Monday, March 25, 2013

French Toast - Making Freezer Favorites


This weekend I was home alone for a couple of mornings as my husband was out of town at a bowling tournament.  I took the opportunity to make one of my favorite breakfasts - French Toast.

Who doesn't have a half loaf or few slices of stale bread in their freezer or pantry?  My husband loves really soft, commercially baked grocery-store bread (ugh... LOL) and so I bought him a fresh loaf at Aldi on Thursday.  Saturday it occurred to me that with that fresh, soft loaf sitting in the pantry, he was no longer going to eat any of the not-so-fresh bread that was left from the week previous.

My sister-in-law and brother keep me in fresh eggs since they have their own chickens so I decided that french toast was what I was having. Here's a picture of their rooster, "Ringo."  I'm sure he likes eating beetles instead of being a beetle LOL!  My brother says he is a really good rooster and doesn't freak out the hens much. LOL.  However, he does freak me out since I have the bird phobia thing really bad!



It's hard to make just a couple of pieces of french toast.  You have the egg/milk mixture already there and so I decided to make some up to stick in the freezer - for popping in the toaster for busy weekday mornings.  My tightwad ways just wouldn't allow me to throw away that little dabble of milk/eggs left from making just a couple of pieces for me when I had stale bread languishing in the pantry for heaven's sake!  I had never put homemade french toast in the freezer and popped it in the toaster but it was time I did. It was a "score" by using up the stale bread and using the remaining eggs/milk/vanilla left from making my breakfast.

I made my french toast, used bread slices and kept making french toast until I had sopped up all of the goodness from the eggs/milk (& I add vanilla).  I placed these cooked french toast slices on my cookie cooling racks and placed them in the freezer for flash freezing and then bagged them up for the freezer.

Sunday morning, I woke up to Winter Storm "Virgil":


 I wasn't going anywhere LOL so I popped a couple of pieces of my freezer french toast in the toaster!  Wow!  It's wonderful.  I actually prefer it toasted in the toaster.  It's crispier and just really perfect!  Talk about a money saver, the bread was headed for the trashcan!  I can add this to the list of breakfasts I eat instead of buying anything boxed or premade (if I can help it).

Here's how I made French Toast - Freezer Favorite AT HOME MY WAY:

French Toast
 
Ingredients:
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 6-8 slices of stale bread (bread heels are great)
  • Butter/margarine for frying the toast in
Directions:
 
Whisk/whip with a fork or wire whisk until eggs/milk & vanilla are blended well making sure the eggs are completely incorporated into the milk.  Place this mixture in a pie plate.
 
Heat the griddle.  Spread butter/margarine over to coat the griddle.
 
Lay pieces of stale bread in the milk/eggs/vanilla mixture, flipping for both sides, and giving a few seconds for each side of the bread to soak up the goodness.
 
Cook on medium temp buttered griddle/skillet, flipping when the down-side is browned and crispy.  You may have to re-butter when adding more slices.
 
Freezer instructions:  Once the pieces are completely cool, lay on a rack/tray and freeze separately (not touching).  Then, when frozen, bag them up (I used my bread bag). 
 
 
Ready for the freezer!
 
 
 
 
Ready to bag up!
 
To reheat frozen french toast- place in the toaster on the setting of your choice.
 
I serve mine with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar, powdered sugar, and real maple syrup (a gift).  I just use an old spice container that I will recognize as cinnamon/sugar (also I write on it and cross out the previous spice's name) and add some white sugar with a few good shakes of cinnamon, and give it a "shaky" to combine.  (I've had this same container forever and just keep adding to it.  I use it for making french toast, cinnamon toast, donuts, baked pie crust crisps, baked tortilla chips, etc.
 
 
 
I also like mine served with powdered sugar and real maple syrup.
 
 
 
I know.. that's lots of sweet, but that's just the way I like it!
 
 
Enjoy!
 
Gina
 
 
 
Lay pieces of bread