How to Dry Out Bread for French Toast

Wondering how to make perfect French toast? The first step is to start with dried out bread.

Perfect french toast has crispy edges with a soft custardy middle. I love topping french toast with syrup and lots of fresh berries. It can be difficult to find the right balance between soggy French toast and too dry French toast. The key is to start out with the perfect bread.

Need more French bread tips? Check out my post on How to Make the Best French Toast.

In France, French toast is known as "pain perdu," which means lost bread. French toast was originally created as a frugal breakfast because of its use of old leftover dry bread.

Looking for an amazing French toast recipe? Try my recipe for Potato Bread French Toast.

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Should you let bread dry out for French toast?

Absolutely! In fact, when I want to make French toast I shop the discounted section of the bakery. The bread there is older and has already started to dry out.

Fresh bread becomes soggy when it is dipped into the custard. Dry bread is better at soaking up the rich creamy custard while still maintaining its shape.

How do you dry bread overnight?

Planning to make French toast in the morning? Slice the bread and lay the slices out on a baking sheet or wire cooling rack overnight. The more of the bread's surface area that is exposed to air the quicker and more evenly the bread will dry out.

In the morning you will wake up to perfectly dried bread.

How do you dry bread for French Toast quickly?

Suddenly craving French toast? If you are in a hurry cut the bread into evenly sized slices and lay the slices of bread out in a single layer on a sheet pan. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees Fahrenheit and bake the bread in the oven for 10 minutes.

Tip: After drying the bread out reduce the oven temperature to its lowest setting. Cook the slices of French toast and then place them back on the baking sheet and in the warm oven to keep it warm while you cook the remaining slices.

What is the difference between dry bread and stale bread?

Drying bread extracts the bread's moisture via evaporation. Stale bread's moisture has migrated from the starch granules into the air pockets within the bread. Those starch granules then recrystallize creating bread that is tough and chewy.

Stale bread is dry but has also lost a lot of its flavor and becomes unappealingly chewy. By buying fresh bread and drying it out yourself you will still have that freshly baked bread flavor.

Dried bread isn't just great for French toast. Use it to make bread pudding, stuffing, or turn it into bread crumbs and make these delicious Italian-Style Meatballs.

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