Air-Fryer French Toast Sticks (Cornflake-Crusted)

There's a family of breakfast recipes that exist primarily to become kid food — chicken nuggets, dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets, pancakes shaped like Mickey Mouse, French toast sticks. The fascinating thing about French toast sticks specifically is that they're better than regular French toast in a structural sense: more surface area, so more crust-to-interior ratio; sized for dipping rather than knife-and-fork; portable enough to eat with one hand. They're upgrade-shaped, not downgrade-shaped.

This version goes one step further with a cornflake crust. The standard French toast batter (egg, milk, vanilla, cinnamon) gets applied as usual; then before the sticks go in the air fryer, they get rolled in crushed cornflakes. The result is a French toast stick with two textures: a properly crackling outside and a soft, custardy inside. The cornflakes also save you from the floppy sogginess that bedevils oven-baked French toast.

The photo shows the plating: four sticks on a pink ceramic plate, crackled cornflake coating visible, dusted in powdered sugar, with maple syrup pooling in a small glass bowl and fresh quartered strawberries scattered alongside. The standard Saturday-morning configuration. Coffee not pictured but assumed.