French toast

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A Weekday Treat—Overnight French Toast

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Number 2 pencil, nerdy t-shirt and a plate of French Toast—Max is ready for his test.

 

I haven’t made this recipe in years, and then two things happened that brought it to mind.

1. Molly came home from her math tutor’s house with three large loaves of day-old bread. There was no explaination as to why she was given the bread, nor where it came from. We hypothesize that the tutor thinks we are a pauper family with 8 kids—a least that was Molly’s first thought and she right away informed the tutor that there are only three kids in the family. 2. Tomorrow is the beginning of AP test week—no wait it’s only the first of two AP test weeks—at our over-achieving, why bother with college when you can take 2 dozen AP classes in high school high school. (I know that my editor friends will be all over that sentence, but that’s what you get from a designer.) Anyway, nothing like a good breakfast before an AP Computer Science test, right? A great use for old bread, and what a wonderful treat for a weekday breafast.

Overnight French Toast

  • 1 loaf french or Italian bread, sliced thick

The night before: Mix the following together in a 9″ x 13″ baking dish:

  • 3 eggs
  • 1-1/2 c. milk
  • 1 tsp. grated orange or lemon rind
  • 2 Tbs. brown sugar (I used white)
  • 1 or 2 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1 tsp. vanilla or almond extract

Arrange the bread slices in the pan, on top of the egg/milk mixture. Wait a minute and then turn them over. Cover and place in refrigerator over night.

In the morning: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place bread onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes on a side.

Here is the bread, ready to be tucked in for the night:

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Valentine’s Day: Heart-shaped bread from challah

This is a peanut butter and apple sandwich. Also try a classic cream cheese and jelly, being sure to use a red-colored jam.

This is a terrific trick that will wow your kids. Let them watch as you cut off a slice of your challah, then cut it in half to make a heart. It’s a little bit of slicing magic that little kids love. Don’t worry if your slices don’t result in perfect cookie-cutter hearts; the kids won’t care. If you want you can do a little extra trimming to fine-tune the edges. I like that the top and side crusts are still there.

Use this bread for sandwiches or for a special French toast Valentine’s Day breakfast.

It’s very easy to make a double-braided challah:

Make up a batch of Blue Ribbon Challah.

Divide dough into 4 equal portions. Braid 3 and place on the greased cookie sheet. Divide the remaining portion into 3 equal portions, braid those and place on top of the first braid.

Here's where to slice it. You can do some additional trimming if you like.