Cinnamon Baked French Toast
I’ve seen so many baked french toast recipes that I wanted to try but they all usually require a 9×13 baking dish, which is just WAY too much food for me and Jason. But I finally came across a recipe that fit beautifully in an 8×8 baking dish, which is still too much food but it’s less than the former so hooray for me!
Now baked french toast has the same general concept of traditional french toast except it’s with cut-up bread cubes and it’s soaked in the milk-egg mixture overnight. Now the advantages are that it’s simpler, easier, and much more cleaner to make. There’s no need to get your hands all soaked in milk and eggs. But the best advantage of all is that it tastes 100x time better than regular french toast. There’s more substance in every bite since it’s a stack of bread cubes topped on one another, AND there’s that heavenly streusel topping. Mmmmmm.
I just don’t think I can eat french toast any other way.
Cinnamon Baked French Toast (adapted from For the Love of Cooking):
Yields 4-6 servings
- 1/2 loaf French bread, cut into large cubes (I used leftover sourdough bread)
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup milk (2% worked just fine for me)
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 vanilla bean, seeds removed
For the streusel topping:
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- Pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
Lightly coat an 8×8 baking dish with nonstick spray. Place the bread cubes evenly into the baking dish.
In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, heavy cream, sugar, vanilla and seeds from the vanilla bean.
Pour the mixture evenly over the bread cubes.
Cover and place in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
To make the streusel topping, combine the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl.
Add the cold butter and toss to coat, using your fingers to work the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles coarse crumbs.
Sprinkle the streusel topping evenly over the bread cubes.
Place into oven and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until golden brown.
Top with butter and maple syrup, if desired.
