Baked French Toast

     I love the idea of baked french toast. All warm and yummy and EASY! Just pop that bad boy in the fridge, crawl back into bed for an hour or so and, wham. Delicious homemade breakfast right there. However, my experiences with baked french toast have not been such a fairytale as that. Every time I've made them they have come out mushy, eggy and flavorless. That is until now, enter in the most delectable baked french toast to have ever passed my lips….

     I got the recipe from the Pioneer Woman's new cook book (you can buy it here, and I HIGHLY recommend that you do. There's some good stuff in there, yo.) The recipe was super easy. It only took me about 20 minutes to whip up before I went to bed, put it in the fridge, and then through it in the oven in the morning. The hardest part was waiting an hour to devour this plate of deliciousness.  

I halved the recipe and it was more than enough for my little family. So without further ado, here you are…

 Pioneer Woman's Baked French Toast

Ingredients:

• 1 loaf crusty artisan bread or sourdough bread. (I used a crusty french baguette because it was small enough to equal half of a regular loaf of artisan or sourdough bread)
• 8 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

Topping:

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 stick cold butter cut into pieces (I always use salted, gives everything a better flavor and balance)

1. Grease baking pan thoroughly with butter, or use butter spray (that's what I did, worked like a charm)
2. Tear bread into pieces into baking dish
3. Whisk together eggs, milk, heavy cream, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla and pour over bread
4. For the topping mix the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg in a separate bowl, then cut into cold butter pieces until mix resembles coarse sand. 
5. Sprinkle topping over french toast, cover tightly and store in fridge for several hours, preferably overnight. 
6. When ready to bake put in oven preheated to 350 degrees F, bake for 1 hour
7. Serve with butter and warm syrup. 
8. DEVOUR! 

You can find Ree's post of the recipe here.