This french toast that crosses the boundary into the unreal by eventuating the contrast of a tender interior with the crunch of a childhood favorite. For an extra special custard, we'll soak some Cap'n Crunch in half and half to pull out the sweet corn flavor. We'll then coat the outside in crushed cereal to create an extra crunchy crust. The results are pretty insane.
Recipe
8-10 slices of thick brioche
3 eggs
1 1/2 cup half and half soaked in 1 1/2 cup Cap'n Crunch
pinch of salt
1 tbsp sugar
2 cups crushed Cap'n Crunch
Butter for frying
We'll start by making our half and half taste like the cereal itself. We can do this by soaking 1 1/2 cups of Cap'n Crunch in 1 and 1/2 cups of half and half. Give this a mix and pop it into the fridge for an hour.
During that time, we can dry our brioche pieces on a wire rack in the oven for just a few minutes at 375f. Flip the pieces once or twice and remove them from the oven once they are dry but not toasted. Leave the oven on after the bread has been removed, because we’ll use it after the french toast has been cooked in the pan.
With the bread dried out, we’ll make our cereal crumb and then make the custard. Simply take a high sided plate or pie pan and pour in a few cups of Cap'n Crunch. Use a measuring cup to crush them to about the size of a large breadcrumb. If the pieces are too large, they’ll end up falling off the toast in the pan.
For the custard, mix together 3 whole eggs and 1 tbsp of sugar is enough here. Add in a large pinch of salt and pour the soaked half and half through a sieve and into the eggs to form the base custard. Whisk this together to completely combine everything and we’re ready to join all of the pieces. Set up your tray of dried bread next to the pan of custard and pan of cereal crumbs. While we’re coating these, get your pan heating up over medium low at the stove.
Set your pieces of bread into the custard and let them sit for 20 seconds a side. Once they’ve absorbed the custard, place them into the crumb coating and press the crushed Cap'n Crunch into the custardy toast. Be sure to get total coverage with the crumb coating, the more even the better here. Work through each piece and place them back on the wire rack.
At the stove, drop in a tablespoon of butter to your preheated pan and then add 2 slices of french toast. Cook that for 3 minutes on the first side, using the spatula to check the crust on the first side. The sugar in the cereal can burn, so keep an eye out. Once you see beautiful browning, give these a flip and hit them with some more butter. 3 more minutes on this side, and you should be good to set these back on the wire rack.
Continue working through each cereal crusted piece and once you’re through each piece, place these into oven at 375f. These need 6 minutes to fully cook the french toast. The outside of these should be super extra crunchy, which I absolutely love.
Top these pieces with some whipped cream, cause they definitely don't need syrup. The Cap'n Crunch has an almost savory corn flavor when fried in the butter; it's truly the most beautiful version of french toast.
