Reader's recipe: Holiday morning French toast

I never thought of baking French toast, but trust me when I tell you, it's a wonderful idea. After speaking with my friend, Wayne, at a recent tweet-up about his family's holiday breakfast tradition, I had to get the recipe. Wayne was kind enough to send it to me several weeks ago, but it wasn't until this past Sunday morning that I had a chance to give it a try. The snow was coming down hard, and I wanted a comforting, warm breakfast - and that's exactly what I got.

Wayne's wife, Genni, is really the mastermind behind this dish, and she normally uses Challah bread when she prepares it. I did not have any Challah bread at the time, though, so I prepared the dish with a less sweet, wheat Italian bread. This choice ended up being perfect for me, as I'm not really a fan of eating sweet things in the morning. The dish is prepared the night before, and baked for 40 minutes with butter, brown sugar, apples and raisins. Delicious, satisfying, and light enough that you won't be glued to the couch for four hours to digest it.

The main changes I made to Wayne's family's original recipe is I cut down the size tremendously (his served 12; mine serves two to three people), and I replaced the bread type.

Holiday Morning French Toast (courtesy of @WayneNH & @GenniK)
Yields: 2 generous servings

Ingredients:
-4 thick-cut slices of wheat Italian bread, cut into 1 inch cubes
-3/4 McIntosh apple, peeled and thinly sliced
-1/8 cup raisins (or cranberries)
-2 eggs
-1/4 cup milk
-2 tbsp. butter, melted
-1/2 tsp. vanilla
-2 tbsp. brown sugar
-Few dashes of cinnamon

Directions:
1. Combine brown sugar, butter, and a dash or two of cinnamon in a square baking dis. Add apples and raisins. Toss to coat well. Spread apple mixture evenly over bottom of baking dish. Arrange slices of bread on top.
2. Mix eggs, milk, vanilla, and a few more dashes of cinnamon until well-blended. Pour mixture over bread, soaking bread completely. Cover and refrigerate 4 to 24 hours (I refrigerated mine for 12 hours).

3. Bake, covered with aluminum foil, in a pre-heated 375*F oven for 30-40 mins. Uncover and bake 5 minutes more. Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes. Serve warm.
 
The result: A darn good reason to be snowed in.

How did you spend the snowy weekend?

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