Make Ahead French Toast

Most Helpful Positive Review

I was skeptical about making this recipe because of the mixed reviews, but I decided to try it and boy am I glad I did. One tip to help eliminate sticking: Get a cold stick of butter and press it into to bottom and sides of your baking dish, making a slightly thick layer of butter. THEN put the bread and mixture in. In the morning, use a flexible spatula and gently insert it underneath the bread to pull it away from the pan. This should definitely minimize any sticking. I always bake my own bread (Amish White Bread submitted by Peg on this site). I then cut it into 1.5 to 1.75 inch thick slices to ensure that all the mixture is absorbed, so make sure you use THICK BREAD. I then cut each slice into four and make French Toast Sticks so that they can be eaten on the run (in the car, at a bus stop, etc). They reheat very well. The recipe I use is as follows: 3 eggs, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup cream, 1t Vanilla extract, 1.5t cinnamon, 1T powdered sugar, 3/4 loaf bread. I beat these ingredients well with a mixer.I top it with a heated mixture of 5T butter, 1.5T syrup, and 1/5 cup brown sugar. Don't be dismayed by negative reviews. This recipe CAN and DOES turn out great every time. Follow it as stated in the recipe, and then tweak it like I did until you find what works best for you and your family. This is a staple in our house now. Bake time of 40 minutes is usually dead on (sometimes I go an extra 5 minutes or so). Moist (NOT soggy), tasty, and (if you make sticks) travel friendly.

I decided to give this recipe a second chance with some modifications to make it a much firmer recipe. I took my loaf of French bread and split it down the middle lengthwise and then cut it into 1 inch slices. I omitted the half-and-half, used three eggs and halved the remaining ingredients. All ingredients (except for the topping) went into a big bowl and I mixed them up until all the liquid was soaked up. After spraying the casserole dish with a cooking spray, the bread was placed in a single layer and the topping was placed on top. I only cooked the dish for about 30 minutes. It made about 5 servings this way. Using this method the recipe is more like sticky rolls than French toast. Delicious.

My husband is LOVING this dish! He is saying "mmmmm 5, mmmmmmm 5"! Since there are only three of us here today I pulled 6 pieces of Texas Toast out of the freezer. I sprayed the glass pan with Pam, whipped up the egg mixture with 1/2 cup of half and half and 1 cup of milk only. I just put the toast, whole, in the pan. This way, there were two whole pieces for each of us. After placing the dunked pieces in the pan, I sprinkled cinnamon over top. Then I poured the remaining egg mixture over top. This morning, when I pulled the dish out of the fridge it appeared that all of the egg mixture had been absorbed. By the way, I had only put chopped pecans over two pieces of the toast, since hubby is the only one that likes them for breakfast. I didn't have maple syrup so I just used some Aunt Jemima Butter Lite. I baked this for right at 40 minutes and my oven runs hot, so if you have a new oven you might need to go 45 - 50 minutes. As for the finished product, hubby loves it. Naturally, the edges of the toast got done faster than the middle. I think it is crucial to let this sit for the 5 minutes after bake time. I wonder if cutting the amount of butter down a bit would help? It was just a tad soggier in the middle, but overall, this is a wonderful recipe! Next time I will sprinkle powdered sugar over top.