Baked French Toast

I love brunch.

Well, I love to go out for brunch. I love to sit with a steaming mug of coffee someone else made. I love to be served delicious foods with far too many components for me to make at home. I love to have someone else whisk the dishes away and wash them at the end of my meal.

And very, very infrequently, when I think I'll have the stamina to get up early and prepare a meal to be served by noon, I'll make brunch myself. Those mornings, I'm always particularly thankful to have go-to recipes like this Baked French Toast from Baked Explorations.

It couldn't be simpler. The night before the big brunch (or before you want a tasty treat), you slice up some challah bread and whisk up a cream/milk/egg mixture. You soak the bread slices overnight, arrange them in a fresh pan with the custard filling and pecans in the morning, and bake them. If you want, you can prepare a simple fruit topping. The dish takes some time to cook up, but the work is pretty much done when you wake up, and the french toast bakes up beautifully.

Here's the recipe for the Baked French Toast and a delightful raspberry sauce to accompany it. In an attempt to bake more locally, I omitted the raspberries which aren't in season here, and I prepared Smitten Kitchen's sauteed apple topping. It's a pretty foolproof recipe, and it's a great way to bring a lot of life into those less-than-ideal winter apples. I substituted toasted pecans for almonds, since that's what I had leftover in my fridge.

Be sure to visit Baked Sunday Mornings to see all the other bakers who tried out the Baked French Toast.