Skinny Baked Citrus French Toasts | '0' Oil Recipes

Imagine a day, when you wake up in the morning with the breakfast tray on your lap, filled with your favorite breakfast (mine is French Toast, undoubtedly) cooked by your loved one; how will you feel? I’m ready to die for such treat, any day any time! But the best part is, it’s not my day dream; I had my moments already on last weekend with Skinny Baked Citrus French Toast. And now I can truly say, it was one of the best treats I ever had from him.

I’m definitely not a morning person rather you can call me a night person (if it is the appropriate word to use). I hate to wake up the in the morning by the alarm and the fact of going into the kitchen right after getting out of bed makes me sick. Gradually I have to face the morning rush big time due to my lazy ass. Bhatty has settled on his cereal for the morning but I’m still struggling to have my toasts on the rush. Then this hassle-free delicious 78 calorie/French toast is worth waking up on breakfast.

Though my all-time favorite breakfast item is French toast I hardly get time in the morning to make it. Top of that the sword of calorie management is always hanging on my neck (read tummy). But recently I got this awesome idea of Baked French toastwhich not only saves hell lot time but also slide down the calories too. No deep frying (which I never have though) not even stir fried, just grease the pan and the best part is dip the breads in batter and refrigerate overnight. The next morning you just need to put the tray in the oven and bake and enjoy the beautiful morning with your loved ones.

As I’m not a sweet lover in the morning, I used less sugar and used orange juice with ground spices in the batter for the citrus punch in it. Here you go with the recipe of Skinny Baked Citrus French Toast.

Preparation Time: 10 mins

Cooking Time: 20 mins

Resting Time: 00 mins

Total Time: 30 mins

Yield: 10 slices

Ingredients:

White sandwich bread: 10 slices (See Tips)

Egg, regular: 6 (See Tips)

Milk: 1 cup (See Tips)

Orange juice: ¼ cup (See Tips)

Orange zest: 1 tbsp (See Tips)

Sugar: 1 tbsp (See Tips)

Ground cinnamon: 1 tsp

Ground nutmeg: ½ tsp

Salt: 1/8 tsp
Butter/Oil: 1/2 tbsp for greasing (optional)

To serve:

Maple syrup

Butter

Fresh tangy fruits like strawberry or cranberry

Equipment:

Whisk

A large mixing bowl

A large square/rectangular deep bottomed glass/casserole pan (in which bread slices will fit)

Square/rectangular Baking pan

Preparation:

Take the large mixing bowl and crack eggs one by one in it. Whisk it lightly with a fork/whisker. Gradually add milk and whisk to blend evenly. (See Tips)

Add orange juice and rest of the ingredients and whisk lightly. Arrange the bread slices in the rectangular/square casserole pan in a single layer. (See Tips)

Pour the egg batter on the top of the slices to dip them completely and refrigerate until you are ready to bake. (See Tips)

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease the baking pan with oil or melted butter, if you are planning to do so. Otherwise just take a clean and dry nonstick baking pan and you are good to go. Remove the bread soaked pan from the refrigerator and arrange the bread slices in the baking pan carefully. (See Tips)

Bake the toasts for 10-12 mins; remove from oven, flip and bake for another 10-12 mins or until bread has golden brown crust on the sides. (See Tips)

And your Skinny Baked Citrus French Toasts are actually ready in 20 mins. Remove the toasts from oven and serve immediately. Ideally the French toasts are served warm with maple syrup and butter. I added some fresh strawberries and mint leaves to add more flavors (read, colors) to the platter.

Variations:

Use any other pulpy fruit juice and follow the base recipe for the rest.

Fry bacon first until crunchy and serve with the toasts.

Use brown sugar or molasses or condensed milk instead of regular sugar.

This recipe is adapted from Martha’s French Toast

Tips:

1. Use one or two days old bread if possible for better result. Stale breads always absorb more liquid and produce juicier French breads.

2. Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature including eggs and milk.

3. I used soymilk as I’m lactose intolerant; but any kind of milk will also work well.

4. Always use freshly squeezed orange juice, not the canned one. Fresh juice has strongest aroma and teeny weeny pulps in it which will enhance the citrus flavor.

5. When collecting the orange zest, stick to the outer orange part only. The inner whitish part tends to bitter the taste of the entire preparation.

6. I personally don’t prefer sweet French toasts; hence I used very less sugar just to balance the taste. You can adjust the amount according to your personal preference.

7. Little bit string of egg white won’t harm anybody. So it is okay to have tiny white string in the batter.

8. Don’t overlap the bread slices unless you are planning to bake them that way.

9. If you are using stale bread soak for 30 mins atleast. But if using fresh breads soak for 15-20 mins.

10. Be gentle on the bread, they are extremely delicate and fragile now.

11. Flip slices with rubber spatula carefully; they are hot enough to burn your skin.

Eat Tasty, Be Healthy!

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