Easy French Toast

An easy and delicious French toast recipe with crusty, crunchy edges and served with seasonal pomegranate and crème fraiche. This recipe will show you how to make easy French toast and how to cut a pomegranate and remove the arils.

Oh so easy, but with all that is 'easy' there is always one or two techniques. There is only way to make French toast but there is a number of ways to serve it making french toast so versatile.

When I initially wrote this French toast recipe back in 2021 I posted it with the beautiful and seasonal (at the time), pomegranate. I have since added new photos with a more simple approach adding fresh strawberries (seasonal) and syrup not maple syrup.

Reason Why You Will Love This French Toast

• Soft yet thick enough to have a good bite and texture
• Sweet without being unbearable giving you a sugar overdose afterwards!
• Satisfying
• A great weekend summer vibe or cold weather vibe depending on how you serve them
• Wonderful combinations of flavors suitable for everyone's taste

How To Enjoy French Toast

There are so many ways to enjoy french toast besides with fruit and maple syrup and that's what I was trying to showcase with the pomegranates below. However, at times all you need is French toast minus the frills.

Here are a few ideas;

Any fruit (don't be stuck on berries), for lunch with a salad, cut into smaller pieces like triangles and make them part of a Breakfast Charcuterie Board. That's just an idea, I wont go into detail with peanut butter, chocolate etc.

Removing Pomegranate Arils

How do you cut a pomegranate without it becoming a right mess? Whenever we bought pomegranate I always felt a little like it was a battle between stealing the arils and the pomegranate holding onto them.

Awful feeling so I quickly learnt how to properly remove the arils without fighting. Like I said when making this post on How To Make Perfect Scrambled Eggs that in order to get the most perfect eggs, we need to work with the flow and not fight with the eggs!:) The same applies to this pomegranate when removing the arils.

You can enjoy this recipe as a classic French toast should be enjoyed that is, with melted butter and maple syrup. However, there's also the option of fruit and this case pomegranate and crème fraiche. Use your favorite toppings, regardless it's French toast and it's delicious even with just butter!

How To Cut A Pomegranate?

Pomegranate's are in season right now in South Africa and are quite honestly at their best! Fresh, juicy and the arils are bursting with color so if you can, get them.

Cleaning them to get all the arils out is definitely a labor of love but isn't it worth it?  Besides the freshness, color and uses they have incredible nutritional value.

Here's A Tip

When you cut them make sure the cut the top off as in the image below it just makes for less of a mess when opening them. You cut the top off and then slice 4 slits down the sides and it's so much easier to pull apart. Now, the get the arils out there are a few ways to do this but let me give you my suggestions based from experience.

Everyone says turn it upside down once you've cut the top off and then using a wooden spoon or something hard enough you hold it with your one hand while you bash it with the back of a spoon from the other hand. Okay, I laugh....because if you don't have a large enough basin/bowl underneath you, be prepared to end up with juice splattering everywhere.

Plan No. 2
You can also get a large bowl of water, put the pomegranate in there (after cutting the top off) and then break it in the water so that there's no splatter and start getting the arils out inside the water. This method is good because it also helps keep all that white fluff on top of the water so that you can easily scoop it out.

Tips For Cleaning Pomegranates

• wear something dark colored because you shall be splattered and add an apron - seriously 🙂
• use a small sharp knife for the side slits
• make the slits into 4 parts, it's easier to open the pomegranate a section at a time
• possibly not mentioned enough - kitchen tissue paper - you don't want to mess all your dish cloths or towels

Hopefully one of these works for you but what I've found works is cutting the top off, side cuts, pull it apart and then start emptying the arils out. Tedious but hey...we all eventually arrive 🙂  Back to the French toast!

French Toast

I first learnt to make French toast 100 moon years ago at boarding school. Without going into too much irrelevant detail I do remember that we always had to use the oldest bread first. The nuns knew best.  The older the bread, the tighter the crumb.

Ingredients For French Toast

Eggs -  Fresh free range extra large if possible.

Milk or cream: They both work.

Salt & Pepper: You can also add salt without pepper, a pinch of salt/1/4 teaspoon.

Bread: Thicker slices where the bread is about 2 days old is better however, thinner slices also make great French toast.

Butter or oil: Butter for the richness and olive oil are good for making French toast.

Sweetness - Maple syrup, honey, syrup or cinnamon sugar.

Toppings - Fresh seasonal fruit, cream and a dust of icing sugar. See more in the FAQ'S below.

What Is The Best Bread To Use For French Toast

French toast works with any bread. Having the slices thicker helps make a more scrumptious serving but you can use whatever bread you like. Options for bread choices;

• Challah bread (Jewish bread)
• Brioche
• French baguette
• Sour dough

Other regular bread types that also work:

Thick sliced white bread and a regular loaf unsliced that you can cut into thick slices.

Does Balsamic Go With French Toast?

Pomegranate Infused Balsamic Reduction - This is a simple topping which pairs off beautifully with the fresh pomegranate and the infused balsamic reduction is heavenly with the sweetness of the honey!

FAQ's French Toast

What is the best bread for French toast?

A loaf with thick slices is best or as close you can get to a brioche. Brioche is a French bread not easily found in South Africa unless you go to specific coffee places that may sell it.  It's like trying to find challah bread and you're not Jewish, I don't see any.  That leaves us with plain sandwich bread (thicker slices) or homemade no knead bread or a sour dough bread that you can slice. 

Why is stale bread better for French toast than fresh bread?

Fresh bread uses up a lot of the egg mixture, you have to also fry it for longer because it sucks up the oil quicker and you might also see it rise up in the center while frying. If that happens, simply use an egg lifter to gently press it back down. 

Should the heat be low or high when making French toast?

Regulate the heat to medium hot not high and hot or the egg on the bread will burn before the bread is cooked on the inside. 

What to serve French toast with?

With honey, maple syrup, regular syrup, cream, yogurt, pomegranate arils, other fresh fruit, crème fraiche and a sprinkle of icing sugar or granulated sugar. 

How To Make French Toast

Here's a summary of the french toast in the making but you can find the full recipe card below.

Cook's Tips

• If you want to make just two slices of French toast you can. Simply use 3 eggs, a dash (more like a quarter cup) of milk, salt & pepper. You need 3 eggs for 2 slices of thickly sliced bread because the bread soaks up the egg mix. For 2 slices of pre-sliced bread you may get away with 2 eggs.

• When you lift the bread, hold it mid-air for a split second to allow any egg droplets behind so that the pan is not frying egg because we frying the bread not the egg

• If you are using thin slices of bread use an egglifter to help maneavour the bread, a tongs will cause it to tear as you lift. 

• If you are not adding syrup or honey to your Fench toast, it's a good idea to add a pinch of cinnamon sugar to the egg mix for a sweet touch without the maple.

Pomegranate Balsamic Reduction

If you're wondering if you can make a pomegranate infused balsamic reduction the answer is yes. Simmer down equal parts pomegranate juice and balsamic vinegar, done!

I love simmering down fruit and making compote and making this reduction is just another beautiful and versatile addition to your kitchen. Besides it's not very affordable in the shops.

Can Pomegranate Be Cooked?

Apart from adding pomegranate fruit to salads and enjoying the freshness when eating it, you can also use this fruit with other dishes like compote, chicken, vegetables etc. Nothing much happens when you cook arils (the seeds in the pomegranate) because they don't lose their shape. They can add flavor when combined with something else like when I posted these buttery scones on Instagram. 

Favorite Breakfast Recipes

• Breakfast Charcuterie BoardEasy Mediterranean Breakfast Egg Muffins
• How To Make Perfect Scrambled Eggs
• South African Pancakes
• Flavorful Shakshuka Recipe
• Melt In The Mouth Fluffy Blueberry Ladle Pancakes