Leftover Bread Crust Is The Perfect Excuse To Make French Toast Sticks

There's a reason that so many kids prefer their sandwiches with the crust cut off — the crust is easily the least desirable part of a piece of bread. If you find yourself still tempted to cut off your crust but don't want to waste food, there's no need to worry because there's a delicious way to repurpose those crusts: Make French toast sticks.

The idea actually makes sense. The crust is the hardest part of the bread and French toast works best with stale, hardened bread because that texture soaks up the custard better than a softer texture. It's a win-win. The crust will make for the perfect French toast vessel and the crust will turn into an appetizing treat.

To build up enough crusts to make a batch of French toast sticks, you can either do this in advance, leaving yourself with slices of crustless bread, or store the crusts in an airtight container after cutting them off until you have a good amount to use for this recipe. Overall, making French toast sticks is a super simple process.

After you have a batch of bread crusts ready to go, all you have to do is make the custard, dunk the crusts into the custard, then cook on the stove, just as you would for regular French toast. If you need a recipe for the custard, you can follow one of Tasting Table's, such as our milk bread French toast (which contains white sugar and is on the sweeter side), our French toast waffles (which are more subtly sweet), or our dairy-free French toast.

Add oil or butter to a pan and heat up over medium heat. After thoroughly coating the sticks in the custard, cook on the stove for about two to three minutes on each side or until they're golden brown.

Once the French toast sticks are done cooking, it's time for the fun part: Serving and eating them. You can pick up the sticks and eat them with your hands, dipping them into maple syrup or hot fudge sauce. Or, you could eat them with a fork and top them with whipped cream and fresh fruit. Whichever way you eat them, a sprinkle of powdered sugar is always a good idea.