Overnight French Toast

I was in the mood for some french toast, and through searching for a good french toast recipe, I came across this “Best Ever French Toast Recipe” apparently from The Lake House Bed and Breakfast in Granbury, Texas:

Ingredients:

• 1 loaf King’s Hawaiian Bread, sliced 3/4 inch thick
• 4 eggs, well beaten
• 1-1/2 to 2 cups milk
• 2 Tablespoons orange juice
• 1 Tablespoon sugar or sugar substitute
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place bread slices in large baking pan (use 2 if necessary). Mix beaten eggs and other ingredients well; pour slowly over bread slices and refrigerate overnight. Heat griddle coated with butter spray or canola oil at “medium”. Cook 3 to 4 minutes on each side until browned. Serve with fresh fruit and syrup or dust with powdered sugar.

This recipe requires preparation the night before, of course, so I had to estimate how hungry I’d be in the morning. Since it was just me, I obviously didn't want to use an entire loaf (as called for in the original recipe). I estimated maybe three-to-four slices worth, but I settled on making four slices as that left a burned-buffer that would ensure at least three edible slices ;).

Not knowing a thing about “Hawaiian Bread”, I had to make an educated guess as to how much I needed to reduce the ingredient quantities. Figuring that a good-sized omelette had three eggs, I decided on a three-egg basis and reduced the other ingredients proportionally.

Inspired by a thread on MetaFilter, I also added 1/2 tsp nutmeg to the recipe (I would have linked to the thread, but I’m getting “Connection Refused” errors from MetaFilter at the moment).

I dutifully chilled the recipe overnight, and prepared to cook the french toast in the morning. I don’t have a griddle, but I figured that a pan would be fine. I preheated the stove to “medium” and set the first slice to cook. Three minutes later (just as the recipe says), I turned it over: complete blackness. Apparently, stoves and griddles don't have compatible heat-settings ;).

For the next slice, I tried two mintues, but even that was a touch on the charred-side. I ended up going about 1 1/2 minutes per side for the rest of the batch. The toasts ended up crispy on the outside and a bit mushy on the side — as the only french toast I’ve had has been made by me, is that how it’s supposed to turn out? Don’t get me wrong, they were still tasty (especially with some sprinkled Splenda and some sugar-free raspberry jam), but I want to make sure that I’m getting the recipe right (especially if I should ever end up cooking it for someone else).