Fall Overnight French Toast


According to the tablecloth in my kitchen, it's fall.  According to the temperature outside, it's still very much summer.  I've learned living in Virginia that the weather is still warm for awhile into the fall months, and yet our bodies crave different flavors.  

I love seasons.  I think they're a wonderful reminder from God that not only does the earth operate on them, but we do too.

Our family is yet again starting a new season with two kids in different schools, and one still home with me.  We've got baby, preschool, and now elementary age.  The amount of times other Mom's tell me how busy it is and non-stop has lost its affect on me, but I will say, I'm thankful for their comments.  It reminds me that they too have come through the season of 2, 4 + 6 and are on the other side.  I actually think they showered this morning, and not at 5 am!

This past weekend as I relished in one of the last weekends of summer before soccer schedule hits us, I opted to make an overnight french toast.  A sturdy loaf of bread was on sale at Lidl and I knew it was calling my name to hang around for a few days, get nice and stale and then get soaked in all the goodness that overnight french toast has to offer.

I also knew that my Magnolia Cookbook had a recipe in it I needed to try and was thankful when I shared on Instagram and got some pointers from your readers!  The biggest tip was to add more spice and so I did, and then I changed how the bread was cut, and cooked it for much longer, so in many ways this recipe has been tweaked from the one you'll find in the Magnolia Table Cookbook.



Here's the recipe I made.  Once you get the basics of something like this down, you can really change things how you like.  Maybe no nuts, maybe add blueberries, or cranberries come Christmas.  It's up to you.  For now this recipe turned out super yummy and reminded me of all the good cozy parts of fall, not the frigid, wet, and muddy parts. :)

Fall Overnight French Toast

Ingredients You'll Need:
  • 1 stick cold salted butter
  • 1 loaf good crusty, sturdy bread- like an Italian Loaf
  • 10 eggs
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup chopped pecans
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • pinch of kosher salt
  • 1-2 tablespoons powdered sugar, optional
  • maple syrup for serving

Recipe How To:
  • The night before you want to eat this, grease a 9x13 baking dish with butter or baking spray and set aside.  
  • Cut up your bread into 1-2 inch cubes and toss into the dish.
  • In a large bowl mix your eggs, cream, milk, granulated sugar, and vanilla.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.
  • Preheat your oven to 375 and allow the dish to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before baking.
  • Place the cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, brown sugar, pecans, flour and salt in a dish and combine. At this point you can either grate the butter over this, and combine, or cut the cold butter into small pieces and cut it through with a pastry cutter so it's combined throughout the topping. Sprinkle over the bread!
  • Bake uncovered checking after 45 minutes.  Mine took closer to 1 hour.  When you take it out of the oven cut into the center and make sure nothing is runny and it is all cooked!
  • Dust with powdered sugar, top with maple syrup and enjoy with a nice hot cup of coffee!




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