Baked French Toast

Found this easy and very delicious recipe on Pinterest.  It is a Pioneer Woman recipe.

 

I made this for our annual Christmas Brunch, it was a HUGE HIT.  Very easy to make – and I love that most of the work is completed the night before, with very little to do in the morning when you want to serve.  It can be enjoyed with syrup, or a powdered sugar and milk glaze, but we just ate it plain and it was heavenly!

 

Ingredients:

1 loaf sourdough bread (the kind you buy in the bakery section of the grocery store, long loaf – not already sliced)

8 eggs
2 cups milk (I used 1%)
1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. vanilla

Topping Ingredients:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1 stick cold butter, cut into pieces

Directions:

1.  Grease a 9x13 pan with butter.  Tear bread into bite-size chunks and place evenly in the pan.

 

2.  Mix together the eggs, milk, cream, sugar, and vanilla.  Pour evenly over bread. Cover tightly and store in the fridge for several hours.  I did all the prep work the night before the brunch, it was in the fridge for about 11 hours.

3.  In a medium bowl mix together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt.  Cut in the butter with a pastry blender until it all looks nice and crumbly. (Although the directions said to use a pastry blender, I put everything in the bowl of my food processor and this blended up beautifully.)   Place in a ziploc bag and put in fridge with the French toast.

4.  When ready to bake, take pan and bag out of fridge.  Remove wrap and evenly sprinkle the crumb mixture over the top.  Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees (or 45 minutes if you like it more soft and pudding-like).

 

The blog that I found this recipe on said the following: IMPORTANT!!!!!!!  You must use a dense bread or this dish will turn out soggy.  You can't use regular sandwich bread because it will NOT soak up the egg mixture!