My perfect family breakfast: vanilla French toast with fresh berries

Breakfast on a weekday can be a bit of a rushed affair. I don’t generally even bother with breakfast, but if we do anything it will be a quick piece of toast or bowl of cereal. On the weekends, though, we really like to take our time and do a proper family late breakfast/brunch. Often this will be bacon and eggs or pancakes and syrup, but my absolute favourite is our vanilla French toast. The lovely chaps at Prestige sent me one of their fab Dura Forge square grill pans, so I thought it was about time I shared my recipe (it’s not a difficult one, but I have a certain way of doing it) and tried out my swanky new pan at the same time.

More about the Prestige Dura Forge grill pan

I absolutely love a proper cast iron grill pan (or skillet, or whatever you call it). The results they give are always brilliant as they really distribute and hold the heat well, but the biggest problem for me is that they’re so heavy. I was really impressed with the Dura Forge grill pan - it has an amazing 3D steel base with little holes in it, so you get the good heat distribution without the heaviness. It’s also got some kind of special surface technology that makes it highly resistant to abrasion and super non stick too.

My vanilla French toast

This recipe is fab for using up bread that’s a tiny bit past its best. We like thicker slices, but don’t really like our French toast overly soggy in the middle, so my top tip is to make your French toast, then give it 10 minutes or so in the oven (180C/gas 4). This is also handy if you’re making it for quite a few people as you can batch cook it then serve it up all at the same time. I do feel that the crust on a proper loaf gives the finished French toast a bit of structure. Up to you, though!

Place the bread slices into the egg mixture to soak (kettle is also from Prestige - the Heritage 1.5L cordless)

You will need:

2 large eggs
250ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
A white farmhouse loaf (doesn’t matter if it’s a bit stale)
Butter, for frying
Your favourite toppings: we love fresh berries and syrup

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4.

Mix the eggs, milk and vanilla together in a bowl and slice the bread.

Soak each slice for a while on either side. You want it to suck up some of the liquid, but retain a bit of structure, so don’t leave it too long or it will turn to mush.

Melt a knob of butter in the pan, then fry the French toast until lovely and golden. Then just pop them in the oven on a baking tray until you’ve cooked all the slices and they’ve firmed up a little, then serve with your choice of toppings. I also quite like French toast with a sprinkle of sugar and some cinnamon, or sliced bananas. It’s also delicious if you sandwich some chocolate in between two slices (again, the oven baking helps here as it will melt the chocolate properly).

The Prestige Dura Forge grill pan

Cook the French toast until perfectly golden

Smother with syrup or honey

Look out for the brand new Prestige TV advert, on telly from today featuring a voiceover from the wondrous Joanna Lumley. Also, why not follow Prestige on Facebook? I happen to know that they’re going to be giving away some goodies very soon!

Thanks to Prestige for my lovely goodies too 🙂