Baked French Toast - Two Ways

Is there anything that screams Sunday morning more than french toast? I'm dying. I die at the thought of french toast on Sundays. Mostly because I can't sleep in and do whatever on Sunday morning.

There's always Saturdays though, right? Wrong. There is baked french toast though. Genius.

How about some niiiice baked black berry french toast. Now that summer is just around the corner I can stop hoarding the last of the blackberries Gabe picked last summer. We made it, hon. Let the hoarding begin.

Start with some lovely sourdough or challah bread. Day old is good. A few days old is best. If you were lucky enough to have some house guests bring you a lovely loaf of sourdough from Brown Bag - you can't do much else than make them a lovely baked french toast with it.

So I made the blackberry french toast for them. Thoughts? It was a little runny. I like bread pudding just like anyone else but it seemed just a tad soggy for my taste. Still good, but I needed more bread.

More carbs.

The answer to life is more carbs.

And butter. Butter the baking dish. I used a 9" x 13" glass dish with sides about 2" high.

If you like your baked french toast a little on the..softer side, use 3 - 1" thick slices of bread, cubed. If you like a little more texture, use 4 slices.

Then eggs.

Beat lightly.

Milk.

Whisk.

This is the real stuff. No fake syrup please.

Now, if you're doing all maple walnut, you can skip the lemon zest. I didn't mind the lemon zest in the maple walnut, but I hardly consider my opinion normal. That's just me.

I definitely wouldn't skip this if I was making a completely blackberry (or whatever other fruit for that matter) baked french toast.

It really cuts through the richness of the custard - brightens the whole thing up.

But for me, I like raisins and nuts. Gabe? Not so much. So I did what any diplomatic person would do. I made 1/2 for him, 1/2 for me.

Walnuts and raisins for Mrs.

Oops - almost forgot the cinnamon in the milk/egg/syrup mixture.

Then pour the mixture over the bread.

Try to coat everyone evenly, people. Let's be fair to all the pretty little bread cubes.

And don't forget to press the bread down into the mixture. If you don't soak all the cubes, some may end up burning on the top.

There are those blackberries. Just a tad bit of freezer burn got them. They were probably happy to fulfill their little berry destinies. Sprinkle over the other half.
Then make the cinnamon/sugar mixture.
Mix.

Sprinkle over the whole thing.



Then? More butter. You knew that was coming though.
Dot the whole thing w/ little bits of butter.

This thing baking makes the whole house smell amazing. But you have to be patient..you're looking at about an hour's worth of baking and cooling time.
Grab a crossword puzzle or something.

Gabe's bite.

My bite. Mmmmmm.

And another one for Gabe.

Baked Two Way French Toast

makes 6-8 servings

If you want to do all berries/fruit or all raisins/nuts, just double the below topping quantities and omit the one you don't want.

Butter, for greasing
8 eggs
3 cups whole milk
1/2 c. buttermilk
3/4 cup maple syrup, plus extra for serving
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 lemon, zested **
4 (1-inch thick) slices day-old challah or sourdough bread, cut into 1-inch cubes

Toppings for Two Way version:

1 cup (12 ounces) fresh or frozen, thawed, and drained blackberries

and..

1/2 c. raisins
1/2 c. walnuts

lastly (for sprinkling)..

3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 stick butter - cubed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter your 9x13" baking dish. Cut 4 - 1" slices of sourdough or challah bread into 1" cubes. In a large bowl, crack eggs and mix lightly with whisk. Whisk in milk, buttermilk, maple syrup and 2 tsp. cinnamon. Zest lemon and add to mixture, whisk until incorporated.

Pour mixture over breadcubes. Make sure to press bread down into egg mixture. Spread berries on half and raisins and walnuts on other half. Sprinkle sugar/cinnamon mixture over entire pan. Dot with cubed butter evenly. Bake for 45 minutes or until set - enjoy!

**If you're doing raisins/nuts version, you can omit the lemon zest. Or keep it in - it's a free country, right?

Greek Breakfast Pizza

Gabe and I got married a few years ago. Just like any other bride-to-be, I had what may be the most motivating factor in weight loss: wedding photos. Dun-dun-DUUUUUN!

So, just like anyone who's getting ready to do the weight loss thing, I jumped on the fad diet. My poison of choice? South Beach, baby!

I fell off that wagon not but a few months after the wedding but, I will say that I took away several habits from the South Beach Diet that I still follow to this day. This breakfast pizza is hands down my absolute favorite thing I learned from the book.

Of course, I jazzed this puppy up with some bacon and mushrooms which the original recipe does not, but you can definitely omit. Gabe won't eat it w/o the bacon though so that's my excuse for using the bacon.



Greek Breakfast Pizza
Adapted from The South Beach Diet book

Serves 2

1 whole wheat pocket pita
3 slices bacon, optional
1 c. mushrooms, sliced
4 c. pre-washed baby spinach
1 green onion, sliced
1 Roma tomato
2 oz. feta cheese
2 eggs
garlic powder, optional
salt, pepper, olive oil

*Note: pitas freeze really well!

Slice the pita in half horizontally. Put the cup sides up and toast.

I use my toaster oven.

Bacon. The root of all that is good in this world. We use three slices in our household.

Cut the bacon into little pieces - about 1/2"

Throw them into a cold non-stick pan to render a little bit of grease. The pan should be on medium to medium high heat.

If you're using uncooked bacon, just brown and drain off the grease into a bowl and whatever sticks in the pan, just leave it. Cut up the bacon and proceed as follows!

While the bacon heats up, get the mushrooms sliced. I use criminis, as always!

There we go. Give up that yummy porky goodness.

Throw into the pan and toss until the mushrooms get slightly browned.

I like using some green onions, just a small handful for flavor.

Then we have the triple washed baby spinach. You can use frozen chopped if you have it.

When the mushrooms look like this:

Go ahead and add the spinach:

Looks like a lot of spinach, but you know how spinach wilts down to nothing.

Going..

Going.....

Wilted. Add 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. pepper and a dash of garlic powder.

Here's the pita all toasty and a little crunchy.

Golden brown edges. Look for those, people. Creates a nice texture contrast.

Throw in those green onions and toss.

So put the spinach mixture onto the pitas and throw into the toaster oven to warm.

I use the same non-stick pan. Dish tyranny, remember?

Crack the egg. Crack iiiit.

Look at those pretty eggs.

Slice the tomato, 1/4" thick. Thicker if you like.

Pretty.

Then the feta. Yummy yummy feta. Please don't use the crumbled stuff, it's so bland compared to the blocks.

Don't forget to salt & pepper the eggs, for the love of god. Gabe's been cooking eggs for years and still can't remember that very important step.

Put the slices onto the pizzas and then..

Crumble the feta on top of the tomatoes and throw it back into the toaster oven to get warmed through.

Cook your eggs how you like, but I like when the edges get a little crunchy but the yolk is still runny.

Bonus: Use the top of the toaster oven to warm your plates!

That cheese gets all warm and the tomatoes too. DE-lish.

Then, throw the egg on top.

Add some orange slices.

Gabe calls them the Sydney Opera House oranges.

See the resemblence?

Dig in. Thank me later.

Make this for a brunch party - they'll love it!