Easy Fluffy French Toast (Melts in Your Mouth) Recipe

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By Barbara Hodge • Last Updated: October 16, 2023
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Easy Fluffy French Toast

This fluffy french toast is soft, thick and heavenly tasty! Learn how to make Japanese style french toast extra fluffy today. Simple and easy, this fluffy french toast recipe will bring your mornings to life!

Fluffy French Toast

Lately we can’t go past this fluffy French toast recipe as our weekend treat. It never disappoints. It’s easy to master in no time at all! For me, French toast has to be moist and creamy inside and golden brown on the outside!

It’s often suggested that you shouldn’t soak the bread into the custard mix for long, or that you should use stale bread. And I also did so in my French toast sticks recipe. Some suggest using a large mixing bowl, or using only egg yolks.

But I’ve been a bit obsessive about trying different ways of making fluffy French toast, and I don’t follow those ‘rules’. So read on for my perfect fluffy French toast recipe.

cutting Fluffy French Toast with a fork and a knife
Credit: Instagram @sarabethsnyc

You will love this French toast

This delicious fluffy and custard-y French toast is similar to classic French toast, but inspired by a Japanese approach, it’s taken to new level. It’s no wonder this fluffy French toast is popping up in posh Tokyo restaurants, and fancy cafes. But you can make it at home, and you’ll love it!

You are going to transform your regular toast into fluffy Japanese influenced deliciousness. Bring joy in your life and share it with your loved ones. So read on to master a new French toast cooking recipe today!

Making French Toast Fluffy

I love French toast and have enjoyed it for breakfast at various cafes and hotels for years. I came across a super fluffy and tender toast in Japan. It can be enjoyed at a Tokyo’s luxury hotel restaurants and trendy cafes. It’s a new style of French toast I ever come across. I wanted to enjoy this restaurant style French toast with Andy at home.

So when I came across a super fluffy, soft Japanese style French toast in Japan, I was completely taken by it! I ordered it at every opportunity, and decided that I couldn’t just wait to visit the café, but had to perfect it at home.

It’s now one of my favourite breakfast indulgences. If like me you like a weekend indulgence at breakfast, this recipe should definitely be in you repertoire. And, the best thing – it’s easy to make!

Use soft and thick bread

The trick for making French toast fluffy in Japan is to use shokupan, which is extra thick, soft and silky smooth bread. It’s milk bread. You can purchase it at local Japanese or Asian grocery stores.

But no worries if you can’t find shokupan, you can use brioche (check out the ingredients section) which works perfectly well.

Soak the bread in the custard mix

The thick soft bread is soaked in the egg custard mix overnight. I cut the crust off to make an extra soft, melt in a mouth, restaurant style French toast.

The problem with overnight soaking is you need to flip over each slice to ensure evenness. And, you may not have enough space for the large bowl in the fridge – I don’t!

No problem – my approach doesn’t require soaking the bread overnight but ensures the perfect amount of absorption evenly. And no need for a large bowl taking up space in the fridge!

Check out my tips below on how to make the french toast fluffy.

Let’s get started!

Ingredients for Fluffy French Toast

BREAD

The best bread for this unique French toast recipe is milk bread, which is called shokupan in Japan. It’s often available at the local Japanese or Asian supermarkets.

If milk bread is not convenient for you, try soft and thick brioche or unsliced soft and airy bread and cut thickly While I love whole grain sourdough bread from my local market, I’m afraid it’s not suitable for this recipe.

MILK

Whole milk is great, but you can replace it with dairy free milk. I often use cashew milk, which works well.

SUGAR

I use beet sugar or granulated cane sugar instead of brown sugar to maintain a yellowish colour.

TOPPING

Add powdered sugar, cinnamon and maple syrup when serving. Dairy or non-dairy whipped cream also works well for an extra indulgence.

How to Make Fluffy French Toast

Here’s a few tricks and tips for making the best fluffy French toast.

cutting breads for Fluffy French Toast
Credit: Instagram @theodeonnyc

Cut the bread

Make a cut into the bread slices with a knife. The best way for this is to cut each bread slice into half. Make a cut ¾ inch incision into the the bread from the center out.

Then cut off the crust. The reason for this is it’s too soft to slice the bread without the edge crust.

Soak the bread slices

Use a decent sized ziploc bag instead of a large mixing bowl. No need to soak the bread slices in the mix overnight. This method takes only 15 minutes!

Place each bread sliceinto the Ziploc bag, and soak into the custard mix. No need to place it in a mixture in bowl first. Put them straight into the Ziploc bag. It’s also super convenient for turning the bread over to ensure event absorption – just turn the Ziploc bag over. Don’t forget to dip the mix in the cuts of each bread.

Remove as much of the air from the bag before sealing it. This helps the mix penetrating into the bread slices faster, and ensures the sliced bread doesn’t dry out.

Strain the mix

Use a strainer when you transfer the mix into the ziploc bag. This is a pro tip! It will smooth out and even the mixture and give the bread an extra smooth texture. It also keeps its golden yellow with no egg white spots on surface.

Straining is a basic Japanese technique for egg. It’s applied to Japanese omelet, tamagoyaki, and savory pudding, chawanmushi.

Cooking

Heat up a pan and cook over medium heat. After placing butter, carefully take out the bread slices with a tong or a flat spatula and place onto the pan. It’s fragile and will fall apart if you use fingers. Also use a lid of a frying pan for cooking and steam.

That’s it! Serve immediately!

Tips for the Best Fluffy French Toast

Which frying pan do you use?

I use a skillet. If you have a non-stick pan, use it. You need a frying pan or a skillet with a lid. You are going to make thick and tall French toast and you need to fry and steam the bread – to ensure the heat makes it to the center of the bread. Without a lid it can result in soggy french toast.

Can you prepare this fluffy French toast a day before?

Yes. You can soak the bread slices overnight if you have plenty of space in the fridge and can wait for this fluffy French toast next day!

More French toast recipe

Easy Fluffy French Toast

Fluffy French Toast Recipe

Barbara Hodge
This fluffy french toast is soft, thick and heavenly tasty! Learn how to make Japanese style french toast extra fluffy today. Simple and easy, this fluffy french toast recipe will bring your mornings to life!
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Course Breakfast
Cuisine Japanese, Vegetarian
Servings 2 people

Ingredients
  

  • 2 thickly sliced bread* (just under 2 inch slices work well)
  • 2 eggs
  • ¾ cup milk** (177ml)
  • 3 tablespoons sugar*** (42g: beet or cane sugar)
  • ½ tablespoon pure vanilla extract (optional)
  • sea salt (pinch)
  • 1 tablespoon butter (for cooking)

Instructions
 

Preparation

  • Mix sugar and eggs with a whisk in a bowl. Add milk, sea salt and pure vanilla extract. Combine them with a whisk.
  • Use a strain and transfer the egg custard mix from the bowl to a ziploc bag. Set aside.
  • Cut a thick bread slice into half. Make a ¾ cut with a knife from the center to the edge crust. Remove the edge crust. Repeat the same for another bread slice.
    Andy – Cut a thick bread slice into half. Make a ¾ inch cut with a knife from the center to the edge of the crust. Then remove the crust. This way the edge crust helps to slice the soft part of the bread. Repeat the same for another slice.
  • Repeat this for one more bread slice. Leave it in the fridge at least for 15 minutes. Flip over the bag once.
  • Soak the bread slices into the mix. Make sure to dip the mix on the center of the bread where you made a cut. Repeat this for other three bread slices. Gently remove the air from the bag. Leave it in the fridge at least for 15 minutes. Flip over the breads twice.

Cooking

  • Heat up the frying pan to medium heat. Place butter on it and let it melt. Then turn it to lower heat.
  • Use a tong or a large flat spatula, and carefully transfer each bread slice onto the pan. Cover with the lid and cook them for three minutes. Avoid cooking on high heat as it will burn the outside of the bread.
  • Once the surface becomes golden brown, flip over with a spatula. Cover the lid and keep adding the heat for four minutes.
  • That's it! Serve immediately!

Notes

*Using shokupan or milk bread is the best for this recipe. It’s soft and silky smooth Japanese bread. The white bread is sliced into just less than 2 inches. It’s easy to find at your local Japanese or Asian grocery store. If you can’t find it, replace it with brioche.
**Whole milk is the best for this recipe. But you can also use non-dairy milk. Rich plant based milk is best – such as cashew milk. 
***I use beet or cane sugar for this recipe. They are lighter naturally. Any sugar can work. If you want to keep the yellow egg yolk colour, use white sugar.