As you might suspect, French toast isn’t called French toast in France. It’s called pain perdu, which literally translates to lost bread. The dish was created to use up pieces of old, stale bread that wouldn’t be edible otherwise. If you don’t have any stale bread around, but you’re still craving some pain perdu, Trader Joe’s Brioche French Toast is a great frozen alternative.
The box contains four pieces in total, but they’re sectioned off into twos and wrapped in plastic. This seems ideal, since two slices seems like a reasonable serving. (Trader Joe’s says a serving size is one piece of toast, but that probably won’t be the case unless you’re serving this with eggs and hashbrowns).
There are two ways to cook this: in the microwave and in the oven. (You can also use the toaster oven if you’re so inclined). The microwave is definitely the faster method. We were able to cook two pieces of toast in under two minutes! The oven takes longer — around 20 minutes in total — but it isn’t overly complicated. All you really have to do is toss the French toast into the oven and wait for it to be done.
The taste and texture of this French toast will vary greatly based on how you choose to cook it. When it’s heated in the oven, it’ll be crispy around the edges and soft in the middle, which is pretty much our ideal French toast. We also found that this smells of vanilla when cooked in the oven; our oven batch made our kitchen smell heavenly.
Cooking this in the microwave makes the bread pretty chewy, especially around the edges. When cooked in the oven, the French toast can easily be cut with a fork, but if you use the microwave, you’ll need to use a knife. We also found the taste to be a little milder in the microwave, though this will taste great no matter how you cook it. We added some Trader Joe’s maple syrup to ours, but this is sweet enough to eat plain, or with a sprinkling of cinnamon and powdered sugar.
Trader Joe’s Brioche French Toast is a tasty breakfast treat, but the way you choose to cook this dish really matters. You won’t get the best experience if you heat this in the microwave. If you’re looking for an ultra-fast frozen breakfast, there are better options out there. If you simply want a batch of delicious French toast, you’ll want to give this a try.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this Trader Joe’s french toast, check out our package scans below.
