Baked French Toast

[Auspicious]

So, I was telling my parents that my husband comes home at like midnight on Friday, and my dad said "You should make him a great breakfast on Saturday." Huh, good thinkin'. My dad: ornery curmudgeon on the outside, thoughful softie on the inside.

I don't want to be stressing out or dirtying every dish we own on Saturday morning, either, though, (not much of a morning person) so I think I'm going to try my hand at this:

blueberry pecan french toast casserole thing

Ingredients:

8 cups Sweet French Bread in 1" cubes
5 Eggs
1 Cup Sugar
1 Tsp. Nutmeg
3 Cups Milk or Half & Half
3 Cups Fresh or Frozen Blueberries
1 Cup Pecans
1/4 Cup Butter
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar

- Put bread cubes in a large bowl. Whip eggs, sugar and nutmeg till light in color and thick.
- Add milk. Stir, and pour over bread. Cover and put in fridge overnight.

In the morning, mix (1) cup blueberries into egg & bread mixture and put in greased 13" X 9" X 2" baking pan.
Sprinkle remaining blueberries on top, then sprinkle pecans.
In a separate pan, melt butter and brown sugar until bubbly.
Pour butter and brown sugar mixture over blueberries and pecans.
Bake @ 325°on the center rack for approximately 1 hour or until puffed.
Serve hot with syrup.

The husband loves blueberries, but I'm a little ambivalent about the pecans. Is there any other nut that you think would work equally well? Also, do you think this will turn out like a bread pudding kind of thing?

That sounds yummy. I'll bet it will be sort of like bread pudding. You could do walnuts instead of pecans -- or just leave them out.

I would leave the nuts out, but that's my personal taste. If you are worried about the bread pudding thing, I've got a breakfast strata recipe that is made the night before - and is super yummy. I've also got a cinnamon roll recipe that you set the bread machine to make the dough, and do the "big finish" the next day.

I'm so happy for you that he's coming home.

[DCJenn]

My mom is the strata Queen so if you want something different (i.e. not sweet) I can give you vegetarian, chicken, sausage versions)

Jenn

[Auspicious]

Even if we don't have it tomorrow, I'd like the strata recipies if you guys don't mind posting them. I had to look up what strata even was--I've never heard of it, but now it sounds good. I'm always torn between my desire for a fun weekend breakfast (a bit of a tradition in my family of origin) and my desire to be lazy on weekend mornings. Maybe strata would satisfy both.

Breakfast Casserole (put it together the night before)

2 # bulk breakfast sausage, cooked
1 loaf sourdough bread (stale OK)
½ lb cheddar, shredded
7 eggs
5 c milk
2 T Dijon
1 t pepper

Cut bread into 1” cubes. Butter a shallow 9 x 13 pan & layer: bread-sausage-cheese 2x’s. Beat together eggs, milk, pepper & mustard. Pour eggs over casserole layers & chill overnight - covered. Cook’s Illustrated says to press it down (cake pans on top of plastic wrap), which works nicely.

Uncover & bake 45-55 minutes @ 350 until firm and golden. YUM!

This isn't a make ahead thing but fairly easy to put together and unlike a lot of breakfast dishes, doesn't require constant attention. It is wonderful in the fall during apple season.

I have a few strata recipes that I'll put in a new post.

Hope you are having a great weekend Julie!

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recip ... ews/107071

PUFFED APPLE PANCAKE
Sherry Sharp of Fremont, California, writes: "The Arroyo Village Inn is a lovely bed-and-breakfast in Arroyo Grande, California. During my recent stay there, I enjoyed the apple pancake made by the inn's owner, Gina. When she brought it to the table, it looked like a puffy soufflé. Once I had cut into it, I could see the sliced apples."
This breakfast treat rises like Yorkshire pudding and has the texture of a classic baked pancake. Sprinkle powdered sugar over the pancake after it's baked, if you like.

1 cup whole milk
4 large eggs
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2/3 cup all purpose flour
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
12 ounces Golden Delicious apples (about 2), peeled, cored, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons (packed) golden brown sugar
Powdered sugar (optional)




Preheat oven to 425°F. Whisk milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt, and cinnamon in large bowl until well blended. Add flour and whisk until batter is smooth. Place butter in 13x9-inch glass baking dish. Place dish in oven until butter melts, about 5 minutes. Remove dish from oven. Place apple slices in overlapping rows atop melted butter in baking dish. Return to oven and bake until apples begin to soften slightly and butter is bubbling and beginning to brown around edges of dish, about 10 minutes.
Pour batter over apples in dish and sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake pancake until puffed and brown, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired. Serve warm.

Makes 4 servings.
Bon Appétit
R.S.V.P.
September 2002
Arroyo Village Inn, Arroyo Grande, CA

So I decided to try Julie's recipe above this morning for a brunch we hosted today. There could have been several factors, but my casserole turned out really soggy. So I think it was either a) I used frozen blueberries which released unwanted water or b) too much milk in this recipe. In addition, I don't think it was necessary to soak the mixture overnight, probably 10-15 minutes would have been fine.

Julie - have you attempted to make this yet? Did you find the same problems? Or am I just a terrible cook?

[Auspicious]

I did try it, and mine turned out the same! (Not that that stopped us from eating it. Ha.) I also used frozen blueberries. Maybe if the blueberries were thawed and drained? And I also dumped the soaking bread into the baking dish with all the liquid--maybe it would be better if the bread was just scooped out with a slotted spoon, and only took the liquid that it had soaked up, no extra. Or, like you said, less milk. I actually have never made regular french toast, so I'm not sure what the usual egg-to-milk ratio is.

Mine also had to bake for like and hour and a half before it puffed, but my oven is slow on everything.

On the message board I cut this from, several people had tried it and loved it, so they either did something differently, or they like soggy bread.

I looked at a couple of baked french toast recipes at epicurious.com but most called for slices of bread rather than cups. Still, they used less milk to eggs. That sounds like a good idea to cut back on the milk by a cup. It sounds good!

Here is one recipe I found:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recip ... ews/108944

Epicurious also has this recipe that's very similar, but with some good comments on how to improve the recipe, such as using less milk or adding more bread. I think I'll try this one next and see how it goes!

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recip ... ews/101755