Crumb-topped French Toast

Today is the 5^th full day of our beach vacation, and I am finally getting around to writing. We have vacationed in the same house, on the same beach, for six years now and we love it. The weather was gorgeous for the first 3 days and we wiled the days away on the beach, yesterday was cloudy and cool so we spent it doing errands, and today was extremely windy and there was not much reason to go outside so we simply enjoyed being inside, watching the waves crash to shore. Tough life. :)

For the first 3 days, our friends Karla and Frankie joined us and it was a great time. They made breakfast for two mornings, and it was heavenly to get up, go out for a run, return and shower, then sit down to eat. Both meals were great, with my favorite being the crumb-topped French toast, turkey bacon, and (as we had for the past 2 breakfasts) mimosas.

Twice as much bread was used than was called for in the recipe (total 16 slices) but there were still some cornflakes left over. I think that I enjoyed this so much because the bread was still rather firm after being cooked (perhaps because more bread was used?). We skipped the melted margarine. Actually Karla brought butter (a much better option, since this recipe was published 13 years ago when margarine was still being used as a butter substitute—now we know about the evils of hydrogenated fats!), but we forgot to add it. I sprayed the tops of the toasts with cooking spray after they had been in the oven for about 10 minutes, and will do that again but will use butter-flavored cooking spray.

The toast was crunchy and very delicious, and even though the “serving” is indicated at 1 piece, I had three! Hey, I’m on vacation!!!

Crumb-Topped French Toast


1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup cornflake crumbs
8 (1-ounce) diagonally-cut slices French bread (about 1 inch thick)
1/4 cup margarine, melted

Preheat oven to 450°.

Combine first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl; stir well with a wire whisk. Place cornflake crumbs in a shallow dish.

Dip bread slices into milk mixture, and dredge in cornflake crumbs. Place bread slices on a baking sheet, and drizzle with margarine. Bake at 450° for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 1 bread slice)

CALORIES 212 (32% from fat); FAT 7.6g (sat 1.7g,mono 3.3g,poly 2.3g); IRON 1.7mg; CHOLESTEROL 56mg; CALCIUM 40mg; CARBOHYDRATE 29g; SODIUM 468mg; PROTEIN 5.8g; FIBER 0.8g

Cooking Light, MAY 1996

I love breakfast. It is my favorite meal of the day and I cook it every day. To have breakfast prepared for me, well, it truly is vacation and I thank my friends for going to the trouble and effort.