The more stale your bread, the better, but I just left my bread out overnight and this worked fine.

Whisk together the eggs, cream, milk, Irish whiskey, vanilla, sugar and salt. Pour into a shallow, wide bowl.

Soak each slice of bread for about 10 minutes--flip it halfway through if need be to saturate both sides. However, you do not want the bread to be falling apart.

Heat a large, heavy pan or griddle over medium heat (I used enameled cast iron, so as the toast cooked, I gradually turned the heat down to medium low).

Add 1 tablespoon of oil and 1 tablespoon of butter to the pan.

When it is hot, cook the French toast in batches, cooking to lightly crisp and browned on each side. If you need to add more oil or butter, do so.

If you are serving the French toast all at once, place the cooked slices in an oven on low heat. I of course always end up playing the short order cook and serving them to my family as they cook.

Sprinkle powdered sugar over the pain perdu before serving with maple syrup.