Stuffed French Toast Casserole

Submitted by Galley Wench

"YUMMY! Make the night before and pop in the oven the next morning, what could be easier or more delicious? . Time indicated does not include soaking time!"

 

• Ready In: 1hr 15mins
• Ingredients: 16
• Serves: 4-6

ingredients

• 8 -12 slices French bread, day old sliced diagonally 1/2 inch thick (enough bread to make two tight fitting layers in the baking dish)
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup cream
• 1 1⁄2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1⁄2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1⁄4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1⁄2 cup orange marmalade
• 2 -3 tablespoons crystallized ginger, minced
• 4 -6 ounces cream cheese, softened

• Struesel Topping

• 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2⁄3 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 1⁄2 tablespoons maple syrup or 1 1/2 tablespoons honey
• 3⁄4 cup walnuts, chopped

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place the bread in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake until dry and lighthly browned, about 20 minutes.
3. Cool,.
4. Spray a 9 x 9 baking dish with non-stick spray.
5. Mix crystallized ginger into the apricot preserves.
6. Spread the cream cheese on one side of half of the slices of french bread.
7. Place the cream cheese topped slices in the baking dish, cream cheese side up.
8. Spoon apricot preserves over bread and top each slice with a plain slice of french bread (forming sandwiches).
9. Mix together the eggs, milk, cream, sugar, vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon.
10. Pour mixture over the bread slices.
11. Place plastic wrap over the top and refrigerate overnight.
12. (Note: To keep the bread submerged, place a weighted plate or saucer on top of the plastic wrap).

13. Next Morning:

14. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
15. Mix together the butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and maple syrup until smooth.
16. Stir in the walnuts.
17. Evenly drop the topping mixture over the casserole.
18. Bake for approximately 50-60 minutes or until golden brown and set.
19. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Reviews

[CoffeeB]

The key to this recipe is certainly to make sure you're pan is sprayed really really well. My french bread was the long/narrow kind and I think the larger oval shaped loaf would have worked better. Also, no oven temperature listed in step#1 was no biggie, but might want to be added later. The taste was wonderful and I especially liked the streusel topping in which I had to actually had to spread on the top instead of dropping. This was also good reheated a day later. Kudo's on creating this recipe and your use of ingredients.

 

[GirlEatsWorld]

This was yummy. I cut the recipe down to a smaller casserole and the amounts worked out fine. I think I would have liked a fruit other than apricot a little better, but it was still very good, and the ginger was a great addition. I wasn't sure at what temp to bake my bread, so I did 350F for about 10-15 min. I didn't cut my bread into diagonals and it was a timesaver in spreading the cream cheese on, and it cuts beautifully when done. Mine did really puff up in the oven and I had a little overflow so be sure to use either a deep enough dish or if you're not sure put some foil down. Simple to put together, not super sweet and the topping is delish. Great effort for the contest! Good luck!

 

[Tinkerbell]

Yummy! We enjoyed this breakfast very much. I love all breakfasts that can be made the night before so trying this one was a no-brainer. I used dark brown sugar & honey in the topping but had to sub pecans for the walnuts, due to allergies. Just a note on the written recipe: The ingredients list cream but the directions list half & half. Since I had half & half on hand I was able to make the recipe without going to the store. ;) And direction #1 does not indicate at which temperature to bake the bread, so I set my oven at 350 degrees and it took about 10 minutes to brown & crisp the bread. Thanks for submitting your creation, Chef! Good luck!