Baked French Toast

THE yummiest, easiest, eggiest french toast.  You will love me more than you already do.  Honestly though, this is so perfect, I found it in my monthly Martha Stewart Mag which I hold very dearly (and you know I subscribe to it BABY) and I knew I wanted to make it for our winter retreat in Oregon over New Years... I promised to post about it so here you go!

First things first: lets talk about BREAD.  You want to take this bread thing pretty seriously, you do not just want any old bread... I suggest you buy a loaf of Challah bread.  HOLLA. (Get it, Challah, holla?  OK, I'm done).  It is my personal favorite, it is just so eggy and fluffy.  Its good bread.  Go on, head off to the market!

I also want to add you could do a lot of different fruit options here, I followed the recipe, which is raspberries + pears, and it was divine!  However, I do think that blackberries and apples would be lovely, or blueberries + strawberries, or some stone fruit... like I often say, use whatever you like and whatever is in season, this is a very flexible french toast!

INGREDIENTS:

Bread Portion:

• 1 Loaf Challah Cut into thick slices
• 3-4 Pears, Cored and Chopped or Sliced
• 1-2 Cups Raspberries

Egg Mixture:

• 8 Large Eggs
• 2 Cups Whole Milk
• 1/2 Cup Sugar
• 3 Tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 Tsp Salt
• 1 Tsp Cinnamon, However much you like!

Topping:

• 1/4 Cup Sugar
• 1/2 Tsp Cinnamon

Set you oven to 350.  Slice the challah on up and start mixing up your egg mixture.  Once your egg mixture is adequate, place the sliced bread into a large baking dish (like a casserole dish) and stuff it with the fruit all throughout, put some far down, in the middle of each slice of bread and of course decorate it on top to give it some life.  Finally, pour the egg + milk mixture all over the top of the bread and really press the bread down to absorb the eggs, don't be afraid to get your hands a little dirty!  Top with the cinnamon sugar topping and let your toasts hang out for an hour.....

Then place it in the preheated oven for about an hour.  The casserole should puff and be golden brown, if the top starts to burn early, cover it with foil and let it finish cooking.  Once you take it out of the oven, let it cool for 10 minutes and then its ready to eat!  I like to put maple syrup on it after i slice it all.... but I am guessing you already anticipated that!

I hope you just devour it.  I would LOVE to see you all posting some of these recipes, if you do, would you be so kind as to tag my in your photos? I want to see you creations and you!  MUAH.

Enjoy!

Love, Kait