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This challah French toast recipe makes mornings special! The bread has the best custardy texture and rich flavor.

Challah French toast
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Looking for a luxurious way to start the morning? Try this Challah French Toast recipe! Using challah bread is an easy way to take a pedestrian breakfast and make it extra special. The texture of this type of bread makes for thick, pillowy slices and soft, custardy bites. Dust it with a bit of powdered sugar and serve with maple syrup, and it’s one of the best cozy brunch recipes around. Here’s how to make it!

Ingredients for challah French toast

Challah is a traditional Jewish braided bread. It’s made from a yeast dough that’s enriched with egg, and tastes rich, tender and lightly sweet. This type of bread is perfect for French toast: the pillowy texture makes for lusciously fluffy slices. In fact, it’s a favorite at our house right behind using sourdough bread, like we do in our classic French toast.

The method here is similar to all French toast recipes: coat the bread in a mixture of eggs, milk and sugar, and fry it until golden brown. Here’s what you’ll need for challah French toast:

  • Challah bread
  • Milk (whole or 2%)
  • Sugar
  • Vanilla
  • Cinnamon
  • Nutmeg
  • Salt
  • Butter
Challah bread

Where to find challah bread

If you haven’t shopped for challah bread before, don’t worry! You don’t have to make it homemade. Store-bought versions are available at most major grocery stores in the baking section. You can also find loaves at independent bakeries. If you have a homemade loaf, French toast is a great way to use up challah bread!

Tips for making challah French toast

Challah French toast is simple to put together once you’ve got your bread in hand! Here are a few tips for the process, or you can jump right to the recipe:

  • Whisk the egg mixture. Whisk together the eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and salt to make the custard coating.
  • Heat butter over medium heat in a large skillet or griddle. Most skillets or griddles can fit 4 pieces at once (we have a very large griddle that fits 8).
  • Cook until each side is golden brown. The exact timing will depend on the heat and your skillet.
Challah French Toast

Optional step: cinnamon sugar

Want to take this French toast up a notch? Roll it in cinnamon sugar after cooking! As we discovered with our Cinnamon French Toast, this adds an irresistible crunchy coating and makes it taste like cinnamon toast. We highly recommend this option if you’re looking to impress!

Toppings for challah French toast

This challah French toast recipe is fantastic with just a little maple syrup. But if you want to get fancy, here are a few more toppings to try:

Challah French Toast recipe

More French toast recipes

And that’s it! Let us know if you enjoy this challah French toast as much as we do (it’s a family favorite!). Here are a few more French toast recipes to try:

This challah French toast recipe is…

Vegetarian.

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Challah French Toast

Challah French toast
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5 from 1 review

This challah French toast recipe makes mornings special! The bread has the best custardy texture and rich flavor.

  • Author: Sonja Overhiser
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 10 minutes
  • Total Time: 10 minutes
  • Yield: 8 1x
  • Category: Breakfast
  • Method: Stovetop
  • Cuisine: American
  • Diet: Vegetarian

Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 eggs
  • ½ cup milk (whole or 2%*)
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
  • ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 8 slices challah bread, cut 1-inch thick
  • 2 tablespoons butter, for cooking

Instructions

  1. In a wide shallow bowl or container, whisk together the eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and kosher salt.
  2. Preheat a griddle over medium heat and melt 1 tablespoon butter. Soak each side of 4 slices of bread in the egg mixture until it becomes saturated, about 15 seconds per side.
  3. Place the bread on the hot skillet and cook 2 to 3 minutes per side, until browned.
  4. Repeat with the remaining butter and 4 slices bread. Serve immediately with maple syrup and a dusting of powdered sugar (or toss both sides in cinnamon sugar, following the instructions in Cinnamon French Toast).

Notes

*Use whole milk for the richest flavor. For a decadent twist, use half milk and half heavy cream.

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About the authors

Alex & Sonja

Hi! We’re Alex & Sonja Overhiser, authors of the acclaimed cookbooks A Couple Cooks and Pretty Simple Cooking—and a real life couple who cooks together. We founded the A Couple Cooks website in 2010 to share seasonal recipes and the joy of home cooking. Now, we’ve got over 3,000 well-tested recipes, including Mediterranean diet, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, smoothies, cocktails, and more!

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3 Comments

  1. Anonymous says:

    How many eggs am I supposed to use?

    1. Sonja Overhiser says:

      Recipe is corrected – thank you!

  2. Sonja Overhiser says:

    Let us know if you have any questions!