Best Spices for French Toast

French toast is bread soaked in an egg-and-milk custard, so whatever spice goes into that custard ends up in every bite. Cinnamon and vanilla are the classic pair: all three extension-service recipes here use both, and two offer nutmeg in place of the cinnamon. How much cinnamon? The recipes range from ¼ teaspoon to 2 teaspoons for about the same amount of custard. Ginger and pie-spice blends are there when you want a change.

At a glance

Spice	What it brings	In the recipes cited
Cinnamon	Sweet, warm, woody aroma; the default	All three¹²³
Vanilla	Rounded sweetness behind the spice	All three¹²³
Nutmeg	Warm, nutty note	As an alternative to cinnamon in two¹²
Ginger	Sharper warmth	Not in these recipes; an optional extra
Pumpkin pie spice, apple pie spice	Several warm spices in one	McCormick suggests apple pie spice for French toast⁴

How much spice the recipes use

Recipe	Eggs and milk	Spice	Vanilla	Bread
Food Hero, Oregon State University Extension¹	2 eggs, ½ cup milk	¼ tsp cinnamon or nutmeg	½ tsp	4 slices
Healthy Families, University of Tennessee²	4 eggs, 1 cup milk	½ tsp ground cinnamon or nutmeg	½ tsp	8 slices
Montana State University Extension³	2 eggs, ½ cup milk	2 tsp ground cinnamon, “or to taste”	½ tsp	6 slices

The cinnamon runs from ¼ teaspoon to 2 teaspoons for a similar amount of custard, an eightfold spread, so “to taste” really is the answer. Try something in between, and dust more on at the table.

Cinnamon: the default

Two kinds of bark get sold as cinnamon: Ceylon or “true” cinnamon, and cassia. Cassia is the type you’ll most often find in North America. The Netherlands Enterprise Agency’s CBI market study calls Ceylon the milder and finer of the two.⁵ Cassia gives French toast a bolder, candy-like cinnamon flavor, and Ceylon a gentler one. For a full comparison, see Ceylon vs. cassia cinnamon. For the individual types, see Ceylon cinnamon, cassia cinnamon and Saigon cinnamon.

A note on coumarin. Cassia averages about 3,000 mg of coumarin per kg in German monitoring data,⁶ and Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) calculates that a 60 kg adult hits the tolerable daily intake with about 2 g a day of cassia with average coumarin content.⁷ A US study found only traces of coumarin in Ceylon (C. verum) bark,⁸ so if you eat a lot of cinnamon every day, you may prefer Ceylon. For more, see Ceylon vs. cassia cinnamon.

Ground cinnamon tends to clump in the custard. Whisk it into a little sugar or melted butter first and it spreads more easily. If you’re out, see cinnamon substitutes. If you added too much, see too much cinnamon.

Vanilla: the background note

All three recipes add ½ teaspoon of vanilla. Scraping a pod into the custard gives you visible specks and a strong flavor, while extract is easier to measure. In the US, anything labeled vanilla extract must contain at least 35% ethyl alcohol by volume; with less, it’s vanilla flavoring.⁹ For substitutes, see vanilla extract substitutes. For powder, see vanilla powder vs. vanilla extract.

Nutmeg: the alternative

Two of the recipes offer nutmeg instead of cinnamon. PROSEA (Plant Resources of South-East Asia) notes that in most countries grated nutmeg goes into confectionery in small amounts,¹⁰ and a small amount is the right instinct here too. Freshly grated smells stronger than pre-ground; see fresh nutmeg vs. ground nutmeg and cinnamon vs. nutmeg. The National Capital Poison Center, which covers nutmeg in an article on kitchen cautions, says none of the foods and flavorings it discusses is dangerous used as recommended.¹¹ If you overdo it in a batch, see too much nutmeg.

Ginger: sharper warmth

None of the recipes here uses ginger, so think of it as an option, not a standard. Ground ginger mixes into a custard more easily than fresh, while freshly grated ginger gives a brighter, sharper bite. See fresh ginger vs. ground ginger.

Spice blends

A blend is a shortcut to several warm spices at once.

Blend	Label ingredients	Source
McCormick Pumpkin Pie Spice	Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, sulfiting agents	McCormick¹²
McCormick Apple Pie Spice	Cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice	McCormick⁴

McCormick lists French toast among the uses for its apple pie spice. Neither label lists cloves, so whether you get cloves or allspice depends on the brand. Check the label. See pumpkin pie spice substitutes.

French Toast, Food Hero, Oregon State University Extension Service. extension.oregonstate.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
French Toast, Healthy Families, University of Tennessee. healthyfamilies.tennessee.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
French Toast, Buy Eat Live Better, Montana State University Extension. montana.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³
McCormick Apple Pie Spice, product page. mccormick.com · Merchant ↩ ↩²
The European market potential for cinnamon, CBI. cbi.eu · Regulator ↩
FAQ on coumarin in cinnamon and other foods, BfR. bfr.bund.de · Regulator ↩
Cassia cinnamon with high coumarin contents to be consumed in moderation, BfR. bfr.bund.de · Regulator ↩
Wang et al., Cassia Cinnamon as a Source of Coumarin in Cinnamon-Flavored Food and Food Supplements in the United States, J. Agric. Food Chem., 2013. agris.fao.org · Peer-reviewed ↩
21 CFR Part 169 Subpart B, eCFR. ecfr.gov · Regulator ↩
M. Flach and M. Tjeenk Willink, Myristica fragrans, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩
Kitchen surprises and cautions, Rose Ann Gould Soloway, National Capital Poison Center. poison.org · Reference work ↩
McCormick Pumpkin Pie Spice, product page. mccormick.com · Merchant ↩

Also drawn on

Cinnamon: Usefulness and Safety (last updated November 2024), National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NIH). nccih.nih.gov

The Best Spices for French Toast: Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Vanilla and Warm Spice Blends