Baked French Toast

(6 servings, total time required 2 hours 10 minutes)

  • 1 loaf day old French or Italian bread (I used 4 sub rolls)
  • 8 eggs
  • 2 cups milk ( I used 1% milk, use what you have)
  • 1/2 cup light cream
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon butter, melted, for greasing the pan

Crunchy Topping

  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar (light or dark, use what you have)
  • 1 teaspoon ground vanilla bean (if you can't find this, use cinnamon)
  • 4 Tablespoons butter (1/2 stick), melted
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

-Brush the melted butter on the bottom and sides of a 9 x 13-inch baking pan.

-In a large bowl, whisk together the milk, light cream, cinnamon, vanilla extract and eggs.

-Slice the bread as evenly as possible, aiming for slices that are about 1 to 1 1/4 inches thick.

-Arrange the slices into your buttered pan, completely covering the bottom of the pan.

-Pour your egg mixture over the bread, making sure that the top of every slice gets bathed in

the mixture. Cover the pan and refrigerate until the bread has soaked up the mixture, about an hour.

You can also prepare this in advance and refrigerate it overnight.

When you are ready to bake the French toast:

-Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

-Prepare the crunchy topping by stirring together the flour, brown sugar, ground vanilla bean (substitute

ground cinnamon if you don't have ground vanilla), sea salt and melted butter.

-Spread (or crumble) the topping onto each slice of bread.

-Bake the French toast in your preheated 350-degree oven for about an hour (if you prefer your French

toast to be crunchy and crispy, an hour is perfect. If you like softer French toast, start checking it at 45-

50 minutes).

-Slice, drizzle with warm syrup and serve immediately.