I agree, it definitely needs more milk and sugar. Where I go a different way is that I only use egg yolks; I think it has a better flavor and texture, and you don’t get those “eggy” areas on the surface from the whites. (If that makes sense) Also, whatever spices I use, I mix into the yolks before adding the milk, they incorporate much better. I’m also in the dip briefly and cook camp, I think soaking gives it more of a bread pudding texture. Have you ever mixed in a bit of melted butter? It solidifies into little bits and melts as you cook the toast.
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I don’t make this often, but when I do, it’s RICH! About 2 tablespoons heavy cream per egg, sugar to taste and a healthy glug of Grand Marnier. Sauteed in butter, then dusted with powdered sugar. Served with maple syrup.
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So many great observations. And suggestions!
I think I’m gonna brave another run at making French Toast very soon (after I get another package, or two, of bacon!). I’ll sort out the suggestions by compatibility with one another–then do maybe three different “batches”.
I’ll have to bring the kids and grandkids into this to make a taste-off work.
Fry the FT in the bacon grease.
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Thickly sliced sourdough or Italian, milk, eggs, cinnamon, salt, vanilla or almond extract depending on mood, amaretto on the rare occasion, always a good long soak and always shortly before removing from pan for a really nice caramelized crust a heavy sprinkling of a good maple sugar on both sides be sure to flip … sometimes I throw the pan in the oven for extra puff… be sure to remove from stove or oven while interior is still just a tad custardy /creamy.
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I hate having leftover heavy cream…then it goes bad and a waste1 
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You can freeze leftover heavy cream and it will be fine for cooking after thawing. I don’t recall how it performs when whipped. Also, I find that an unopened carton remains fresh for months if kept in the lower rear of the refrigerator, and an opened one for at least a month if kept there. One time, it was a carton without a plastic spout; the fold closure allowed air out and when I discovered the leftover carton weeks and weeks later, thought for sure it would be sour. To my happy surprise, it had turned into cream cheese!
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Day old challah bread is our choice. When the market puts the bread out for half price, that’s when it’s just firm enough to hold up to the dip in the batter. In a large, flat pie plate, we whip 4 eggs, one cup of light cream, half tsp. vanilla extract, T. orange liquor. Dip the slices and fry on a griddle that’s been melting down sweeet butter. As each slice is ready we top with warmed maple syrup.
Serve french toast on a warmed plate.
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Good thought! I’ve never done this.
I like savoury rather than sweet.
Start with day old sourdough, the best you can find.
I do slices about one and a half fingers, or 3/4 of an inch thick. There is nothing worse than an undercooked center.
Beat your eggs with a little half n half and a dash of Tabasco until they have a fair amount of air in them. Beat again each time before you dip bread.
Use a griddle or cast iron skillet with equal amounts of butter and oil. Wait for butter to quit sizzling. Add dipped bread immediately, it should puff up a little around the edges like an omelet.
Brown both sides, remove, hit it with a dusting of sea salt, and serve immediately with Michigan maple syrup and buttah.
Wipe out the pan or griddle with a paper towel, add new butter and oil, beat eggs, and repeat.
Good French toast is like an omelette and needs to be served immediately. Doing 12 and keeping them in a warming oven doesn’t work.
Also I find the dash (but just a dash) of Tabasco in the eggs and the dusting of sea salt after, to be critical. They act as flavor enhancers kind of like MSG.
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Few days old bread soaked in milk with orange blossom water, sugar, cinnamon. Before heading to the hot pan, a final dip in the honey egg mixture. Simple but divine!
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Curious if the cream that turned into cream cheese was just cream (milk). That’s only happened to me with unadulterated cream - never with the stuff with carrageenan, etc.
I always considered it clotted cream, add a bit of sugar, and eat it off my finger. One of those rare back of fridge discoveries that aren’t green in nature.
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That looks delicious!
Never thought of orange blossom water for French toast. Great idea! Maybe some cardamom, too.
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Good to see all these ideas!
My own first thought re: the original post is that I’d like to know more about the bread, both as to quality and age. I like to use quality, stale bread for French toast; whereas what’s sold as Italian bread in common supermarkets in the USA is bland, fluffy stuff, sometimes containing anti-staling ingredients–counterproductive.
One question for me, too, concerns thoughts about soaking and cooking. I actually do not do a long soak, and I imagine that if I did so, the cooking style would have to change. If you give a few seconds dipping each side of the bread in egg mixture, then you can cook over higher heat. I haven’t done a test, though, of the short versus long soak.
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The French Toast in French is Pain Perdu (Lost bread), it is a recipe to save bread has gone too hard. That is why the soaking part is important, it depends how hard the bread becomes, and which bread you use, a sourdough bread can get very hard than for example the soft sandwich bread pain de mie (that is favoured by many Asian countries). Too long a soak with extremely hard bread could lead to bread breaking up into smaller very easily though.
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Has anybody tried making the Japanese Shibuya Honey Toast at home? @klyeoh has been raving several times this delicious dessert in a Bangkok café.
I just asked DH why we rarely saw French Toast served in a French restaurant or café while in Asia, we see them in all forms in cafés. He said while it is very good, it is true that pain perdu remains a home dessert than a refined plate to be served as a restaurant dessert.
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All these thoughtful suggestions prompts me to put this on our dinner menu for next week! I’ll be using a loaf of French Bread, from a “Continental” bakery a few blocks from our house. After I buy it, I’ll allow it to stale a bit.
Finding a bakery that produced authentic Challah Bread would involve more than a half hour drive. 
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I’m the contrary of you, I never prepare to do French Toast except when breading are piling up and I have no other choice to get rid of them. 
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We’ve taken to having french toast on mornings, like today, when it snows. It started as a joke, but now it’s tradition–eggs, milk and bread being the pre-snow shopping staples of most. Of course, we add vanilla and cinnamon and always have semi-stale bread in the freezer 
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