This recipe is less fussy and messy than your typical French toast recipe
Some say French toast gets its name from pain perdu, which is French for “lost bread” (since it’s a great recipe to help use up stale bread that otherwise might be “lost” or thrown away). But this custardy breakfast dish has been called all sorts of other names: everything from eggy bread to German toast to poor knights of Windsor! No matter what you call it, it’s one tasty breakfast.
We developed this recipe to work with a very specific kind of bread: supermarket pre-sliced white bread that measures 4 by 6 inches and is 3/4-inch thick. (The size of the slices is the key to soaking up the right amount of custard on the baking sheet.) If you want to use whole-grain sandwich bread, you will need a little more custard. The whole-grain breads are drier, so they absorb more of the custard.
To use whole-wheat, oatmeal, or multigrain sandwich bread instead of the white bread, use 4 eggs and increase the milk to 1 1/3 cups. Make sure the slices measure about 4 by 6 inches and are 3/4-inch thick to ensure that they soak up all the custard on the sheet before baking.
Sheet Pan French Toast
Serves 4
Vegetable oil spray
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
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