Baked French Toast Casserole

I don't know about you, but if given the choice, I will almost always choose French Toast over Pancakes or Waffles. I'm not sure why, exactly, but it must have something to do with the bread-y nature of French Toast?

What can make French Toast even more decadent? Making it into a rich casserole dish that is, let's face it, easier to do overall. No having to cook individual slices of bread on your frying pan. Instead, it's all in a nice casserole dish, ready to head into the oven after some preparation and sitting. Yes, you do have to let this sit for a while to allow the bread to soak up all of the eggy mixture. But is it worth it? Um, duh.

Now, if you know Paula Deen (whose recipe this originates from), you know she doesn't skimp on the heavy ingredients. This has not only half and half, but also a whole stick of butter and a cup of brown sugar. Yeah, it's not for those on a diet. That said, it's rich enough that you can be pretty satisfied by just having a small amount rather than eating up huge swaths of it. I did omit the corn syrup called for in the topping, and actually reduced the butter a bit, and it still turned out rich and decadent anyway.

One thing I would also recommend is perhaps using Challah bread or even a Texas Toast bread. I used a regular French loaf from the grocery store, and while it certainly worked, it didn't soak up as much of the egg as I would've liked, and I think a thicker bread like one of those two might work a bit better, personally. Speaking of soaking up the egg, this will have almost a bread pudding consistency. If you don't like that, you can probably reduce the amount of eggs and dairy mixture and get it how you like it. I think this is probably a fairly adaptable recipe for whatever you like best!

Baked French Toast Casserole

Ingredients

• 1 loaf (13-16 ounces) French bread
• 8 large eggs
• 2 cups half and half
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• Dash salt
• For the Praline Topping:
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Cooking Directions

1. Slice French bread into about 20 slices, close to 1-inch each. Arrange the slices in a 9x13 baking dish in 2 rows, overlapping the slices.
2. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, half and half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt, and whisk until blended but not overly bubbly.
3. Pour the mixture over the bread slices, making sure they're all evenly covered. You can spoon some in between the slices to double check.
4. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours/overnight.
5. When it's ready (when the bread has soaked up most of the egg mixture), preheat your oven to 350F and make your praline topping.
6. Combine the butter, brown sugar, pecans, cinnamon, and nutmeg and mix together well. I just used a fork.
7. Spread your praline topping evenly over your bread and bake for about 40 minutes, until puffed and golden. 

Adapted from Paula Deen

French Toast

With a vast array of breakfast options set out before you at a restaurant, what do you most often choose? Waffles? Pancakes? Omelets? Something called a wolf pack? Or maybe you're just a traditional eggs, bacon and hashbrown person. For me, it just depends on my mood. But what's my favorite breakfast to make at home? Also, it should be noted, one of the easier ones to accomplish?

French Toast. The delightful eggy bread concoction that can be sweet OR savory! Sweet AND savory?! No matter your preference, you have to admit, french toast is pretty great. And this french toast? Wow. It's just your basic recipe, really, but damn is it good! I think that little bit of honey in the mix really makes it awesome.

Also - why is french toast called french toast? It is supposedly not necessarily originally a piece de resistance of France. Mysterious!

Next Level French Toast
Author: Jen @ Fresh From The...
Servings: 6-8 Slices
Prep time: 00:08
Cook time: 00:06
Total time: 00:14

Don't just make French toast with eggs and milk whisked together - make it next level with this simple recipe that adds just a few more ingredients!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole milk
• 3 large eggs
• 2 Tablespoons honey, warmed in microwave for 20 seconds
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3-4 Tablespoons butter
• Day old or stale bread a la Egg Bread or Challah Bread

Instructions:

1. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, honey and salt. You can do this ahead of time and keep in the fridge if you want to be ready the night before. When you're good to go, pour the mixture into a pie pan. Dip your bread into the mixture, allowing each side to soak for 30 seconds.
2. Over medium-low heat, melt 1 Tbsp butter in a saute pan. Nonstick is great if you have it, if you don't you'll still be okay. Place 2 slices of your bread at a time on the pan and cook until golden brown, about 2 to 3 minutes per side. If you're doing thick bread, you may want to press down on it a bit to make sure the middle gets cooked through. Set aside until you have all of your pieces done (probably between 6-8 slices depending on thickness and type of bread). Serve immediately with toppings of your choice - maple syrup, whipped cream, fruit, or even ice cream if you're so inclined!

Recipe adapted from Alton Brown

In photos:

 You'll want some thick slices of bread to start. This is homemade egg bread - and dang, some homemade bread just makes this all the more succulent! Preheat your oven at this point if you want to keep your finished toast warm while you make the rest.

Soak your bread in your egg mixture, about 30 seconds per side.

Add some butter to your skillet and plop that bread on there. A non-stick skillet would be easier to use, but I don't have one, so I made do with a stainless steel one instead.

You can fit two pieces of bread in the skillet usually. cook each side for about 2 minutes and flip! You'll see it's browned like so.

How can you tell if the bread has cooked through? Generally what I do is press down with my spatula, and if any liquid oozes out of the top, it's not cooked through quite yet.

Stick them in the oven to keep them warm until you're all done with the rest. Obviously this is optional, but why would you want your toast to get cold?

Once you're ready, butter that toast up!

Pour on your syrup!

Oh yeah.

Go to town on that stuff! Let your drool mix in with your syrup, I don't mind.