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Cornflake French Toast allows you to enjoy two breakfast menu favorites, cereal and French toast, in one easy, family-friendly breakfast recipe. Done in just 30 minutes, this crunchy French toast recipe will inspire you to actually look forward to mornings!
If you are a “sweet breakfast” lover, this might be the best French toast you’ve ever had. You start with a delicious batter that is so much more than just an eggy coating: milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla are all there bringing the flavor!
If that’s not enough, you roll the battered bread in crushed cornflakes. Cornflakes are one of the crispiest breading agents around, and they don’t disappoint here! Not ones to take chances, we deep-fry the French toast here, too, so that crunch is absolutely undeniable.
What you wind up with is a platter of thick slices of cornflake-French toast HEAVEN. Butter and syrup or whipped cream and berries, you simply can’t go wrong. Lemon-flavored mascarpone or blackberry jam with candied pecans is good, too.
Table of Contents
Recipe ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
Ingredient notes
- Cornflakes: These are key to score the delightfully crunchy exterior on this French toast recipe. For a mess-free way to take them from flake to crumb-size, pour the corn flakes into a large zip-top bag, press the air out, then close the top. Use your hands or a rolling pin to crush them to your desired consistency, then transfer to a shallow bowl.
- Texas toast: Any sturdy, thick-cut bread will work such as homemade No-Knead Bread, brioche bread, or Challah.
- Vegetable oil: I prefer to pan-fry this cornflake-crusted French Toast in a neutral-flavored vegetable oil.
Step-by-step instructions
- Preheat oven to 200 degrees. In a large shallow bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla until well blended. Slowly whisk in flour and baking powder until smooth.
- Add the crushed cornflakes to a second shallow dish and place next to the egg mixture. Heat 1 inch of oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat to 325 degrees. Working in batches, dip piece of bread bread in batter and allow any excess to drip off and back in to the bowl.
- Roll the battered slice of bread generously in cornflake crumbs. Immediately fry in oil until golden brown, about 1 minute per side. Drain on paper towels and transfer to a baking sheet in oven to keep warm.
- Repeat with remaining bread slices. Serve warm with your favorite toppings such as butter and maple syrup, powdered sugar, whipped cream, fresh fruit, or candied pecans.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: This breakfast recipe makes 12 full slices of French toast (24 halves or triangles). I generally plan on 3 triangles (halves of a bread slice) per adult.
- Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Make ahead: This Cornflake Crusted French Toast recipe is best eaten as soon as possible after frying, but you can keep warm in the 200 degree oven for up to 1 hour if you’re hosting a brunch open house or have some late-risers.
- Topping ideas: Maple syrup is a must, of course. I also like to set out bowls of whipped cream, fresh berries, banana slices, strawberry sauce, honey, powdered sugar, candied pecans, and crumbled bacon so everyone can garnish as desired.
- Baked French Toast: This breakfast dish takes the labor out of standard French Toast and turns it into a casserole bake. It’s great for brunch, weekends, and holiday mornings.
- Challah French toast: This fabulous French Toast recipe is perfect with a dusting of powdered sugar and a squeeze of fresh lime juice.
- French Toast sticks: Like a mash-up of a cinnamon-sugar donut and French toast, these are one of my best family breakfast recipe ideas and ready in just 30 minutes.
Frequently Asked Questions
It’s really important that the fat you’re frying in (oil, butter, whatever it is) be HOT when you add your French toast. If it’s not hot, it will simply soak into the bread and lead to a soggy experience. When it’s HOT, it will fry the bread instead of soaking it in.
Top your French toast with butter and maple syrup, whipped cream and fresh fruit, jam, honey, marmalade, mascarpone, candied nuts, or fresh zest.
At its very basic, French toast need only be made with egg. Scramble some raw eggs in a bowl, dip your bread, and fry it. That qualifies as French toast. Many recipes include other ingredients in the batter such as milk or cream and spices or flavors such as cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and vanilla. But truly, you need only an egg.
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Cornflake French Toast
Ingredients
- 2 cups milk
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 8 cups cornflakes crushed (see note 1)
- vegetable oil for frying (see note 2)
- 12 slices Texas toast sliced diagonally into triangles (see note 3)
- syrup whipped cream, fruit, and other desired toppings for serving
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200 degrees. In a large shallow bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla until well blended. Slowly whisk in flour and baking powder until smooth.
- Add cornflakes to a second shallow bowl and place next to the batter. Heat 1 inch oil in a heavy skillet to 325 degrees.
- Working with 1 or 2 bread slices at a time, dip bread in batter and allow any excess to drip off and back in to the bowl. Roll generously in cornflake crumbs. Immediately fry in oil until golden brown, about 1 minute per side.
- Drain on paper towels and transfer to a baking sheet in oven to keep warm. Repeat with remaining bread slices. Serve warm with your favorite toppings such as maple syrup, powdered sugar, whipped cream, fresh fruit, or candied pecans.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Cornflakes: These are key to score the delightfully crunchy exterior on this French toast recipe. For a mess-free way to take them from flake to crumb-size, pour the cornflakes into a large zip-top bag, press the air out, then close the top. Use your hands or a rolling pin to crush them to your desired consistency, then transfer to a shallow bowl.
- Vegetable oil: I prefer to pan-fry this Cornflake Crusted French Toast in a neutral-flavored vegetable oil.
- Texas toast: If you can’t find Texas toast at your supermarket or bakery or have extra slices of another type of bread (such as homemade No-Knead Bread or Challah), any sturdy, thick-cut bread will work well.
- Yield: This breakfast recipe makes 12 full slices of French toast (24 halves or triangles). I generally plan on 3 triangles (halves of a bread slice) per adult.
- Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Nutrition
Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.
Wow! I’m a little skeptical about French toast, sometimes it tastes too “eggy”, however my family loves it! I made this recipe exactly as stated above and it was a huge success! We have several leftover, so I was wondering if we can refrigerate and/or freeze to keep for later? Thanks for a great recipe!
Hi Ashley, thank you so much for your comment! I am right there with you on eggy French toast. They can definitely be refrigerated up to 4 days. I haven’t tried freezing and reheating them, however. Sorry about that. Take care and thank you again! – Meggan
thank you thank you. There’s this brunch place I usually go that serves cornflake french toast. I tried alot of recipes to copy it. Your recipe is the closest. Better even!
I’m so glad you like my recipe! Thanks Kris! -Meggan
I absolutely love this recipe!! My husband’s favorite breakfast meal is cornflake crusted French toast from Junior’s cheesecake restaurant in NY so I tried to re-create that recipe and this one is better, by far!! Super easy, just follow the instructions to a T and you won’t regret it!! Thanks so much for sharing this Recipe with us!!
Hi Fallon, you’re so welcome! Thank you so much for your comment and compliment! I’m glad you both loved it! – Meggan
Absolutely AMAZING! One of the best things I’ve ever had! Like a fresh donut. Will definitely make again!
Thank you, Stacy! -Meggan
Can I use brioche bread instead?
Hi Sabra, yes you absolutely can! That would be fantastic actually. Thank you! -Meggan
WOW this was amazing!