Make-Ahead French Toast

My whole family loves French toast, but with school and work, we don’t get to have it very often. I sometimes buy the frozen boxed stuff if it’s on sale or I if have a good coupon, but honestly, it’s not as good as homemade.

This recipe for make-ahead french toast allows you to make up a big batch in advance, which you can freeze and then pull out pieces as needed. It is all-natural, tasty, and frugal!

Preparing the Make-Ahead French Toast

To begin, gather up your ingredients: bread, half and half, eggs, salt, cinnamon, vanilla, flour, brown sugar and butter.

Start out by toasting your bread, either in the oven (as the recipe calls for) or in the toaster (like people do when they forget to toast their bread in the oven first).

Next, melt butter in a saucepan, and let it brown a bit.  Be careful with this step, because the butter can go from brown to burnt in a matter of seconds.  Then you would have to start over 🙁

As soon as the butter has browned, mix in the half-and-half, eggs, sugar, flour, vanilla, cinnamon and salt.  The recipe calls for pouring this mixture into a 13×9 baking dish for easy dipping…I just mixed my custard directly in the dish.  Why dirty another bowl?

Dip the toasted bread into the custard, letting it sit for about 30 seconds on each side.  Transfer the soaked bread to a baking sheet, making sure to spray it first with non-stick cooking spray.  (I neglected that step and I was kicking myself for it later on!)

When you are finished soaking the bread, place it in a 350 degree oven for about 8 to 10 minutes.  The center of the bread should measure 160 degrees when it is cooked through.

This is the toast after baking.  Looks good, doesn’t it?  It tastes good too!  We ate some right out of the oven, and I put the leftovers in the freezer so I could test it on a busy weekday morning.

I’m happy to report that the French toast tasted just as good after a few days in the freezer as it did right out of the oven the morning it was made.  I did have to run it through my toaster 2 times to make sure it was warmed through, but I didn’t mind that one bit!

Print

Make-Ahead French Toast

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Keyword french toast, healthy breakfast recipes, make ahead recipes

Author Erin Myers

Ingredients

• 4 T. Butter
• 2 c. half-and-half
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 c. light brown sugar
• 2 T. flour
• 1 T. vanilla
• 2 t. cinnamon
• 1/2 t. salt
• 8 slices bread Cook's Country recommends Arnold or Pepperidge Farm, but I think you can also use homemade bread as well

Instructions

1. First, start out by toasting your bread, either in the oven or in the toaster.
2. Next, melt butter in a saucepan, and let it brown a bit.  Be careful with this step, because the butter can go from brown to burnt in a matter of seconds.
3. As soon as the butter has browned, mix in the half-and-half, eggs, sugar, flour, vanilla, cinnamon and salt directly in a baking dish.
4. Dip the toasted bread into the custard, letting it sit for about 30 seconds on each side.  Transfer the soaked bread to a baking sheet, making sure to spray it first with non-stick cooking spray. 
5. When you are finished soaking the bread, place it in a 350 degree oven for about 8 to 10 minutes.  The center of the bread should measure 160 degrees when it is cooked through.

Recipe adapted from Cook's Country magazine

I hope you will try this delicious recipe at your house 🙂