Pain Perdu – The Perfection of French Toast
I love dessert for breakfast! Exactly a year ago during our brunch at Craftbar in Manhattan, we encountered the epitome of perfection that will benchmark all the future french toasts to come. Determined to recreate this recipe at home, I took on the challenge. Bring it on, Tom Colicchio…
One of the many reasons why we love Craftbar is because they list french toast as “pain perdu”, giving it a nod to its origins. Translated literally to mean “lost bread”, the ingenuity transpired from an effort to salvage stale bread by soaking it in an eggy mixture. Nowadays, we set out to buy bread for the sole purpose of making it stale which is definitely one of the key components to this recipe.
It was a long year of pain perdu experiments in our test kitchen. We’ve tried a recipe handed down to us from his mom which incorporated a little bit of dry alcohol but the consistency of the bread was sub par. We knew that Craftbar uses a brioche but this seemed to be a diamond in the rough. We ducked inside every bakery we passed in search of this brioche. Even our trusted boulangerie in Brooklyn, Almondine, failed to showcase this buttery, spongy bread. We settled for an egg challah in the meantime.
One day, as I was strolling through SoHo, I passed by Balthazar Bakery. Mais bien sûr – but of course! How did we manage to overlook such a high profile boulangerie?! At long last, we had our beloved brioche loaf! But sadly, the recipe was still not quite right. At Craftbar, the pain perdu was perfectly crispy on the outside while the inside was light and fluffy with a hint of sweet custard. And that’s when it finally struck me like a bolt of lightning. Custard! The mixture needed to be thick like custard to prevent the bread from getting too soggy. Most recipes require regular milk which bread absorbs far too quickly. And I also decided to omit the egg whites for a truly rich, custard mixture.
And oh, the sweet taste of victory! I have my genius moments and this is one of them.
| 6 | 1-inch thick slices of stale brioche |
| 2 | cups heavy whipping cream |
| 2 | egg yolks |
| 1 | Tbsp sugar |
| 1/2 | tsp vanilla extract |
| 2 | Tbsp butter, melted |
| 1 | Tbsp vegetable oil |
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small saucepan, heat heavy whipping cream with vanilla. Bring to a slow simmer. Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks and sugar until it turns a pale, yellow color. Gradually whisk the hot cream mixture into the eggs. Transfer to a shallow dish.
- Take one slice of bread and dip it into the mixture, about 7 seconds on each side. Transfer to a cookie sheet and repeat the process until you have no remaining slices. TIP: This works best if your bread is really hard and stale. If your bread is fresh, you can recreate the same texture by placing your brioche slices in the oven for 5-7 minutes at 350 degrees.
- Place skillet over medium heat. In a small bowl, mix the melted butter and oil together. Dip a ball of paper towel into the oil mixture and coat the skillet. One by one, grill each soaked slice of brioche until it is slightly brown (approximately 1-2 minutes per side). Transfer back to cookie sheet. Bake the french toast in the oven for 10 minutes. TIP: Between grilling each slice, use the paper towel to swipe the skillet clean and reapply another thin layer of oil mixture each time.
November 30th, 2009 at 12:07
I had no idea that stale bread made better french toast!! Mmmm this looks so fantastic and your pictures are beaaaaautiful
November 30th, 2009 at 12:17
This looks heavenly!
November 30th, 2009 at 13:13
Thanks ladies
! This is one of my prouder moments in life (wait, does that make me sound uncool?!)… Right now I kinda wish I was eating pain perdu instead of turkey leftovers…
December 1st, 2009 at 12:45
i’m so glad you left a comment on my site b/c it led me to check out yours! It’s beautiful and i love your writing style.
Of course, cracking the mystery behind the perfection of any dish is a brilliant accomplishment…any good foodie knows that!
December 1st, 2009 at 17:50
@Jenn: Thank you so much! Means a lot
… I’m looking forward to following your adventures!
December 2nd, 2009 at 00:36
Wow, that looks ever so good! I would love to have this pain perdu for my breakfast tomorrow! One of the best 5 star dishes that I had was a pecan pain perdu with foie gras. I replicated just the pecan pain perdu once I think, and now I realize that I never wrote down the recipe. I’ll definitely have to make it again.
December 2nd, 2009 at 06:08
I shall try this with stale bread and taking out the egg whites. I love naughty french toasts.
December 2nd, 2009 at 06:20
congrats on these gorgeous pictures and making foodbuzz top 9 twice today!
December 2nd, 2009 at 08:28
@Pegasuslegend: I woke up this morning to such fantastic news! Thanks so much
Very exciting way to start the morning!
December 2nd, 2009 at 08:29
@Penny: Yes, it’s a naughty naughty french toast… heavy whipping cream and egg yolks. Very decadent! Puhahahaha!!! Hope you enjoy it
December 2nd, 2009 at 08:30
@Natasha: Pain perdu with foie gras? Now that is truly decadent!
December 2nd, 2009 at 10:35
If I may say so, I am a french toast connoisseur of sorts and your revelation of a custard coating is marvelous. And I am most definitely making it as soon as humanly possible. Grazie!
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:27
@Rachel: From one french toast connoisseur to another, this one is a keeper! In fact, it may just turn you into a french toast snob after you taste the difference. Hope you enjoy it and I’d love to hear all about it. Thanks so much for visiting
December 2nd, 2009 at 12:37
I once had this unreal french toast at a restaurant in the UWS that is now closed. Their french toast was soft and custardy in the middle, with a nice crisp on the outside. I thought maybe they brulee’d the sugar on the outside to give it that crispy-ness … I’ll def have to try your recipe to figure out if its similar to what I tasted about 6 years ago …
December 2nd, 2009 at 14:39
This sounds absolutely yummy! I’m on my way to find stale bread.
December 2nd, 2009 at 15:00
@Maggie: You might just see this at our Christmas Day brunch in PR
… Thanks for visiting Maggie!
December 2nd, 2009 at 15:01
@ Jenn@CookOrBeEaten: If you’re feeling too lazy to cook, you definitely should try the one at Craftbar. They serve it for brunch on weekends and it’s awesome!
December 9th, 2009 at 11:51
Loooooove your site! This recipe looks awesome. I am definitely going to try it for brunch this weekend
December 9th, 2009 at 11:54
@Melissa: Thank you So much! Hope you enjoy this pain perdu recipe and hope you find a good brioche loaf. It makes all the difference!
December 19th, 2009 at 14:02
With my ineptness at anything ante meridiemly culinary, I took up what I had thought to be a Herculean task and had committed myself to failure at attempting your seemingly incomplex formula. Through my preparation I had an epiphany when no smoke alarms were being tripped–it IS a recipe that I could actually do despite being born with two left hands in the kitchen! Alas, the pessimist in me KNEW that I would not have the same outcome as your astounding pictures–I knew that at the end of my endeavour I would be left with cinders in the oven. With bated breath after 10 minutes(not an easy feat)–it DID come out as your pictures had depicted (who knew?!)! With renewed fortitude and a burst of cockiness, I decided to test the fates further…I served the pain perdu to my family.
What happened next you may ask? Each approached the table with caution, their eyes filled with disbelief as they gave the kitchen a quick ocular and saw that it was no where near the state of being declared a disaster area as would always be the case of my past tours of kitchen duty. Each took a bite and were sold! Their only complaint was that of the limited servings–this from people who I had to pay to eat my cooking!
As you are the genuine epitome of a simply charmed existence, I look to you as my personal messianic culinary artist so PLEASE continue to be inspired by the culinary muses in your tiny kitchen in the big apple.
December 21st, 2009 at 09:07
@A.Michelle: What a wonderful way to wake up on a Saturday morning with such a big compliment! I am very touched by your kind words and extremely HAPPY that you found this recipe to be as successful for you!
When I started my culinary adventures a few months ago, I was intimidated by MANY, MANY recipes. But once you’ve conquered one, it truly opens the doors to the countless possibilities of edible experiments. I truly hope this will motivate you even more to expand the budding top chef in you as my first culinary victory did to me. To this day, I still have tons of kitchen messes than successes but I’ve learned so much a long the way.
Thank you so much, once again, for sharing your own adventure with a CuMu recipe. You’ve truly inspired me to keep cooking and chronicling my experiences so that I can keep sharing with all of you!
Happy holidays
July 7th, 2011 at 07:58
[...] the recipe and just couldn’t find their official recipe for the dish. I then came across this blog, about one woman’s quest to find the recipe for Craftbar’s pain perdu! I couldn’t [...]