French toast the way I like it

I was introduced to French toast at summer camp, where the church ladies who volunteered to cook were limited by the lean pantry of the - affordable, shall we say - camping scenario.

It was day old sandwich bread moistened by a miserly spit of mostly milk, was flabby and, not uncommon with food for the masses, cold. I always liked things that were served with syrup but this - this was seriously bleh.

When I had my own kitchen I got to thinking - there has got to be a better way. These days, when I make French toast it is with leftover bread, which I pre-slice about an inch thick and stick in the freezer until wanted.

Then on the lazy morning requiring late breakfast, I will beat up one less egg than I have bread slices, so in the case of the frying pan above, 3 eggs. I will add twice the volume of egg in milk and a healthy slosh of flavour - vanilla (I'm still using some deliciously spicy stuff from the Dominican Republic), or your favourite liqueur - Kahlua, Grand Marnier, rum. When the mix is smooth, I pour some in a plate or pan big enough to hold all the bread (whole wheat baguette in this case), nestle the slices into the mix and pour the rest over top.

Yes, there is a lot of liquid, but if you want bread transmorgified into something beyond it's present humble state, that slice of day-old blehness must become infused with the egg and milk, so that when you flip it in 10 minutes to ensure equal soaking time on each side, it is already hard to handle.

Heat your frying pan to medium hot, put in some cooking oil - not olive, something mild, like canola - and a bit of butter: just enough fat to thoroughly coat the bottom of the pan. When the oil is hot, gently lower the saturated bread slices into the pan with a spatula. Turn the heat down to medium, put a lid over half the pan, and sizzle until the bottom of each slice is gorgeously brown. Flip and keep the magic going.

When both sides are toasty brown, serve up with maple syrup, bacon and fruit. What's lip smacking about French toast this way is that while the exterior has a nutty crust, the interior is fluffy, creamy and altogether almost unrecognizable as bread.