Crunchy Baked French Toast Sticks — Because Soup Without Pancakes Is Only Half the Tradition

Sophie started at the University of Minnesota today. Anna sent a photo: Sophie outside Frontier Hall, her dormitory, grinning, holding a pillow and a backpack that looked like it contained her entire life. She looked impossibly young and impossibly ready, and I sat at the kitchen table and studied the photo and thought about Anna at eighteen, moving into a dorm at the University of Wisconsin, and me at eighteen, commuting to St. Scholastica because I couldn't afford to leave Duluth. Three women, three versions of the same leap. I called Sophie. She was breathless and excited and talked for twenty minutes about her roommate ("nice, from Rochester, pre-med"), her dorm room ("small but fine"), and the dining hall ("terrible, Grandma, I need your recipes"). I told her to buy a hot plate and a good pot and I'd send her a care package. She said, "Send cinnamon rolls." I said, "Always." Paul is back at school too — the new year started last Tuesday, and he came home that first day with the particular energy he gets at the beginning of the year, the belief that this group of sophomores will care about the War of 1812 if he just tells the story right. He's been teaching for thirty-two years and he still believes this. It's one of his best qualities. The garden is winding down. The tomatoes are slowing. The lettuce bolted last week and I pulled it. The cucumbers are done. But the herbs are still going — dill and parsley and chives — and the rhubarb has had its second wind, which it does in September, a last gasp of production before the frost. I made ärtsoppa — Swedish yellow pea soup — because September calls for soup. It's a Thursday tradition in Sweden and it was a Thursday tradition in the Johansson house growing up. Mamma made it every Thursday for as long as I can remember: dried yellow peas, simmered with ham hock, onion, and thyme, for three or four hours until the peas dissolve into a thick, golden soup. You serve it with mustard on the side and pancakes for dessert — thin pancakes with jam, because the Swedes decided centuries ago that soup and pancakes belong together and I have no argument with this logic. I made the full production — soup and pancakes — and Paul came home to the smell and said, "Is it Thursday?" It was Wednesday. I said, "It's Thursday adjacent," and he accepted this because he is a man who has learned that questioning his wife's soup schedule leads nowhere productive. The soup was thick and golden and tasted like autumn and childhood and the sound of five kids at a table arguing about whose turn it was to do dishes. I sent a photo to Karin in Stockholm with the caption: "Ärtsoppa." She replied: "On a Wednesday?" The Johansson sisters maintain standards even across oceans.

The Swedes decided long ago that pea soup and pancakes belong together on Thursday evenings, and growing up in the Johansson house, you didn’t argue with that logic — you just picked up your fork. These days I don’t always make the traditional thin pancakes with lingonberry jam, but I always want something sweet and a little golden to follow a bowl of thick ærtsoppa. These crunchy baked French toast sticks scratch exactly that itch: egg-dipped, lightly crisp, warm all the way through, and just right for dunking in jam. Sophie asked me to send cinnamon rolls, and I told her always — but these would travel well too, and they take about a third of the time.

Crunchy Baked French Toast Sticks

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes | Servings: 4 (about 3 sticks per person)

Ingredients

• 6 thick slices brioche or Texas toast (about 1-inch thick), each cut into 3 sticks
• 3 large eggs
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar, for serving
• Warm maple syrup or jam, for serving

Instructions

1. Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 400°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and brush it generously with half the melted butter. Set aside.
2. Make the custard. In a shallow dish wide enough to dip the bread sticks, whisk together the eggs, milk, heavy cream, vanilla extract, cinnamon, granulated sugar, and salt until smooth and fully combined.
3. Set up the coating. Spread the panko breadcrumbs in a second shallow dish. Drizzle the remaining melted butter over the panko and toss to coat — this is what gives the sticks their crunch.
4. Dip and coat. Working one stick at a time, dip each bread stick into the egg custard, turning to coat all sides and letting any excess drip off. Then press the stick gently into the buttered panko, turning to coat all sides.
5. Arrange and bake. Place the coated sticks in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet, leaving a little space between each one. Bake for 10 minutes, then flip each stick carefully and bake for another 8—10 minutes until deep golden and crunchy on the outside.
6. Serve warm. Transfer to a plate and dust with powdered sugar. Serve immediately with warm maple syrup, lingonberry jam, or strawberry jam on the side for dipping.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 310 | Protein: 9g | Fat: 14g | Carbs: 38g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 280mg