A Lesson in Proportions (F is for French Toast)

French Toast is probably one of easiest things in the world to cook.  If you asked the menfolk in this house, they'd tell you how:

• Mix eggs with milk.
• Dunk bread.
• Plop in a frying pan.
• Wait a minute and then flip.
• Wait another minute, put on plate, drown in syrup and inhale.

 And then they'd look at me and say, "How many eggs, and how much milk?"

I never really thought about "how much" of each.  I tend to be an "Eh...that looks good!" type of cook, so my "official" French toast recipe when I make it is "Couple of eggs...glug of milk...maybe another glug if it's too thick...dump in some cinnamon...cook..." which really isn't helpful when you're directing others how to make something.   I prefer to make it a little heavier on eggs, so that there is more protein in the meal, but sometimes that means if you undershoot the milk, you wind up with scrambled-egg-bread, and not French toast.  We've also made this Crockpot French Toast Casserole, but that is a bit "wetter" than regular French toast, to allow for the long cooking time.  It took a little bit of trial and error to find the right balance. I can't say this is exactly scientific on how much you need, but we finally figured out what was a good balance between eggs, milk, and bread for us.  We finally settled on:

For every two slices of bread:

1 egg
1/8 cup milk (dairy, soy, coconut, hemp, etc.)
1/8 tsp cinnamon

Now, I know, 1/8 cup of milk is a weird measurement.  It's the equivalent of 2 Tablespoons, if you're measuring with utensils.  (You mean, "glug" isn't an official unit of measure?)  However, since we tend to make French toast practically by the loaf, writing the base measurement in "cups" helps with the math.

I needed pictures for this post, and texted Luke, "Want some French toast?"  It's rare for him to not want some, but I figured if he didn't, I would just stick it in the fridge for morning.  Apparently, in the boys' bedroom, they were running a 2 hungry teens-for-1 text special because both Luke and Matthew appeared almost instantly. (No, I'm not that lazy -- the little boys were already asleep so I didn't want to wake them by yelling.)    Since I was taking pictures, they got to cook.  I asked them how hungry they were, and each decided he wanted 4 slices.  Because we've determined the ratio of bread to egg-and-milk, they just had to determine that that was 2 recipes per person, or 4 total.  That meant they needed:

4 eggs
1/2 c vanilla hemp milk
1/2 tsp cinnamon


Easy!  Matthew got to prep, Luke got to cook, both got a second dinner, and I got pictures. 

This is why I also still have to supervise them.

I think they've watched enough Tangled.  F is for French toast, not Flynn Rider!







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