Challah French Toast With Cinnamon-Sugar Glaze

Even better made with cinnamon challah, available here in the Bay Area. I have made this for many years. Don’t understand the long soak time, though- my experience is that more than a brief soak causes the bread to disintegrate.

The real trick is to soak the challah long enough. Couple of hours are bare minimum. A chef on the old California Zephyr (pre Amtrak) clued me into this. He soaked overnight but I think that is over kill. Saute in butter at a low heat until brown, flip and repeat on second side. Use your best maple syrup and enjoy! Best French Toast ever. Ask my friends that I have made this for.

The delicious, perfect challah I make from Melissa’s recipe here makes the best French Toast, but it soaks up all the liquid immediately upon adding the bread to the milk and egg mixture. If I don’t cook it right away it falls apart. I am going to try this caramelization technique with leftover challah from Rosh Hashana. Shana tova, with the added wish of a year of peace and civility in this world.

I have been making overnight French Toast with Challah for 20 years to rave reviews. I usually butter each slice prior to soaking in custard, which helps keep it intact. Don’t need to add additional butter when cooking. Can’t wait to try the caramelized sugar one each slice!

Many years ago I learned a trick from an old French-Canadian nun on caramelizing French toast. After beating the milk/cream into the egg, add two tablespoons of icing sugar, along with 2 teaspoons of real vanilla (that would substitute for the cardamom, lemon, cinnamon flavours). Both sides of the French toast end up almost crispy and a beautiful bronze colour. (By the way, the nuns used stale French bread thickly cut). Serve with only the best Canadian maple syrup, of course.

I made a double batch for two loaves of day-old challah. I followed the French-Canadian nuns’ suggestion of buttering the bread before putting it in to soak. I soaked the buttered challah for about 25-30 minutes. Absolutely the best French toast we have ever had. Served with creme fraiche and Marionberry jam and lots of fruit. Delicious.

I followed the French-Canadian nuns’ suggestion of buttering the day-old challah before soaking it. I soaked it for about 30 minutes and served with creme fraiche, marionberry jam, maple syrup and lots of fruit. Absolutely the best French toast we have ever had.

You can use less or even no cinnamon-sugar. Also, try orange zest instead of lemon.

This turned out great, but next time I’ll make a little extra for the milk mixture as I halved the recipe and it didn’t totally cover the bread as much as I would have liked. I recommend putting your maple syrup on the side for dipping instead of pouring over. The buttery sugar side is really good, but you lose the flavor of it under the maple syrup.

I’ve made this as written as well as with modifications to suit my diet/tastes. It’s a wonderful, indulgent breakfast either way. I’ve recently had to start decreasing dairy, but this recipe turns out well with oat milk, too. In a pinch, I’ve swapped the lemon for lime zest, too, and I might actually prefer the lime?! I like mixing the custard the night before, so the zest and cardamom can steep and become more pronounced.