Baked French Toast

What kind of breakfasts do you make on the weekend? That feeling of waking up on a leisurely Saturday or Sunday morning can be wonderful. Not only are chances higher that you will leave the house with more than a cup of coffee and a mouthful of dry toast, but you also have the time and energy to be creative, enjoy a sit-down breakfast, and make something that ideally involves maple syrup. Maybe even bacon. And just to be clear, you need to make sure that you are splurging on real maple syrup. Trust me, go to Costco and invest in a bottle right now, it will be worth every penny and change your life. Or at least take Sunday morning breakfasts to a whole new level.

Two weeks ago I shared with you my adventures in baking Challah for the first time. In that post, I dropped a hint that Challah makes some of the best French toast around. While you are free to use sliced Challah in any traditional French toast recipe, I was inspired to try baked French toast for the first time. I based my experiments off of this recipe, and the results were delicious. The addition of lemon zest ensures that the toast has lots of flavor yet is not overly sweet. That's what the 100% pure maple syrup is for, remember?

Ingredients: 
3 eggs

2 tablespoons sugar

zest of 1/2 lemon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk (I used 2%)
3-4 slices day-old Challah or bread of your choice, cut into 1-inch thick slices

2 tablespoons butter
Berries, maple syrup, and whipped cream (optional, for serving)


Directions:
1. Whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, vanilla, salt and milk in a shallow dish or pie pan. Place the bread slices in the dish and let stand until the bread is saturated, about 30 minutes. Halfway through (after 15 minutes) flip the slices over and preheat the oven to 350ºF.

2. Heat an oven-proof skillet (cast-iron works great) over medium-low heat. Melt the butter to coat the bottom of the pan. Lift each bread slice from the custard base and place in the pan. Cook the slices for about 3 minutes on one side only, occasionally pressing them against the bottom of the pan with a spatula so the bottoms cook evenly.

3. If the liquid leaks out of the bread and onto the skillet, the bread slices are not quite sealed. Continue cooking for 1 minute, pressing the slices slightly to seal. Transfer the skillet to the oven — do not flip over the slices.

4. Bake the slices for 15-20 minutes. The French toast is done when the custard seems solid and the bread appears slightly inflated.

5. Using a spatula, remove the French toast from the skillet and place them, caramelized-side up onto plates. The skillet side should be caramelized and crisp.