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If you’re looking for a sweet and indulgent Sunday breakfast or brunch idea to cook, look no further than French toast. Thick slices of bread, soaked in a mixture of beaten eggs with milk and cinnamon, toasted, and served with fruit or butter and maple syrup.

The main thing that would always put me off cooking French toast is that it would always come out of the frying pan soggy. The outside of the bread seemed to cook too rapidly, leaving it burnt, while the inside remained undercooked and soggy. Plus, cooking French toast in the frying pan resulted in oil splattering across the hob and on my kitchen worktop. However, after discovering trained chef and baker Kristen Hoffman’s simple way of cooking French toast, I’ve never used another recipe.

Kristen Hoffman took to her recipe blog, Baker Bettie, to recommend making French toast in the oven rather than the frying pan for a super crispy crust with a light and fluffy inside.

Not only does this method create the perfect texture for French toast, but it also ensures that your entire batch is done at once.

When cooking French toast in the oven, the way to get the best results is to heat up your baking tray before adding the soaked bread to the oven.

I found that this ensures that the bottom of the bread sears right away when you place it on the tray.

I preheated my oven to 210C Fan as I gathered all of my ingredients. It’s best to let the pan heat for at least 20 minutes, but you can keep it in the oven longer, just until you’re ready to finish and serve the French toast.

Method

I started by moving my oven rack to the centre shelf and placed a baking tray on the rack. I preheated the oven to 210C Fan and let the tray heat in the oven for at least 20 minutes.

In a wide dish, I whisked together the eggs, milk, and vanilla extract. I also decided to add cinnamon to my egg mixture, but it’s not essential.

I then had to work quickly when I pulled the pan out of the oven. I sprayed the pan with the oil all over to avoid the bread sticking. I dipped each piece of bread into the egg mixture, coating both sides, then arranged the pieces on the tray. The pieces should sizzle when they hit the hot pan.

The tray then went back into the oven to cook the French toast. The recipe says that it should only take five to eight minutes, but I find that 10 minutes is perfect.

Once the French toast is ready, it will be perfectly crispy outside while remaining light and fluffy on the inside.

I served some of the slices of French toast with berries, icing sugar, and maple syrup, and some with just butter and maple syrup.