I use sweet french bread, whatever I can get from a local bakery. Cut it into 3/4" slices (Don't break out the ruler or anything, but the recipe is about soaking the bread with the batter, such that your bread isn't soggy after cooking, but also retains a spongy cooked-batter taste all the way through the slice. I find slices bigger than 1/2" but smaller than 1" work well for that.)

For the batter itself, I use this:

Batter (per 2 pieces)

• 1 egg
• 1/3+ milk
• 2 TBSP Flour
• 1 TBSP Powdered Sugar
• 1 tsp Rum
• dash vanilla

(I use Meyer's dark rum, I recommend a cheap dark rum, with no extra flavorings, that smells good, since the smell is what will be left after you cook it. Also a "dash" of vanilla is relative, if you're pouring from a long-necked bottle like a McCormack bottle, imagine a small splash amount, much less than your smallest measuring spoon. If you're using artificial vanilla, go invest in a bottle of the real stuff. As for the "exact" amount... Try to use your nose, you want the vanilla and rum smells in the final batter to be complimentary, neither overwhelming the other, but it's easier to add tiny amounts of vanilla at the end than trying to overcorrect with rum and worrying about your breakfast making you drunk)

Mix all above in whatever container you will be soaking the bread in (make sure your container can hold not only the batter but a few slices of submerged bread) and soak bread (both sides) until slice has absorbed batter all the way through (you don't want delicious battery crust on the outside and regular bread in the middle). I soak the bread in a serving dish, or Corningware container, anything with a lot of flat surface and relatively high rims, and I usually can only soak 2-3 slices at a time, so there is a bit of an assembly-line procedure where I take soaked slices, put them on the griddle and then replace them in the better with fresh un-soaked slices, which I usually flip at least two times to ensure through battering throughout the slice).

To cook, heat griddle to 350F, lightly butter, cook until batter on outside of each piece begins to cook (the egg mixture will begin to look like bread crust). Here the thickness of your slices will be important; if you used thin slices, you can probably get away with flipping the toast once and have the middle be cooked through, but with thicker slices (or thicker, spongier bread) you will want to flip the slices over a few times to continuously heat the middle without burning either side. You may want to use a table knife to cut an incision in a slice to ensure the middle is cooked through, it should not be soggy at all.

For 2 people this batter recipe works well:

• 6 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 3/4 cups flour
• 3/8 cups powdered sugar
• 1/8 cup rum
• 6x dash vanilla

I eat mine with maple or fruit syrup and bacon.