Oven-baked individual French toasts

This past Easter was a bit of a rush job.  We'd just gotten back from a quick road trip to Boston and then dashed off to attend a friend's wedding festivities the day before Easter Sunday.  I didn't have time to plan anything resembling an elaborate Easter breakfast or brunch.  Instead, I tried a little time-saver.  I oven-baked French toast for breakfast.

Skip pan-frying and bake your French toast in the oven

I saw this idea on Martha Bakes.  I particularly like it because we're not talking about a casserole (which generally makes more than we need) but baking individual French toasts so you can make as many or as few as you want.  You skip the time, mess, and calories of pan-frying.  I don't use a ton of oil when I cook my French toast so, for me, the appeal was more in the time-savings.  You put the French toast in the oven and have some free time to prep other things for your breakfast.  In my case, I used the time to make some drinks.

I took out the last two slices of my homemade white bread from the freezer to use for this recipe. Those two mushroom-looking slices you see on the left (photo above) are mine.  I supplemented with other bakery white bread.  Much like those baked eggs-in-a-hole, I really like letting the oven do most of the work.

So, taste.  Here's the thing.  I found that the oven-baked French toast is not as moist and rich as regular French toast.  That shouldn't come as a huge surprise but I better point it out.  You're omitting some fat and while pan-frying on the stove-top quickly seals everything in, the oven tends to dry things out.

It's important to be mindful of the baking time.  The toasts bake in a 375 degree oven for about 10 minutes, then it needs a couple of minutes on broil to give it some color on top.  The timing thing is a lesson I learned; trying to buy a few extra minutes on a busy morning, I left my French toast in the oven a couple minutes longer than I should have so it dried out more than it needed to.  I will certainly be more diligent next time.

So while baking French toast might not be quite as good as frying them, I think that the benefits make it worth the compromise sometimes.  It's certainly easier on the cook!  I'm definitely willing to try this again soon.

In order to bake the French toast slices, you'll need a silpat or silicon baking mat to line your baking sheet with.  While parchment paper would work if you were simply baking these, the paper could burn under the broil function and the toasts need to broil for 2-3 minutes to get some brown on them.

To soak the French toast, I used the custard I usually mix up for our regular French toast.  I don't usually use too much milk in the custard because I like the flavor of the eggs to come through but I find that with this baking method, adding a bit more milk makes sense.

They really don't look quite like French toast until you put them under broil for 2-3 minutes so you can't really skip that step.  30-60 seconds makes the difference between not brown enough and a little too much...another thing I was reminded of on that busy morning!

So don't get too distracted like me, and avoid over-baking.  The recipe online says bake for 12 minutes but going back to the videotape, Martha says 10 minutes on the show and I would definitely stop the baking and move on to broil by then.  Also consider the thickness of your toast.  The baking time guidelines are for about half-inch thick toasts.

Update: (May 2, 2014) I can confirm that keeping a careful eye on the French toasts, and not over-baking, pays off!  The oven-baked French toast "sticks" that I made below for my son's breakfast (so easy I whipped it up on a Friday morning before school) were baked for about 7-8 minutes, then broiled for about 2 minutes.  They turned out far more moist with the reduced baking time.  I'm adjusting the wording/timing a bit in recipe below.

Recipe:

Oven-Baked Individual French Toasts
French toast recipe adapted from Cooking Light; Oven-baking method from Martha Stewart

- Makes four slices - 

2 large eggs

1/4 cup low-fat milk (I use 1%)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Pinch of salt
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 slices of bread, half-inch or just slightly thicker (I used white sandwich bread but you could use more flavorful brioche or challah bread)
For serving (optional): maple syrup, powdered sugar, butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees with a rack positioned in the middle of the oven.  Line a baking sheet with silpat or a non-stick silicon mat (parchment paper could burn when the oven is turned on to broil).

Crack eggs into a shallow rimmed plate.  Lightly beat the eggs with a fork and then gently beat in the milk, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract.

Dip each slice of bread into the mixture (just long enough to soak both sides but without making it too sodden) and transfer to the silpat-lined baking sheet.  Bake until the custard has been absorbed and the toasts are just dry, approximately 8-10 minutes.  Turn oven setting to broil and cook for another 2-3 minutes, until French toasts are lightly golden brown on top.  While baking, keep a close watch on the French toasts and take care not to over-cook in order to avoid drying them out too much.

Serve immediately with maple syrup, and a dusting of powdered (or even granulated) sugar, if desired.