Favorite French Toast (8 servings) 4 large eggs 1 cup whole milk 4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice 1 tablespoon orange zest 2 teaspoons granulated sugar 2 teaspoon vanilla extract 8 teaspoon salt 8 slices bread 8 teaspoons unsalted butter Confectioners' sugar Maple syrup or cane sugar (optional) 1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. 2. Crack the eggs into a large mixing bowl and whisk well. 3. Add the milk, orange juice, orange zest, granulated sugar, vanilla extract, and salt, and whisk until well combined. 4. Working quickly, dip each bread slice into the egg mixture in the bowl, turning it to coat both sides with the mixture. Transfer the coated bread slices to a plate while you finish coating the remaining slices. 5. Heat a small skillet over medium heat until hot, about 3 to 5 minutes. 6. Melt 1 teaspoon of the butter in the skillet, then add a slice of coated bread, and cook until the bread is golden brown and crusted on the bottom, about 2 minutes. Turn with a plastic turner and cook until the second side is golden, about 1 to 2 minutes. 7. Transfer the French toast from the skillet to a baking sheet. Cover lightly with aluminum foil and place in the oven to keep warm while you cook the other slices. 8. Repeat with the remaining slices, being sure to add 1 teaspoon of the butter to the pan before every slice. 9. Sprinkle the French toast with confectioners' sugar and serve with maple syrup or cane sugar if desired. NOTE: Depending on the size of the bread, you may find that there's a bit of batter left over. If that's the case, just go ahead, add a bit more butter to the pan, and cook up another slice or two. If you don't want to eat these today, refrigerate them, tightly covered, for up to one or two days, and reheat in the oven or microwave for a really quick breakfast or great afternoon snack! A Note From Mr Breakfast: A great breakfast lover named "Dogbert" wrote in regarding this recipe with some important modifications you may want to consider. His letter follows: I believe the submitter of this recipe needs to revisit the ingredients and reduce the amount of liquid. I thought 4 Cups of OJ seemed like a lot and almost reduced it, then decided it was my first time through and I'd ought to follow the directions. WRONG. I suspect this ought to be 1/4 Cup OJ, NOT 4 Cups. I used a griddle setting of 375 to fry the toast. I was doing a quantity (4x the recipe) and it was not a pretty sight. Perhaps the skillet Baseball27 recommends would have helped, but in quantity, that was not practical. I would recommend the following: 4 eggs -- 1 cup milk -- 1/4 cup orange juice -- 1 Tbls orange zest -- 2 tsp sugar -- 2 tsp vanilla extract -- 1/2 tsp salt -- 8 slices bread -- 8 tsp butter Combine the zest and the sugar --let stand 10-15 minutes. Combine the eggs, milk, zest, sugar and vanilla. Refrigerate 30 minutes or over night (to allow the orange to infuse the batter). Heat a skillet or griddle to 375 Deg. and oil the griddle with butter as suggested, or with butter flavored vegetable shortening. Stir in the orange juice and salt. Coat the bread with the batter and fry until done, about 2 min. on each side. I need to say I have not tried this modification, but I would not use the recipe again as stated. The guys liked the orange "twist" to the recipe, and it's worth another go with modified directions and reduced liquid. I used a thick sliced whole wheat bread. This would be great served with orange marmalade! The freshness of the bread is important. Fresh bread will absorb batter more quickly than stale bread. Mr Breakfast would like to thank baseball27 for this recipe. Recipe number 457. Submitted 9/13/2002.