Recipe: French Toast Casserole

For all of you who enjoy eating (and I truly hope that is everyone!), here is one of our family's favorite recipes that uses leftover bread. 

This French toast casserole recipe migrates well between the gluten crowd and the gluten-free crowd. It is my go-to dish when I need a nice, company-quality breakfast dish or a dessert. French toast casserole is flexible and can be dressed up with a handful of chopped nuts or fresh fruit tossed into the custard before pouring into the pan. I have even included breakfast sausage for a one-dish meal for the meat eaters in my house.

This recipe is also a great option if you have bread in the freezer that you forgot about and do not want to pitch! Freezing dries out bread, so make sure to leave the wrapping on the bread as you bring it to room temperature. This will keep the condensation from the air that will collect on the wrappings from making your bread soggy. It is better not to have to dry out your bread again!

The original recipe that I modified came from Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking by Kelli and Peter Bronski. I definitely recommend this book if you are new to the GF community and need some direction on where to start feeding your carbohydrate itch! I borrowed the book from the local library.

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Makes 6 servings, doubles well:

Ingredients:

Oil or butter, for greasing the pan.

4 cups cut-up, day-old bread, GF or non-GF as you need. The drier and harder the bread, the better. (Best is a hard bread like bagels that were left in the office breakroom overnight.) Something much softer like a pancake will fall apart in the custard. But all will be yummy! The flavor of the bread does not matter. There is enough vanilla and cinnamon included in the recipe to cover the bread taste, (although we have never tried it on onion bagels). 

1/4 cup oil of your choice (for non-DF people, use melted butter here)

1 1/2 cups milk or white liquid of your choice. Soy milk works better here or commercial oat milk, not so much rice milk. Definitely not water!

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 eggs. For more protein, you can add 1 to 2 more eggs and reduce the white liquid above accordingly. Replace all eggs with an equivalent amount of egg yolks for a truly rich dish.

1 tablespoon sugar or sweetener of your choice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Whatever extract you can tolerate or switch up the flavored liquid with something more to your liking!  

Pure maple syrup, fruit or other toppings, to serve.

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Oil an 8- or 9-inch square pan or an 8- or 9-inch round cake pan. You can use a bread loaf pan, too, but it is more difficult to get the middle thoroughly cooked.

Cut the bread into 1-inch pieces and put into a large bowl. Drizzle with the melted butter or oil and toss to coat.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla in a separate bowl.

Pour the egg mixture over the bread and mix roughly with a spoon to break up the bread so it can absorb most of the liquid. Scrape the mixture into the prepared pan.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. The casserole should be golden to dark brown on the bread that is more exposed to the air. Serve warm with pure maple syrup, fruit, or other toppings of choice.

May be prepared the night before, covered and refrigerated for an easy breakfast. Either warm to room temperature before cooking or add 5 to 7 minutes to the cooking time. Make sure to remove the cover before baking!

Bon appetit!