Recipe: French Toast Casserole

I don't care much for breakfast foods. Offer me cereal, oatmeal, scrambled eggs or bacon and I'll pass, thanks. I am just not a fan. But I love french toast. Oh. My. Goodness. The best french toast I ever had was in Belgium, and it was called something else, something... Belgian. It was amazing. Brioche dredged in eggs and cream, cooked in butter and topped with cinnamon and powdered sugar and fresh whipped cream - that is probably my favorite breakfast, ever. It didn't even need syrup. No syrup!

The downside to french toast is the preparation. You have to make enough egg mix to dredge all of your toast and you always run out halfway through, and then you have to figure out how to cook it so that it doesn't get super browned and taste like burnt eggs, and then you have to keep it warm without letting it get soggy - it's just such a pain. So when another military wife made this dish at a potluck years ago, I was in love. With the dish, not her. She was nice and everything, but I'm all set in that department.

Several ladies from the baby shower this morning asked me for this recipe, so I'm just posting it here to save us all some time and paper. Here we go:

 With a sharp knife, cube one loaf of good bread. By 'good bread' I mean that it shouldn't say Butterkrust on it. Spring for the nice stuff. I like to use bread that has nuts and seeds in it, french loaves, potato bread and country white bread for this, but it's totally up to you. Be careful not to smush your bread when you cube it.

 Dump all of your bread cubes into a greased 9x13" casserole dish.

 In a stand mixer (or mixing bowl, if you use a hand mixer) cream 8oz of cream cheese

 8 whole eggs

 1 1/2 cups of milk

 2/3 cup of cream

 and 1/2 cup of syrup. Use the cheap syrup for this part - no sense in wasting good maple syrup in a casserole. Save that to drizzle on top later.

 Oh, and don't forget a splash of vanilla. A few teaspoons should do you.

 Pour this slightly soupy mixture over the bread cubes in your baking dish. I know it's a little chunky - that's okay. If you have more patience than me and add your eggs to the cream cheese one at a time, waiting until each is fully incorporated before you add the next, the result will be much smoother. I, however, lack the ability to stand still that long and pouring eggs out of a mixing cup fascinates me, so my mixture will forever be chunky. And I'm okay with that.

Gently fold the bread cubes over themselves (if you know how to fold, this will make sense) to give each layer a chance to absorb as much of the liquid at the bottom as possible. I say to do this gently because if you just stir it, you're going to wind up with a big dish of mush. It'll probably still taste good, but really, who wants to eat that?

Now stick the whole thing in your fridge until tomorrow. Seriously. It needs an overnight soak. I don't know what it is about night time, but I swear, if you make it in the evening and let it sit overnight, it will be awesome in the morning; but if you make it in the morning and let it sit until night time, even if it's the same number of hours, it won't turn out right. That's just how it is, and it's better if you go ahead an accept that this will never be a last-minute meal.

Pretend that it's tomorrow now. Take the casserole out of your fridge and put it directly into a 350'F oven. Some folks say to let it come to room temperature first, but with all the eggs in this dish, that makes me nervous. I know we're going to cook it, but still. Bake your casserole for about an hour. When it's done, remove it from the oven and melt 1/2 stick of butter, 1/2 cup of syrup and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon in a dish, give it a good stir and pour it on top of the casserole.

Ta da!

Serve this with extra syrup, some powdered sugar and fresh whipped cream - mmmm. Enjoy!