Stop Making French Toast In A Skillet: Use This Unexpected Cooking Tool Instead

A swoonworthy French toast is traditionally made by soaking hearty bread in custard, then cooking it on a pan or griddle until luxuriously tender and golden. However, even with the best intentions, French toast can easily burn to a crisp when you pan-fry it. Or, it can cook beautifully on the outside and end up raw in the middle. This is where an unexpected alternative cooking method comes in: Use a crockpot instead. By ditching the skillet and letting the slow cooker do its magic, French toast can easily soak, cook, and tenderize  — without the technical challenges of cooking the toast in a skillet.

The crockpot allows you to avoid common French toast pitfalls like failing to properly grease the skillet, forgetting to preheat the pan, or setting the stovetop temperature too high. Instead, the convenient appliance cooks the breakfast dish evenly and gently, resulting in a velvety, scoopable texture similar to bread pudding. For the absolute best French toast, all you need to do is place custard-soaked bread cubes into the bowl of a crockpot, then top it with butter before placing the lid on and cooking it undisturbed for a few hours. A three-hour slow cook may seem like a lot, but when you consider the alternative — time spent soaking the bread thoroughly, heating the pan, and inconsistent skillet results — crockpot French toast is really worth the little bit of extra time, predictability, and ease of effort.

The beauty of making French toast in a crockpot is that you can actually enjoy the convenient cooking process. If you don't have a crockpot but want to make your French toast with a slower, gentler cooking method, no worries. You can also bake French toast in a baking dish in the oven. Whether you use the slow cooker or baking method, it's crucial to use a hearty bread that's been left out for a couple of days to stale, or toasted, prior to combining with custard. This way, it can stand up while soaking and cooking. French bread, challah, or a good artisanal boule work excellently for the job.

Though the breakfast involves a simple recipe involving bread, eggs, milk, vanilla, and sugar, you can get creative with your custard and flavoring ingredients. For instance, make an eggnog French toast casserole in the oven or slow cooker by replacing the milk in your typical recipe with the rich seasonal dairy ingredient — spiking it with rum, if you please, and adding warm spices. Or let your inner child run wild, and use ice cream as the dairy base for the toast. Mix in nuts, fruit, or chocolate with the custardy bread before setting the crockpot to do its thing. Whether you make your French toast traditionally or inventively, when it's finished gently cooking, scoop a generous portion and top it with powdered sugar, fresh fruit, and whipped cream.