Oven-baked (*quick*– not over-night!) French Toast Casserole

One of the ultimate comfort foods on a cold winter morning, for me, is french toast. What I love even more, is the easy preparation and clean up with this recipe. I prepare all the ingredients in one large pyrex baking dish and instead of cooking on the stovetop, I bake it in the oven. I have also found that if I decide to make this last minute, it turns out just as good as the overnight version of baked french toast that you may have seen recipes for. The one great thing about the overnight version is—prep it the night before and then just pop it in the oven in the morning, and bake. It’s ready in minutes. If you choose to prepare it and bake it on the same day, give yourself a little extra time (a less-busy weekend morning is a good time for this!) The key is the bread for this recipe! I recommend using a loaf of thick, pre-sliced brioche. It will absorb the egg mixture quickly and produces a well-baked casserole.

SpeechSnacks Alert! This recipe is a great way to get children involved in learning some cooking skills. They can help crack the eggs, measure the milk and dry ingredients, mix and blend the ingredients together with a fork or whisk, dip the bread into the mixture, and layer the bread in the baking dish!

Ingredients:

1 loaf brioche bread

8 eggs

1/2 cup half and half or whole milk

4 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly butter a 13X9 inch Pyrex baking dish. Add 8 whole eggs, half and half, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Whisk together until well blended. Cut 8-10 slices of bread in half, I prefer diagonally. Coat each bread slice in the egg mixture and arrange it in dish, overlapping slightly but allowing for all pieces to have enough surface area exposed in order to cook evenly. Bake at 325 degrees for approximately 30 minutes. You will know it is ready when the bread starts to turn golden brown and all of the egg mixture is absorbed by the bread during the baking process.

Prior to baking I added frozen blueberries between the layers and on top of the casserole. You can also substitute other types of berries in this recipe. Use the spatula to serve. Enjoy with powdered sugar, maple syrup, any sweetener of your choice. It’s great without any additional sweetener as well.