'I Tried Fried Cinnamon French Toast & Confess: It's Unreal'
Remember those French toast sticks you used to eat as a kid? The cinnamon-scented, eggy pull-apart sticks doused in syrupy goodness? What if we told you you could achieve that sentimental taste with only a few ingredients at home? And that it would be even better? You'd want to know the secret. And we're about to give it to you with this fried cinnamon French toast recipe that's going viral on TikTok.
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What is the viral Fried Cinnamon French Toast?
Bestselling cookbook author and podcaster Jessie Sheehan posted a recipe on her Instagram page that has garnered a ton of attention and with good reason. This simple recipe for fried cinnamon French toast is a million times better than the Saturday morning special you used to eat as a kid and chances are, you have all of the ingredients right now.
Sheehan is a "self-proclaimed queen of easy-peasy sweets" so her whole shtick is creating desserts with simple ingredients and not dirtying every dish in the kitchen. I'm here for that.
Her fried cinnamon toast is not only simple and delicious, but it takes the childhood classic to a whole new level. One bite and you'll be begging for another piece. It starts with a slab of challah bread that you fry in oil on both sides and then smear with a generous amount of whipped butter, cinnamon, sugar and nutmeg. The whole thing gets broiled until the top is crispy and golden and it comes out of the oven like a special prize that's almost too pretty to eat.
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What are the ingredients for the Fried Cinnamon French Toast?
Courtesy of Jessica Wrubel
The ingredients are simple and while the full recipe is in Sheehan's new book, Snackable Bakes: 100 Easy-Peasy Recipes for Exceptionally Scrumptious Sweets and Treats (which I will absolutely be checking out after making this treat), I decided to follow the IG post which had no measurements whatsoever and just wing it. After all, that's how most IG and TikTok home cooks are operating these days, so why not? Ingredients are one slice of challah bread (but I'm sure brioche would be delicious as well), a bit of butter, vanilla, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. That's it. It really could not be simpler. And the outcome tastes like so much more.
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What is the recipe for the Fried Cinnamon French Toast?
Sheehan doesn't give exact measurements in her IG video, but it's really not a hard recipe to recreate without the given amounts. I used about 1 tablespoon each of butter and sugar, two smallish pieces of challah, 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. of vanilla and a dash of nutmeg.
Sheehan doesn't mention what kind of oil to fry the bread in but I know my oils and know that a neutral one like canola would suffice, so I used that. After frying both sides of the bread in a frying pan in the oil, I blended the butter, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla together and smeared it on the bread before broiling. Don't worry if the butter and sugar mixture is melting fast on the fried bread; just get it into the broiler quickly so the mixture doesn't slide off the top of the bread.
Courtesy of Jessica Wrubel
What does the Fried Cinnamon French Toast taste like?
This was an incredible upgrade from the plain Jane cinnamon toast of my youth. Something about the caramelization process is just pure magic. Really, anything involving butter, sugar and a broiler and you can't go wrong. Add in the fact that I used challah bread (the best bread in the whole world). I'm done. This was crispy and sugary on the outside, pillowy and bready on the inside, heavy on the cinnamon and just a hint of spice from the nutmeg. It tasted like a state fair treat that I grabbed from the window of a food truck on a hot day as opposed to creating it for myself in my tiny kitchen. It was the perfect little fancy breakfast and would make an even better afternoon snack alongside a cup of coffee. It's French toast without the work, it's French toast sticks without the additives and it's the best cinnamon toast you'll ever put in your mouth.
Courtesy of Jessica Wrubel
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Tips for making the Fried Cinnamon French Toast even better
Sheehan says in her IG video to put the toast in the toaster after slathering it with the butter and sugar mixture, however, I have a two-slice toaster and not a toaster oven (which I'm assuming Sheehan was using) so I turned on my broiler instead. It came out perfectly and I didn't have to worry about cleaning burnt sugar off the inside of my toaster. (Although in hindsight, I wonder if those cute little toaster bags could work.)
Make sure your oil is up to temperature (around 350°F). When frying, if the temperature of the oil is too low when you put your food in the pan, it will absorb too much of the oil and become soggy and greasy; you don't want this to happen, especially with a delicate bread such as challah.
This isn't a deep fry, it's more of a pan-fry, but I'd be curious to try this one out in the air fryer as well and compare the results.
This doesn't need any toppings but I did top mine with some sliced strawberries and blackberries just to break up the cinnamon-sugar gooeyness and add in some fresh flavor and it was delicious.
As with all recipes, quality is everything and you will taste the difference. Use the best quality butter you can find (I used my trusty wedge of Plugra), real vanilla extract and fresh spices.
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