French Toast

French toast is bread sopped in an egg mixture and griddle-fried (or in some cases, baked). What most distinguishes one French toast from another is the bread, which can be sweet bread or sourdough, eggy challah that yields a tender, custard-like consistency or a hearty baguette that stays firm. Raisin bread and banana bread are good candidates for French toast, too. Beginning as a clever idea to make use of bread that had begun grow stale (hence the name pain perdu – lost bread), it is fertile ground for such culinary whimsy as baked crème brulee French toast at Mamie’s of Roxbury, Connecticut, peach-stuffed French toast topped with caramel sauce and sugared pecans at Two Cracked Eggs in Savannah, Georgia, French toast Casserole at the Well-Bred Bakery & Cafe in Asheville, North Carolina, and tres leches French toast with dulce de leche, crystallized pecans, and a fried chicken thigh at New Orleans’ Paloma.