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chocolate sourdough french toast with fresh fruit and whipped cream on a plate
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5 from 2 votes

Chocolate Sourdough French Toast

This is a sophisticated chocolate sourdough French toast for people who know what they want from the world. There's just enough cocoa to make it deeply flavorful and special, and the hearty sourdough bread and generous egg quotient keep it — and you — well grounded.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time15 minutes
Total Time25 minutes
Course: Breakfast and Brunch
Cuisine: American
Keyword: sourdough french toast
Servings: 6
Calories: 167kcal
Author: Carolyn Gratzer Cope

Ingredients

For the French toast

  • 5 eggs
  • 1 ½ cups (350 ml) whole milk
  • ¼ cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
  • ¼ cup (25 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • ¼ teaspoon fine salt
  • 1 loaf about (566 grams) hearty sourdough bread
  • 4 tablespoons (56 grams) butter

To serve

Instructions

  • Crack the eggs into a 9x13-inch baking dish and whisk.
  • Whisk in a little bit of the milk.
  • Pour in the sugar and sift in the cocoa powder. Whisk until the cocoa powder is well incorporated.
  • Pour in the remaining milk, along with the vanilla and salt. Continue whisking until almost all of the lumps are gone.
  • Slice the bread about ¾ inch thick, reserving the crusty ends for another use.
  • In batches, soak the bread slices in the batter. Depending on the structure of the bread, you will use most or all of the batter to saturate the bread completely.
  • Set a frying pan over medium heat or set an electric skillet in the medium range. Throughout cooking, you may need to toggle between medium and medium-low to brown the French toast and cook it through in complementary timeframes.
  • Melt some of the butter on the pan or skillet, in proportion to the number of slices you'll be cooking at once.
  • Cook the French toast in uncrowded batches, flipping once, until lightly browned and cooked through.
  • If you like, you can keep slices warm in a 250°F oven while you cook the rest.
  • Top with fresh cut fruit and whipped cream and serve right away.

Notes

  1. Use a good, hearty sourdough bread. Here I've pictured an artisanal loaf made with good-quality white bread flour. Roxane used a seeded loaf. It's really up to you how hearty you want to go.
  2. I've called for whole milk, but you can make this recipe with any dairy or nondairy milk or cream of your choice. Roxane used soy milk in the original version.
  3. French toast is at its best right after cooking. If you like, you can keep the early slices warm in a 250°F oven while you cook the rest.
  4. Leftovers will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for a week and can be reheated with a quick spin in the oven or toaster oven.
  5. Back in 2016, Roxane referred to several recipes in developing this one, including one from a website that we couldn't find again and also the chocolate French toast from the blog Handle the Heat. If we do ultimately uncover the original reference, I'll add it here. Either way, she adapted it substantially, as one does, having previously catered for the Queen of England. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1 | Calories: 167kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 160mg | Sodium: 241mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 11g