Low Carb French Toast

Low carb french toast is a little too carby and calorific for me to have often. It’s reserved as a rare special weekend treat. I did some research into making french toast (low carb and otherwise) and I have to disagree with some of the approaches most people take. This article from Bon Appétit summarizes seven mistakes when making french toast. Now, I’m not a trained chef or anything like that, but I found some of the “mistakes” aren’t mistakes at all.

Adding too much dairy and sugar to the custard

I’ve found the opposite to be true. Too much egg makes the french toast way too “eggy.” I’ve had french toast that tasted like a fried egg on bread. They also claim that you don’t need the custard to be sweet, but I’ve found that french toast (or pancakes) that are tasty without added syrup or powdered sugar are best.

Not mixing the custard thoroughly

I agree with them on this. Seeing and tasting egg whites on your french toast is not very appetizing.

Not choosing the right bread

Yeah, I get it; use thick bread. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t make great french toast with thinner bread. Using stale bread is the key.

Under-soaking the bread

Soak for a minute each side. I agree with them there.

Using too much heat or not enough and not preheating the pan

Well, duh.

Only using butter

Ah! Now we come to an interesting point. Just about every recipe I’ve found uses butter in the pan. Some recognize that the butter will burn very easily, so it’s better to use a combination of oils. For example use a nonstick spray oil on the pan before the butter gets added. Why use butter at all? The answer is obviously because butter gives it flavor. I have a much better solution: melt the butter and add it to the custard. It’s much less likely to burn.

I also don’t understand recipes that tell you to add the spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.) to the custard instead of dusted on top. I cover each side with spice and cook it in. The other trick I employ is to sprinkle granular sweeteners on the surface of the custard-soaked bread. This provides a lot of flavor using a minimal amount of product.

I use heavy cream instead of milk. Partly because it has less carbs and partly because the bread is thin. We don’t need a very watery custard to penetrate thick stale bread. Pepperidge Farm Carb Style Bread is pretty low carb, but it does have stuff like high fructose corn syrup in it that does make me wonder how good it really is. Feel free to substitute with bread made from coconut flour or whatever floats your boat. I mention the Pepperidge Farm stuff because it’s convenient and I doubt they lie about their nutritional information.

Some recipe instructions tell you to fire up the oven to keep the finished french toast warm as you’re cooking the rest. It’s good advice, but I use two or three pans on the range and make as many slices of toast as I can at the same time.

One more thing: I’m lazy so I don’t bother dealing with individual spices. A good pumpkin pie spice like the one from Trader Joe’s combines all the spices you’ll need in the right proportions.

Ingredients

6 slices of stale Pepperidge Farm Carb Style Bread, 7 Grain or equivalent
4 tablespoons (57 g) butter
4 tablespoons heavy cream
2 eggs
14 drops EZ-Sweetz
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Splenda/Truvia in a shaker
Pumpkin pie spice

Topping

Powdered erythritol and/or sugar free pancake syrup

Directions

1. If your bread isn’t stale, you can speed up the process by leaving them uncovered in the refrigerator overnight. Flip them periodically to make sure they get stale through and through.
2. Put the granular Truvia and Splenda (50/50 mix) in a shaker bottle.
   
   
   
   
   We’ll use this later.
3. Preheat two pans at a medium low heat. We’re going to cook as many slices of french toast simultaneously as possible. If you aren’t using nonstick pans, spray with high smoke point cooking oil.
4. Put the butter in a microwave safe pie plate or dish and cook for 1 minute.
   
   
   
5. Add the heavy cream and eggs while whisking thoroughly to ensure the egg doesn’t get cooked. Add EZ-Sweetz and vanilla extract and whisk until everything is blended.
   
   
   
6. Dip the stale bread in the custard for one minute, then flip.
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Sprinkle the exposed size with the Splenda/Truvia granular sweetener mix. Sprinkle the pumpkin pie spice so the bread is completely covered.
8. Put bread with the spices face down in hot pan. Sprinkle the mix of Splenda/Truvia granular sweetener and then cover in pumpkin pie spice on the exposed size like in the previous step, but in the pan.
   
   
   
9. Flip when ready and cook other side.
10. Serve with sugar free pancake syrup and/or powdered erythritol. Use a fine mesh strainer to sift the powdered erythritol onto the toast.