Home Kitchen Eggnog French Toast Sticks and Brown Butter Maple Syrup

And simply when I thought french toast couldn’t get anymore yummier.

A light bulb went off one day while reading my daughters school lunch menu and an idea was born… err, I mean… so I made these cute little sticks.

Texas toast, cut into strips and dunked into eggnog batter, then sent straight into the oven to bake up nice and crispy. THENNNNN all that was left for me to do for this breakfast complete, was dunk them into a bowlful of brown-butter maple syrup.

Can you genuinely go wrong when a recipe calls for brown butter?? *sigh* Brown butter…. yeah… could pretty much drink the stuff.

To cook this Eggnog French Toast Sticks Gather:

• Texas toast bread (or thick cut brioche will do)
• eggs
• cinnamon
• grated nutmeg
• pure vanilla extract
• eggnog
• whole milk
• butter

for the syrup:

• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter
• a pinch of kosher salt, more or less to taste

Eggnog. It’s not only for spiking with rum, but it makes an excellent batter for Texas toast! Simply remember to measure and leave your eggnog, milk and eggs out for about 30 minutes before using… otherwise it will solidify the butter when it’s added and it’ll be lumpy looking. If it happens it won’t be the end of the world… the batter will simply be, well, ugly.

There’s truly no particular order when it comes to making these, but here is how it went down.

You need 10 slices of Texas toast, if you can’t find it, try a french loaf and slice it thick. Slice each of the Texas toast slices into three strips and set aside to work on the batter.

In a shallow pan, I use a pie plate, crack 4 large eggs and add 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/8 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg.

Measure and add in 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, 2/3 cup eggnog, butter and thin it out with 2 tablespoons whole milk. If you want these like asap and you don’t have eggnog, simply use 2/3 cup of whole milk and leave out the extra tablespoons.

Dunk the strips of bread into the batter, be extra careful with those middle sections of bread… they’re fragile.

While I was dunking I set them on a wire rack to drip off any excess batter… this isn’t necessary, but I do it anyways.

Place the strips close, without touching each other or they’ll stick, on a lined cookie sheet. I swear to you, buy a silicone mat! It’s twenty bucks, but the dependable twenty bucks I’ve ever spent.

Bake in your preheated oven for 15 minutes.

Flip, and then continue to bake for 10-15 more.

Right after you flip the toast would be a great time to get going on the maple syrup. If you’re still using the log cabin variety of syrups… you should probably stop. Like now. I can’t say if this dish will taste the same with artificial-maple-flavored-corn-syrup or not… so do take the leap and buy some of the real stuff.

ps… why the tiny handle? Like anyone can actually use that handle for pouring! Pshht!?

Pour about 1/2 cup of syrup into a bowl.

Heat a small skillet over medium heat and add to it a half stick of butter. Watch it carefully as it melts, bubbles, the milk solids separate, and then start to brown. Right when it reaches a caramelly color {that’s an official blog term btw} remove it from the heat.

Pour the brown butter directly into the syrup… it’s completely meant to be.

If you’re using unsalted butter, throw in a heavy pinch {or about a 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt}.

Stir to combine.

Then you can simply pour a little of that deliciousness into a tiny bowl that’s dependable for dunking french toast sticks in!

Seriously these eggnog french toast sticks took me back to those elementary hot-lunch days. The dependable day was when it was french toast stick day, only these are much, much better!

And that syrup… it’s nutty… sweet and superb! Seriously… I’m considering never consuming regular maple syrup ever again.

Enjoy! And if you give this eggnog french toast sticks recipe a try, let me know! Snap a photo and tag me on twitter or instagram!