Sweet & Sour French Toasts

French Toasts but make them sour

French Toasts are such a classic! I grew up with simplest ones; a slice of sandwich bread bathed in an egg-milk-sugar mixture for 30 seconds on one side, 30 seconds on the other and then cooked on a sizzling griddle with melting butter. We topped them with some fruits and a good drizzle of syrup to finish. Those were some cozy and happy mornings!

Now that I love to find new ways to experiment with ingredients and flavors, I have made French toasts with so many different ones I can’t keep count. I have made the Grand Marnier (boozy!), dark rum (more boozy!), peppermint, ginger, banana fosters with candied pecans (now I’m thinking this will be my next Sunday breakfast)… and so on! But I have always used the classic brioche for these sweet combos. So it occurred to me the other day to make French Toasts as sour as I can. That’s when I put together every sour thing I had in my fridge and made these very sweet and sour French toasts.

I started by using slices of sourdough bread instead of the sweet brioche. I used plenty of buttermilk instead of milk and added some softened cream cheese to the batter for the ultimate tang. I tried using sour cream but the flavor kind of disappears after baked. To enhance those sour notes, I served this with a sweetened cream cheese spread. Sweet and sour fruits such as berries gave that ultimate kick to this flavor profile. Every bite has this delicious contrast between sweet and sour that you just can’t stop eating!

And as you will see below, you only need a few ingredients can make it with a few simple steps. I personally love dishes that you can make ahead, even if just a few hours, and then throw them in the oven because I use that time to finish the clean up and put up the table. That way I can just chill after finishing breakfast. You’ll need to add this sweet and sour French toast recipe to your easy breezy breakfasts menu!

Recipe Notes

1.     To make the buttermilk, just mix 1 cup of milk with 1 ½ TBSP of white vinegar.

2.     You can heat the cream cheese in the microwave a little bit so it incorporates well on the batter. Heat in increments of 15 seconds.

3.     Ideally you should soak the bread overnight, but don't let that stop you from making these. If you put them to soak and wait at least 1 ½ hour, they will definitely absorb a good amount of liquid. If you can prepare them overnight though, they will be very soft and silky after baked.

4.     Make this dish completely vegan and gluten free by using flax seeds “eggs”, coconut buttermilk by mixing coconut milk with vinegar, vegan cream cheese and gluten free sourdough or regular bread.

Sweet & Sour French Toasts

Ingredients

Sweet & Sour French Toasts

◯ Egg yolks, from free cage eggs – 4
◯ Organic buttermilk (see notes) – 1 ½ cup
◯ Cream cheese, very softened – 6 oz (about 6 TBSP)
◯ Vanilla extract – 1 Tsp
◯ Lime juice - about 1 ½ Tsp, the juice of one small lime
◯ Raw sugar – 4 TBSP + more to sprinkle on top
◯ Fine sea salt – ¼ Tsp
◯ Sour dough bread – 6 to 8 slices
◯ Blueberry jelly, sweetened cream (recipe below) cheese and
fresh blueberries to serve

Sweetened cream cheese

◯ Cream cheese, very softened – 8 oz
◯ Raw sugar – 1 TBSP or more to taste
◯ A bit of freshly squeezed lime juice (optional)

Details

Yield:
6 to 8 large slices of bread

Total time:
2 hours and 15 minutes or overnight chilling time

Active time:
10 minutes

Baking time:
30 minutes

Equipment:
large glass rectangular dish, medium to large baking dish, hand whisk

Steps

To make the sweet and sour French toasts:

In a large rectangular dish whisk the egg yolks with a hand whisk. Add buttermilk, cream cheese, vanilla, sugar, lime juice and salt and whisk until everything is combined. It’s ok if the cream cheese is not completely dissolved into the batter, just try ti mix it as much as you can. Place the slices of bread inside the dish. Wait one minute and then turn them over. Cover and let them soak for one and half hour or ideally overnight.

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease with butter a medium baking dish.

Arrange slices of bread on the baking dish. It doesn’t matter if they are overlapping. With a spoon, pour remaining egg mixture over bread in stream to allow bread absorbs as much as possible instead of going to the bottom. Sprinkle some sugar on top. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the bread is golden brown and feels soft but springy to the touch.

Take them out of the oven and let them cool for 5 minutes before serving. Top with sweetened cream cheese, jelly and fresh fruits.

To make the sweetened cream cheese:

Using a spoon beat all the ingredients well. Adjust sugar or lime juice if necessary.