This super easy French Toast with Sourdough is the perfect way to use up stale bread. It's super simple and delicious, and ideal for weekend breakfasts or any special occasion. Top with fresh berries, maple syrup, and whipped cream for a deliciously sweet breakfast.

This easy sourdough french toast is a great way to use up leftover sourdough. It's simply the best french toast and a great option for brunch.
If you're looking for more delicious brunch recipes, be sure to check out this french toast pigs in a blanket recipe, this custard yogurt toast, or these bananas foster pancakes.
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❤️Why you'll love this
- Simple ingredients: You most likely don't even need a trip to the grocery store for this one, as this recipe is made with pantry and kitchen staples, plus some old bread.
- Customizable: We make ours refined sugar free and lower in carbs with sugar and maple syrup replacements. This recipe can also be made gluten free, and even dairy free.
- Quick & easy: This recipe can be made in 25 minutes or less, so you can get something on the table fast!
- No special equipment needed: Whether you have a cast iron skillet or a non-stick skillet, you can make this recipe! You do want a large skillet or frying pan however, so you can make a few slices at a time.
🍞Ingredients
Here are the ingredients you will need, plus a few of our favorite toppings. You can find full quantities and nutritional information in the recipe card.
✏️Ingredient Notes
- Stale sourdough - We don't recommend using fresh bread for this, old sourdough works bread. Old bread gets dried out, and it soaks up the egg custardy egg mixture really well.
- Whole milk - Or any milk of choice.
- Eggs
- Kosher salt - Just a pinch of salt to enhance the sweetness.
- Vanilla extract
- Cinnamon & nutmeg - A pinch of cinnamon is always a staple in French toast, and the nutmeg is optional, but we love the flavor it adds.
- Sweetener of choice - We use granular erythritol (affiliate link) as a 1:1 replacement for white sugar. You can use any sweetener you prefer.
- Butter - To cook the french toast, and top it if you want. Butter will help the bread get nice and golden brown in the pan.
- Fresh fruit of choice - We generally opt for fresh berries, but feel free to add other fruits as well!
- Maple syrup or replacement - This is our favorite maple syrup replacement but of course, you can top it with regular maple syrup.
📖Instructions
In a mixing bowl or large baking dish, add milk, eggs, vanilla extract, and sweetener of choice.
Add in ground cinnamon, kosher salt, and ground nutmeg. Use a whisk to combine the ingredients and make the french toast custard.
Soak the bread slices to coat in the mixture. For best results, we like to soak the slices of bread for about 1 minute in total so they don't get too soggy, but also soak up enough liquid.
Melt a pat of butter in a skillet over medium-low heat. Once butter is melted, place soaked bread slices in a single layer in the pan. Cook for about 2-3 minutes on each side, until golden brown.
That's it! Top with your favorite toppings, and enjoy! We love fresh fruit, whipped cream, and sugar-free maple syrup.
✨Tips & tricks
- Cook them on medium-low heat - Low and slow wins here to ensure a perfect golden brown french toast. You can increase to up to medium heat if needed, but take care because higher heat is more likely to burn your french toast.
- Keep warm while finishing the batch - For the best warm french toast, place the cooked french toast on a plate or baking sheet, them cover with aluminum foil. You could also keep them in a warm oven to keep warm around 250°F.
- Use stale bread - While most situations call for fresh sourdough, this is one exception! Dry or stale bread is crucial for ensuring the bread can absorb enough moisture. Stale bread is like a sponge, so we need somewhere for all of the egg custard to go!
💭Substitutions
Here are a few ways to make this french toast work for your diet.
- Use a different bread- Technically, any bread would work for this recipe, we are just partial to the delicious flavor of sourdough! It probably helps that there is a Chicago bakery that delivers freshly made low-carb sourdough loaves to many area stores multiple times per week. You could use challah, brioche, or any regular bread like whole wheat.
- Gluten free - Feel free to use your favorite gluten-free sourdough. Everything else used in this recipe is naturally gluten free.
- Dairy-free- Swap the regular milk for dairy-free milk, like almond milk or oat milk. You'll also need to swap the butter for vegan butter, or coconut oil.
- Lower calorie - You can use skim milk to cut back on the calories, as well as use a sugar substitute like we did, and a sugar free maple syrup.
- Rich and creamy - Want something even more luxurious? Try this with heavy cream or half and half instead of milk. Yum!
- Keto - Our version is lower carb, but not keto friendly. If you want to try this keto friendly, be sure to use a keto friendly bread. You will also need to use nut milk, half and half, heavy cream, or a combination of those things in place of whole milk. Be sure to use a sugar substitute like we did, as well as sugar free maple syrup!
- Traditional - If you have no restrictions, we encourage you to have a lot of fun with this recipe! The sugar substitute we use measures 1:1 like sugar, so feel free to swap that out.
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🥣Storage
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Reheat in the microwave, in the oven, or on the stovetop.
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📖 Recipe
Sourdough French Toast
Ingredients
- 6 slices sourdough toast, stale (You will need between 6-8 slices of bread depending on the thickness, and how stale the bread is. The staler the bread, the more custard mixture it will soak up.)
- 2 large eggs
- 8 ounces whole milk
- 48 grams granular erythritol (¼ cup. Can use any sweetener of choice)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter (for cooking the french toast)
- Top with: whipped cream, berries, maple syrup or replacement, butter.
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl or shallow baking dish, whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla, salt, sweetener, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
- Dunk stale bread slices into the mixture for about 30 seconds per side. Add to a skillet over medium-low heat with melted butter. Cook for about 3 minutes per side until golden brown.
- Cook in batches if necessary to avoid overcrowding your pan. Once finished, served with maple syrup or replacement, whipped cream, and berries. Enjoy!
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Notes
- This recipe can be customized with regular sugar and maple syrup, or sugar-free versions. We used sugar-free replacements, so the nutrition facts will reflect this. Please note that if you make substitutions, this will increase the carb, sugar, and calorie count.
- No toppings (berries, whipped cream, maple syrup) are included in the nutrition facts.
- Nutmeg is optional but highly recommended and delicious.
- Skim milk, half and half, heavy cream, or nut milk can be used in place of regular whole milk.
Nutrition
These nutrition facts are provided as a courtesy and are only estimates. We cannot guarantee the accuracy.
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