Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Baked French Toast

Ah weekends. Nothing beats sleeping in. Not that we sleep in like we did in our college days. Long gone are the days of sleeping in past noon. Now we're lucky if we make it to 10 AM....usually it's somewhere around 9 AM. Getting old means waking up earlier right? Might have to fight that as hard as I can.

BP is a fan of breakfast in bed, especially when he has played poker until the early hours the night before. So while he was playing poker, I prepped an excellent breakfast for us. Nothing beats a easy and delicious breakfast. 

I got up and got myself ready and then headed down to the kitchen to make breakfast while BP slept a little more. All I had to do was sprinkle the topping ontop and put it in the oven - can't beat that. While it was baking away I had some coffee and got ready for the day. I have to say that this smells so amazing while baking. I couldn't wait for it to be done. 



Oh man was this a huge hit! And it reheats amazingly well! So if you have leftovers don't worry. Mix it up with your favorite bread: Challah, Cinnamon Raison, Pumpkin, your choices are endless. So go ahead and make this over the weekend, you won't be sorry. 

Baked French Toast

French Toast
 Butter, For Greasing
1 loaf Crusty Sourdough Or French Bread
8 whole Eggs
2 cups Whole Milk
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoons Vanilla Extract

 Topping
1/2 cup Flour
1/2 cup Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Salt
 Freshly Grated Nutmeg (optional)
1 stick Cold Butter, Cut Into Pieces
 Warm Syrup, For Serving
 Butter, For Serving

Prep:
For the French toast: Grease 13x9" baking pan with butter. Tear the bread into chunks, or cut into cubes, and evenly distribute in the pan. Crack the eggs in a big bowl. Whisk together the eggs, milk, cream, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla. Pour evenly over the bread. Cover the pan tightly and store in the fridge until needed (overnight preferably). Or you can make it and bake it right away---delicious no matter what!

For the topping: Mix the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and some nutmeg in a separate bowl. Stir together using a fork. Add the butter and with a pastry cutter, and mix it all together until the mixture resembles fine pebbles. Store in a plastic bag in the fridge.

When you're ready to bake the casserole, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Remove the casserole from the fridge and sprinkle the topping over the top. Bake for 45 minutes for a softer, more bread pudding texture or for 1 hour-plus or more for a firmer, crisper texture.
Scoop out individual portions. Top with butter and drizzle with warm pancake syrup. 

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