Pain Perdu: Classic French Toast vs Eierkuchen (German Pancakes)

Both dishes rely on milk, eggs, sugar and butter, yet they put them to very different work. Pain Perdu turns them into a vanilla-scented custard that thick slices of stale brioche soak up before being fried in butter until golden brown and lightly crisp, then dusted with powdered sugar. Eierkuchen whisks the same ingredients with flour into a thin, rested batter, spread across a buttered pan into tender pancakes with slightly crisp edges. One is soaked, fragrant bread; the other a delicate pancake served rolled or folded with jam or fruit.