This Is How Geoffrey Zakarian Makes Restaurant-Quality French Toast At Home
French toast is one of the simplest breakfasts to make at home, but if you're looking for tips on how to make restaurant-quality French toast, then look no further. Tasting Table spoke with Geoffrey Zakarian, celebrity chef and co-host of The Kitchen, to find out the details of his at-home French toast method.
For the important custard mixture, Zakarian uses the following: four eggs, milk, one ripe banana, a quarter cup of real maple syrup, and vanilla bean paste (specifically not vanilla extract). He explains, "Put it all in [the] blender and blend fully. Then, cut the bread 1.25 [inch] thick, soak in [the] batter overnight in [the] refrigerator or for at least an hour." By taking the time to let the bread sit in the custard mixture for a long period of time, all of the delicious flavors — vanilla, maple, and banana — will be fully soaked up by the bread, making for an ultra-flavorful finished French toast. As for the bread, Zakarian chooses a "dense brioche loaf." If possible, you'll want to buy a full, uncut loaf so that you can control the thickness of the French toast.
Read more: Hacks That Will Make Boiling Your Eggs So Much Easier
How To Customize Zakarian's French Toast Recipe
We recommend trying Zakarian's French toast recipe exactly as is, but there are a couple of ways to customize it if needed. For one, you can opt for a different bread if brioche is not your favorite — as long as you stick to his custard method, you'll still get the gist of his recipe. Milk bread also makes for good French toast, as does French bread or challah.
Additionally, Zakarian's French toast recipe will have a noticeable banana taste, so if you don't love bananas, then you may want to adjust accordingly. To make sure the consistency stays the same, you'll want to replace the banana instead of just taking it out — you can use half a cup of Greek yogurt in place of the banana. Finally, seeing as Zakarian made sure to specify using vanilla bean paste over vanilla extract, it's probably worth it to seek out the paste even if you already have vanilla extract in your pantry.
After you've tried and loved Zakarian's French toast, you can then try transforming it into French toast waffles for a fun and unique spin. Or, you can experiment with a stuffed version of Zakarian's French toast — Tasting Table has a list of the best ingredients to stuff French toast, including lemon curd, hazelnut spread, or, for a savory twist, bacon.
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