Bake 52 Week 38 - Make Ahead French Toast Casserole

I was baking ahead and made this the same weekend I made the deep dish pizza.  So I don't have many pictures of this either...

It was super easy but a bit confusing.  I cut this recipe in half too.  I didn't need a full 9x13" pan of bread soaked in half-and-half and whole milk! 

It was also very easy.  First step - toast the bread.  I cut half of the french bread loaf into 1" pieces and put them in the oven at 325 for 25 minutes.  I was worried that they would burn so I checked on them pretty regularly but they turned out beautifully toasted brown.  I used this new found knowledge to toast my bread for my garlic cheese bread later in the week.  Since it was pre-toasted it was nice and crunchy even after adding garlic butter and cheese. 

Then I arranged the toasted bread in a 8x8" pan and dumped the mixture of cream, whole milk, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Once it was covered with plastic wrap I put it in the frig overnight.  There was quite a bit of liquid left in the bottom of the pan when it went into the frig.  But when I pulled it out, the liquid had nearly all be absorbed by the bread!  What a surprise...

I made a paste of butter, brown sugar and corn syrup and spread it on the bread.  I finally remembered pictures...

The bread wasn't all even.  Some of the end pieces were smaller on top so I spread the paste on the lower bread as well.  The bread had puffed up so that it was right to the top of the dish.  I was glad they recommended putting  another pan underneath because it did end up bubbling over a bit. 

After an hour in the over it was done and very, very hot!! 

In the picture above you can see the different size bread pieces.  It is a very sweet dish.  The top was carmalized almost like caramel popcorn.  The rest of the bread tasted like a very soft cooked scrambled egg.  Jonathan likes all the moisture cooked out of his scrambled eggs so he didn't like it. 

I probably won't be making this again just because it's way too much food for one person and the leftovers are only so-so once they are re-heated.  But it was a nice treat! 

Check out Valerie's blog for the full recipe.