Grandma Gwen's Easy Homemade French Toast Recipe (With Video) - Philly Jay Cooking (2024)

My Grandma Gwen’s delicious, famous French toast recipe; made with milk sugar eggs vanilla bricoche bread and a bunch of wonderful spices. Making it the perfect breakfast side dish.

Hey, PBJ’s… I’m back with another delicious easy-to-make recipe. Today I’m going to share my Grandma Gwendolyn’s homemade French toast recipe with yall.

I was looking through the Breakfast category of my blog tryna think of new recipe ideas and realized I hadn’t created a Waffle, Pancake, or French Toast recipe yet and knew it was time to do so.

I mean… Pancakes, Waffles, and French Toast are all breakfast favorites here in the States, so I’m going to start with French Toast since it’s the one I like the most and makes the best. Lol!

Grandma Gwen’s French toast

Let me tell yall a little about my first first and early memories of french toast. My grandma Gwen, who was my paternal grandmother, lived in SW Philly a few blocks around the corner from us and was just a quick 5-minute Cobbs Creek Parkway drive away.

She watched us once in a blue moon for my mom during the weekdays because she got off hours after we got out of school. But she mostly watched us on the weekends because my mom worked Saturdays.

Sometimes, she’d babysit us at our house, and sometimes, we’d go to hers. But Saturday mornings was when she would make a nice weekend breakfast for us.

And I’m going to just say this, she made the best French Toast you’d ever taste, and I stand on that. That’s probably why I was always excited to watch her make it for us.

She and my Nana Alice Mae were known as the best cooks in the family. Now yall know why I mention both of them so much along with McCloud, the husband of my maternal grandma, Viola Taylor.

All of them could cook their butts off and, in some way or another, inspired and influenced me as a cook, so I never forget to give them shot outs and their proper credit for the cook I’ve become today.

Anyway, I vividly remember watching my grandma Gwen during the late 90s preparing French toast for us as kids and me begging to help her do it. I always had an interest in what was going on in the kitchen, even at age 11.

Some would say that’s proof that I’m a true foodie, I think the truth is I’m just greedy. Lol! I remember seeing her crack a few eggs in a bowl, combine them with milk, spices, and vanilla, and whisk away with her strong little arms.

Then she’d let me dip each slice of bread in the egg wash and make a big mess in the process. Lol! I was so fascinated by how the bread went from white and bland looking to brown and marble once done.

That preparation process of French toast and the transformation from white bread to delicious French toast was always so cool to me as a kid. Lol!

Now, I don’t make French toast often as an adult, but when I do, I still make it just the way she did and love it every time.

You only need a few ingredients, and it’s very easy to make. It tastes great with almost every breakfast food you can think of, making it the perfect breakfast side dish. RIP Grandma Gwen

Grandma Gwen’s Easy Homemade French Toast Recipe Video

Childhood memories of store-bought French toast sticks

I remember most of the food being processed and cheap and them selling a lot of off-brand food like soda, chips, and cereal. We enjoyed it because it’s all we knew! Lol!

Precooked boxed food is what my mother fed us until she got a little older and learned how to cook. French toast sticks were one of my favorites, though.

Although it wasn’t homemade, the name-brand Aunt Jemima Syrup my mom bought made it taste homemade. Lol! Ok so what makes this recipe good you may ask.

What makes this a good recipe:

• Easy to make: French toast is a 20 minute breakfast recipe.. so if you’re liking for something good to eat that wont take long, this is the recipe.

  You just combine all the ingredients, and dredge the bread in it then fry…

• You can serve it with anything: You can serve french toast with almost anything which makes it a good breakfast side dish as I stated earlier.
• Kid friendly: I told yall I help my grandma Gwen dredge the bread in the filling so it’s a fun recipe you can spend the morning creating with your children.
• Everyone likes it: Everybody from children to adults like french toast so you cant beat that.

I’m about to get into the spices I like to use in a few but let me address the one I’ve seen some people use that I don’t… Ginger. I personally find the flavor to be overpowering so I choose not to use IT.

I don’t think my grandma Gwen use Ginger either or Nutmeg. Now I do use Nutmeg but very little!

The spices I like to use:

Cinnamon: What is french toast without cinnamon? This is probably the one spice and ingredient EVERYONE uses when making French toast… it’s the flavor you taste the most in french toast so yea why I use Cinnamon doesn’t need to be explained.

Nutmeg: Nutmeg is a common ingredient, although believe it or not, I’ve seen french toast recipes without it. I like nutmeg, but it’s strong, so whenever I use it, I always use very little.

Just a hint is all you need and It adds a nice flavor to the french toast but because again a little will take you a long way so don’t use much. The combination of Cinnamon & Nutmeg is what makes french toast, french toast!!! Lol!

Sugar: People always debate whether sugar is a spice but according to experts it’s not a spice. A lot of people dont add sugar to their french toast… I don’t add a lot but I do like the french toast to be slightly sweet without and before adding syrup.

So just to give it a hint of sweetness especially for people who might not want to add syrup because they cant have a lot of sugar, I thought it would be good to just add a little sugar to the french toast itself so adding syrup isn’t needed.

But yes I add sugar because it gives the french toast sweetness and to me a hint of sweetness is needed. I dont want french toast that has no sweetness to it and many french toast recipes dont have sugar as an ingredient.

As far as alternatives, you can use brown sugar, raw sugar for my healthy folk, whatever sugar you like just dont use a sweetener as an alternative because sweeteners suck as I’ve stated in other post!!

Salt: Now yall maybe wondering why I use salt, and the answer is very simple, it enhances the flavor… no other reason. So don’t panic it won’t make the french toast, salty if that’s what you’re thinking.

About the bread and butter + alternatives

When it comes to the bread it’s best to use thick slices of bread. The kind of bread I used was brioche bread. Here are some benefits of thick bread.

You want to use a thick bread so it can absorb the egg wash without falling apart and becoming soggy. Thicker bread is also more manageable and less likely to break and falling apart when you flip it as it cooks and remove it from the skillet.

Ok as it pertains to bread options and some alternatives because I’ve had a lot of my healthy eating subscribers ask if whole grain bread can be used. ABSOLUTELY!

Wheat bread, whole grain bread, whatever bread makes your taste buds happy, go with it. Just make sure it’s a bread you LIKE and try to go for bread with thick slices! Lol!

The only reason I prefer white bread is because other breads have more flavor that may clash with the french toast flavor. When it comes to the BUTTA, that’s what my grandma called it, BUTTA… make sure you don’t use a whole lot of it because the french toast wont crisp.

Semi high heat and a little fat is the way to go with French Toast! Now you only need a few ingredients to make french toast so make sure you use a good brand of each ingredient.

Use a good brand of butter like the ones listed here, I’m personally a fan of Land O Lakes. And use UNSALTED butter because we’re already adding a hint of salt to the french toast and butter has salt in it so make sure to use UNSALTED BUTTER.

Milk and alternatives

I use whole milk… but if you want to use 1% milk or almond milk for example to go a healthier route by all means go ahead. If you want to use half and half, evaporated milk, or heavy cream for a richer taste, do you.

I have never tried these alternatives but I have heard of people doing so and they claim the results are pretty good. So don’t be afraid to give some of these other options a shot if whole milk isn’t your preference.

Cookware and utensils

• Bowl or baking dish: You need either one to beat the eggs and make the mixture for the french toast.
• Fork or whisk: You need a fork or whisk to beat the eggs and stir the mixture in well.
• Large skillet: You obviously need a skillet to cook the french toast in.
• 2 Spatulas: A spatula is needed to flip the french toast while it’s cooking and to remove it from the skillet once it’s done.

  You’ll also need it to lift it and add it to the skillet.

  See Also

  Ukrainian Aspic Recipe (Kholodets)

• Cooling rack: You need this to sit and rest the french toast on once they’re done. Sitting them on a plate and paper towel will make all the butter seep to the bottom making it soft and soggy. YUCK!

How to make French Toast

1. Ok so first thing we do is make the mixture for the french toast. So crack the eggs and add them to a small bowl or dish and beat the eggs with a fork or whisk!

2. Add in the milk, salt, sugar, and spices and stir well.

3. Place the skillet over the heat and add your butter to the skillet so it’s hot and ready and the butter is melted by the time you add the first coated slice of bread.

4. When coating the bread with the egg wash, make sure to whisk it a few seconds before coating each slice of bread to ensure your bread is evenly coated with the spices.

If you ever seen French Toast with more spices on one part of the bread than the other, it’s because it wasn’t well mixed before coated. So give the mixture a lil stir before coating each slice of bread and make sure both sides are fully coated

5. Add the bread to the skillet and fry on each side until golden brown then sit on a cooling rack.

Tips for best results

• Stir mixture before coating: You want to stir before mixing so the bread is evenly coated with the spices.
• Coat quickly: Dont leave the bread soaking in the egg wash especially if youre using thin bread because it will become soffy and weak.
• Use 2 spatulas: 2 spatulas makes it easier to flip the crench toast.
• Rest on a cooling rack: Rest the french on a cooling rack so air can dry out the moisture that seaps to the bottom and prevent it from we’re coming soggy.
• Reheat in a skillet or griddle: This will restore the toastiness of the French toast.

What to serve with french toast

• Bacon: I don’t care if it’s turkey bacon beef bacon or pork bacon this is probably the most common meat eating with French toast.
• Sausage links: Breakfast sausage also go great with French toast. Weather is maple sausage links, pork breakfast sausage, or hot beef sausage.
• Eggs: Eggs go with everything it’s the most popular thing to eat for breakfast so you can’t go wrong with eggs and French toast.

Good toppings for french toast

• Syrup and butter: So if you’re wondering what to top your French toast with start with syrup and butter. That’s the most common thing folks put on their French toast.
• Powdered sugar: Confectioners powder sugar tastes great over French toast. It’s another common option as well.
• Whipped cream & Strawberries: This is what you would do if you are eating french toast for a dessert in my opinion but it’s become another popular topping combo.

Frequently asked questions

Yall gonna love this recipe! If you can, leave a comment below letting me know how you like it.

Enjoy, later!

PBJ~

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