First slice your bread and let your bread stale overnight. This will allow your bread to hold up better to the batter. and use a generous amount of butter! That should cure your french blues.

Sadly, a lot of the time that is achieved by having a nice hot, greasy, buttery cooking surface :-\ Sometimes I can fake it by sprinkling a little sugar on each side after dipping. A stainless or cast iron pan (vs nonstick) will help out as well . :)

A little bit of cornstarch in the batter, put the bread on a drip rack after soaking and before frying, then into the oven - on another rack - for about 5 minutes after frying. Crispy on the outside, luscious on the inside.

Yes-quickly dip the bread in the egg mixture. I then sprinkle extra cinnamon and nutmeg on the french toast and brown it in a Lodge cast iron pan wth melted butter.

When I used to work in catering, our chef would make french toast as usual on the flat top griddle and then finish them in the oven on baking sheets for a few minutes to get a nice crust.

Wow @ the editor's advice, that's not at all how french toast should be made. If you only do a "quick dip" there will be no creamy interior, just plain bread. Stale bread is the answer here, and a cast iron skillet would help as well. Make sure your recipe bath ratio isn't too milk heavy.

If you don't serve immediately keep warm on a cooling rack on a baking sheet in a 250F oven.

I use the oven to finish it as well. Stale the bread, soak it well, and get it good and crisp on the griddle, then pop it in the oven for 5-10 minutes. I usually use Alton Brown's recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/french-toast-recipe/index.html

i use thick bread. soak it forever in a milk heavy custard and bake it first and finish on the stove. i get pretty fabulous results, but am constantly tweaking it.

Check out Spilled Milk Podcast's episode on French toast, specifically Molly's method: http://www.spilledmilkpodcast.com/2012/02/16/episode-58-french-toast/. I also think she cooks it in oil, not butter. Maybe that lends more toward cripsness of the outside?

I also use Alton Brown's recipe. Perfect French toast every time. I never realized how long you should soak the bread slices. Or about finishing them off in the oven.

America's Test Kitchen did a segment on French Toast too: http://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/detail.php?docid=18093

Add some oil to the butter, I use about a tablespoon of extra light olive oil; it keeps the butter from browning, allowing the bread to cook longer and obtain a crispy outside.

Similar to one of the above comments about cornstarch, I find whisking a little flour into the egg/milk mixture makes it just a little batter-like and fries up crisper.

I did a story about this for Fine Cooking, and tested a million different variations (http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/classic-french-toast.aspx). I liked fresh bread and a surprisingly high ratio of milk in the dipping mixture - both made for a more creamy, almost custard-like interior. Butter in the dipping mixture made for a crisp, nicely browned exterior.

Can't say that I've ever made french toast per se, but ATK always recommends oven-drying bread over letting it stale. When bread stales, the moisture isn't really lost, it's just crystallized, which means that when you heat it up, the moisture returns. Drying bread in an oven however will cause evaporation which ultimately leads to a better texture in the final product.

I actually do a lower heat for a longer time. I let the bread soak for a minute or so, add it to a hot pan, then cover and immediately turn down to medium low. This way ensures a cooked custard as well as allowing a longer time for a good crust to develop. The first time I did this, even my husband noticed, who cares nothing about food except recognizing that he's lucky he has every meal on the table for him. :)

Use OIL instead of BUTTER! It works best I promise!

Oil with butter - gives you the buttery flavour & the oil allows the butter to get that little bit hotter without burning... works a treat!

i thought this was an easy one!

i pull out some whole wheat, thick sliced italian style bread from the fridge. whip up eggs with enough milk to make it soupy so that the bread becomes nice and soggy after a good soak in the eggs. make sure there's enough oil in the pan and fry on a med-low heat til it is nice and brown on the outside and firm but creamy on the inside.

easy peasy yummers. had no clue it was an issue for some ppl.

The America's Test Kitchen version really works (and I see ksparrow's already supplied the link above) - a friend uses that recipe in her diner - people rave about the crispy / creamy french toast all the time.

Alton Brown's recipe works every time for me. You can find it on the food network website. You have to use the right kind of bread, of course. You only dip the bread for about 30 seconds on each side and then let it sit for 1-2 minutes on a rack. Use about a tablespoon of butter (yumm) and after cooking for 4 minutes on each side, put it in a 375 degree oven for 5 minutes. I'll probably never try another French toast recipe, since this one is so good.

We wondered this for a long time too, and we finally got it right. We bought a crusty bread in the day old section of our local grocery store - starting with a crisp crust definitely helped it keep the crispness through cooking, and because it wasn't a fresh loaf it wasn't as moist starting out, allowing it to hold up better to the batter.

oil not butter

Clarified butter

Thanks for all the responses! I had already tried many of the techniques recommended here, but a few were new to me. The ATK recommendation to use only yolks was a new one--I hate eggy french toast, so I'm going to try this. I have also never used oil instead of butter--although BRIAN V.'s recommendation of clarified butter sounds good--when I recall the best french toast I've had at restaurants, they had that wonderful taste of being cooked in butter. ANNECYCHIC's suggestion of butter with oil sounds like a great compromise. Gonna stock up on some good bread and experiment!

I used to work at a bed and breakfast. We would use French bread, slice it thick, and dip it in the milk mixture. Then, we'd put the dipped bread on waxed paper and let it sit for about half an hour. It made the best french toast!!!!!