Dec 19, 2017, Updated Sep 11, 2024
Why You Need Baked French Toast Casserole
A friend asked me recently what she should serve for a holiday brunch she had coming up with multiple families coming over. She was feeling anxious. And I totally get it. Last time I hosted a brunch, I accidentally dripped some water into a pan of frying eggs and the oil sputtered INTO MY EYEBALL. (I burned my cornea, and the eggs were eventually served not only overcooked, but also cold, and seasoned with a few tears.) Breakfast is really a bit of a tricky meal to serve a crowd. Any incarnation of eggs other than scrambled requires sweating and stressing over a hot stove. Pancakes and waffles are a make-to-order kind of thing, with a lot of time spent flipping and pacing. Enter the overnight French toast bake. You know the kind. They were called “wife-savers” in our parents’ day, a cheeky 50s-era pun nodding to the ease of morning preparation. Their main feature is that they can be made the night before. All you have to do is roll out of bed, start the coffee maker, and put your hair in a ponytail – boom, ready for guests. They can be sweet or savoury.
The Ingredients You Need
This particular Christmas Morning French Toast Casserole not only fits the wife-saving (cringe) criteria, it is also crazy delicious. I pride myself on pretty decent willpower and couldn’t resist a third slice this morning. The custard base is made of orange juice (use fresh-squeezed or from a carton), fresh cream, maple syrup and vanilla. I adore cream, vanilla and orange together – think creamsicle. The citrus flavour is fragrant but not bracing. The combination is delicate and delicious. You’ll swoon.
How to serve it
With the orange, the french toast already has an air of Christmas, but I showered it with confectioners’ sugar, sliced clementines, and a few almonds to make it even more special. A scattering of pomegranate arils would also be beautiful. The recipe serves about five, assuming your guests have more restraint than I do (it makes ten slices). You can easily double it and bake two pans at the same time, just rotate their oven positions about halfway through. If you want an easy side, bake a pan of bacon or sausages in the oven at the same time (the bacon will need a few minutes longer than that recipe suggests as the oven temperature is a bit lower).
