Homemade Holiday French Toast Bake

The holidays are my absolute favorite time of the year. I love all the festivities and traditions, and now that my daughter is finally old enough to start remembering the traditions that we are making, it’s the perfect time to introduce the Christmas day french toast bake. This recipe is great because you can make it ahead of time and pop it in the oven the next day for an easy brunch or breakfast idea.

I love french toast, and it’s my husband’s favorite–but I hate all of the work that comes with making the custard, dipping the toast, and individually cooking each piece. That’s what is so great about this recipe is no tedious dipping and flipping, less mess, and delicious!

To start, you will need your favorite bread–for french toast I love to use a thick, Texas-style bread to give it a more filling, less soggy outcome. Next, you will need eggs, milk–we use Ripple non-dairy milk, butter, cinnamon, brown sugar, vanilla extract, and caramel extract. I also like to add a small dash of cloves, nutmeg, and allspice to add some holiday flavor. Lastly don’t forget to grab the all-natural maple syrup.

You will need a 9×13 as well as a small-to-medium-sized saucepan and a mixing bowl.

Melt a full stick of butter, adding in one cup of brown sugar. You can do less brown sugar if you like it a little less sweet. I then grease the pan and pour the brown sugar/butter mixture into the bottom of the 9×13 pan.

In the mixing bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cup milk, 4 eggs, 1 TBSP vanilla extract, 1 TBSP caramel extract, 1 TBSP maple syrup, 1 tsp of cinnamon, and then a shake or two of each of the remaining spices: clove, nutmeg, and allspice.

Next, place a layer of the texas toast into the 9×13 on top of the brown sugar mixture. Once the bottom layer is completely full, spoon about half of the egg mixture/custard onto that layer. I then take a little extra brown sugar and sprinkle it on top of that layer and a few shakes of cinnamon.

Repeat the process, layering the texas toast and pouring the rest of the custard mix evenly to coat the bread. Cover with tinfoil.

The French toast bake can be made immediately or refrigerated overnight and made the next day. Bake at 400, covered, for 30 minutes. Remove foil and cook for another 15 minutes. I personally like to add roughly 2 minutes of a LOW broil at the end of the 45-minute bake time to place a little crisp onto the tops of the bread. Be sure to watch that the bread does not burn.

You may serve with syrup or peanut butter–but it tastes great the way that it is.

I hope you have a great time establishing holiday traditions and love my french toast bake!

I’ve connected with some amazing bloggers to share some yummy Christmas treats! Time to get festive with cookies, donuts, cakes, cupcakes and more! Head to each of their accounts to check out what they are sharing!

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