French Toast Casserole

I find myself procrastinating to write this. I’ve been working a lot lately and I woke up early this morning just so I could get a few words down on the page. I couldn’t post my recipe without a few of my thoughts—you all read this for my commentary I’m sure. I haven’t felt this stressed since college. But instead of waking up early to write my paper on Simone de Beauvoir’s intersection of Ageism and Existentialism's impact on the Feminist movement, I finds myself writing a blog about simple Mother’s Day recipes—the game has changed. But I digress...

Anywho, let’s dive into it, shall we?

This week I have a simple Mother’s Day staple ready for you all. If I were a mom, I would be happy to be served this for breakfast in bed. I’m not sure who doesn’t like French toast (celiac people excluded) but I definitely wouldn’t want to be friends with that person (sorry not sorry). This recipe is even easier because it’s casserole style. The beauty of casseroles lie not only in their fat content, but their simplicity. I’m considering nominating them as the 8th wonder of the world. Who’s with me?

Prep it the night before and have a lazy morning hang-out with your mom in bed! We all deserve that, not just moms, am I right?

Chloe says this is just the breakfast version of bread pudding and she’s 100% correct. Yet another reason to love this recipe. Speaking of, I adapted this from my Vanilla Bread Pudding Recipe which is just as loveable as this French Toast Casserole. Chloe gives it 9/10!

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Notes

Wine Pairing Suggestions

Whoever said you can’t have wine for breakfast clearly forgot about champagne! I love how versatile champagne is. I also love how universally liked it is—that’s what makes it so easy to pair with breakfast. Any bottle of bubbly will do, just pick your favorite and make some mimosas. Cheers!

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French Toast Casserole

Yield: 8 Servings

Prep Time: 4 hours, 30 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Total Time: 5 hours, 20 minutes

Casserole Ingredients

• 20 oz sandwich bread (1 whole loaf)

• 1 cup pecans

• 8 eggs

• 2 cups milk

• 1/4 cup maple syrup

• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 ½ tsp cinnamon

• ¼ tsp nutmeg

Topping Ingredients

• 4 Tbsp butter, cold

• ½ cup light brown sugar

• 1 tsp cinnamon

Directions

1. Grease a 9” x 13” baking dish.

2. Prep your ingredients by cubing the sandwich bread into 1” cubes and roughly chopping your pecans.

3. Place half of the cubed bread into your prepared baking dish and sprinkle on ½ of the chopped pecans. Repeat with the remaining bread and pecans.

4. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, maple syrup, vanilla, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

5. Slowly pour the egg mixture over the bread and pecans in the baking dish, taking care to pour as much of the mixture over the entirety of the casserole as possible.

6. Cover and chill for 4 hours to overnight.

7. When you’re ready to bake the casserole, remove it from the refrigerator and preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

8. In the meantime, slice your butter and toss it into a food processor along with the light brown sugar and cinnamon. Pulse the ingredients together until you get coarse crumbs. Or, place all the ingredients in a large bowl and use a pastry cutter or fork to cut the ingredients together until you have coarse crumbs.

9. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the casserole.

10. Cover the casserole with foil and bake it covered for 25-30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake it uncovered for another 15-20 minutes.

11. Slice and serve with fresh berries, powdered sugar and/or maple syrup.

Enjoy!

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