the mix before frying might not completely coat the bread enough for it to absorb all the flavors. However, soaking it for too long could leave your French toast a little too soggy, and could even cause the bread to fall apart when you lift it up to fry it on the griddle. So, where is the sweet spot of how long to soak your French toast? Would you be surprised if we told you it was up to 20 minutes?

In order to achieve that perfectly gooey, custard-like consistency inside each slice of French toast, you will need to allow your bread to soak up the sweet, eggy mixture for around 15 to 20 minutes. You can even try soaking the bread for about 10 minutes on one side, then flipping it over and soaking the other side for an additional 10 so you get an even absorption throughout the entire slice, as recommended by Martha Stewart.

If you take your bread out of the liquid mix before that time has elapsed, it may not have soaked up enough of the mix to get the desired interior texture — especially if you're using thicker slices of bread, like a brioche or Texas toast bread. A quicker dip in the mix without a longer soak could leave your French toast with a slightly eggy outside, but a drier, less flavorful interior to the bread after cooking each piece.

Once your bread has been sufficiently soaked in the egg mix, it can be transferred to your pan to cook. You'll want to allow that sweet, eggy exterior to cook up and caramelize, leaving your French toast perfectly golden brown on the outside before removing it from the heat.

After your French toast has been properly caramelized and cooked with a custardy inside, you can plate the slices and top them off with some delicious additions before indulging in your meal. Some of the most commonly added toppings include powdered sugar, whipped cream, fresh fruit, or sweet-flavored syrups.

And though the meal may be most commonly eaten for breakfast, there's no rule stating that you can't enjoy a few sweet slices as an after-dinner dessert — especially if you take an extra sweet note out of Jacques Pépin's book and soak your bread in ice cream instead of an egg mix.