French Toast without Milk

You can make delicious French toast without milk with a couple of easy tweaks and your whole family won't be able to tell the difference!

Whether you forgot to buy milk at the grocery store, or just never keep any on hand, don't let that deter you from making a homemade French toast breakfast for your loved ones. You have a few options to make it without milk, and I will walk you through each one in this easy recipe using basic ingredients.

Best Bread for French Toast

There are two important considerations when choosing the best bread for French toast. The easiest choice is getting the proper thickness. I recommend buying thick sliced "Texas Toast" style loaves. Thick bread slices are more akin to what you will find served in any decent restaurant.

The second consideration is the type of bread. Yes, you can make French toast with standard white bread, or even whole wheat bread, but the best French toast uses sweet loaves such as challah or brioche bread. When I make French toast for a special occasion I will go out of my way to find a good bakery that sells either challah or brioche to use in my recipe. Between the two, challah bread is my favorite choice for making deliciously sweet French toast.

What can I use instead of milk in French toast?

Milk is added to French toast as a soaking liquid, to allow the flavorings to fully coat each slice. Without milk, it is difficult to get the bread slices sufficiently saturated with the egg wash. However, the good news is there are lots of ways to get around this.

Instead of using dairy milk, heavy cream, almond milk, soy milk, powdered milk, or any other milk substitute can be used (hint: Light coconut milk would taste great). This is the best option. However, I suspect if you are searching for how to make French toast without milk, you probably don't have these on hand either.

If you don't have any milk on hand, your next best choice is to thin out the egg wash with a little water. This will allow the egg wash to fully coat the bread, while still providing liquid to soak the slices. It is important to use approximately two tablespoons of water to thin the egg mixture, you are not trying to make a soup! Water doesn't bring any flavor to the party, so using too much will just make everything taste bland and soggy.

Ingredients and Substitutions

• Butter - Butter is best for greasing your griddle for cooking, but canola oil or olive oil can be substituted.
• Challah bread - Sweet bread is best for the extra flavor it adds, but any other thick slice of bread you have on hand will work.
• Eggs - You can also make French toast without eggs if needed.
• Water - You can use a milk substituted like almond milk. If using a milk substitute use a full cup, rather than 2 tablespoons of water.
• Brown sugar
• Pure Vanilla extract
• Cinnamon

How to make French Toast without Milk

Begin making your french toast recipe without milk by beating the eggs, water, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon together in a shallow bowl until well combined.

Melt butter on your griddle, or nonstick frying pan, set at 350 degrees, then dunk each of the thick slices of bread in the egg batter and place them on the griddle. Let each side of the bread cook until golden brown, then flip and repeat.

Serve the hot slices of French toast immediately along with additional butter, maple syrup, fresh berries, powdered sugar, or strawberry jam.

Storing leftovers

This recipe can be scaled up to make big batches. Leftover French toast can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator, or frozen in the freezer for long-term storage. Refrigerated French toast can be reheated in the microwave or in a skillet on the stovetop. Frozen French toast is best reheated in the oven, or under the broiler on a cookie sheet.

More Breakfast Recipes