Baked French Toast

I made challah to make French toast. My challah was a little on the small size. So, instead, I made baked French toast. It needs to sit for at least a few hours but is best if it sits overnight in the fridge. Then you need an hour to bake it in the morning. Just wanted to clue you in on the deets before hand. But if you are brave enough to dedicate yourself, here's how you do it:

Tear or cut your loaf. I used my challah that I baked earlier. You could use a day old French loaf from the supermarket. Put your chunks in a greased 9x13 pan.

In a bowl, a big bowl because you need a lot of space to beat those eggs up, combine eggs, milk, heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla.

Pour the eggy mixture over the bread chunkies. Cover your concoction and put in the fridge. Give your bread plenty of time to soak up that wonderful eggness. Mine had 12 hours for the bread and the eggs to get to know each other.

This is what it looked like in the morning.

You want to top it with this crumb topping. To make that, mix together flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, and little chunks of butter.  Sprinkle it all over the top.

Bake it for an hour at 350 degrees.

This is what you will get.

Here's what is happening in the corner. A buttery sugary mixture will be bubbling.

Take out a gigantic scoop, drizzle on a little syrup, and dust the top with some powdered sugar. It was tasty. I only got to eat a few bites of this particular piece because Kendall ate hers and then came to me for mine. How come other people's food tastes better to little kids? I mean, she still had some of her own left, but she would prefer to eat mine. It's OK though. If she will eat it, I will feed it to her. Girlfriend's getting less and less picky. I love it.

This was definitely worth the hour wait. Way worth it.

Baked French Toast

Toast

1 loaf of crusty bread
8 eggs
2 cups milk
1/2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla

Crumb Topping

1/2 cups flour
1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick cold butter, cut into pieces

Grease a 9x13 inch pan.  Tear or cut your bread into pieces. Place in the pan.

Mix together the rest of the toast ingredients. Pour over the bread chunks.  Refrigerate for at least a few hours or overnight.

To make the topping, mix all the ingredients together and cut in the butter with a pastry cutter, a fork, or your hands.  Sprinkle on the top of the toast.

Bake for one hour at 350 degrees.

Scoop out. Top with syrup and powdered sugar, if you would like.


Recipe courtesy of thepioneerwoman.com.