baked pumpkin french toast

Sunday mornings, in our home, are slow mornings. They're for sipping coffee while flipping pancakes and whisking eggs and crisping bacon - a big breakfast to sit down and enjoy together before heading to church. There are some Sunday mornings however, when I don't have time to sit and spend an hour at the stove (or don't feel like it!). This is the perfect breakfast for that kind of Sunday morning. The kind where you'll be spending a great deal of time getting Thanksgiving dinner ready, and the thought of doing another big meals is just a bit overwhelming. Or maybe you have guests, and you want something special to serve, but would still like to sit and visit over coffee? Being able to make this the night before means that by the time your coffee has finished brewing, the oven has already preheated and you've popped it in!

I tried this recipe for Pumpkin French Toast first, and then tweaked it, which I will post below. The first was tasty, but it was for doing one at a time on the stove top. I wanted something I could bake in the oven - in this case, in a 9" cake pan. I also tried it in a 9" x 13" baking dish and it worked well. The trick was good old parchment paper. I simply lined a greased cake pan, fanned all the dipped bread as best as I could, and then baked it. To remove, I simply lifted it out of the pan, peeled away the parchment and quickly set it on a cake plate.

I prefer Brioche when making my French toast, so that's what I used for this. Also, while this is called Pumpkin French Toast, the pumpkin flavour is subtle. It's really more of just a lovely autumn flavoured French toast.

Baked Pumpkin French Toast

Set aside 16 slices of brioche. Roughly a large loaf.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the following together:

5 large eggs

2/3 cup of cream (you could use milk)

1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree (pure, not pie filling)

3 tbsp white sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Quickly soak a few slices of day old brioche and then arrange in buttered and lined dish. Repeat, until all slices have been arranged. It was easiest for me to do about 10 slices around outside, up the sides to make an outer edge. Then, tuck the remaining 6 slices on the inside, between every other outer piece or so, to make a tighter inner circle that is overlapped. Really, this isn't so important, it's just how I preferred it. You could even just line them up in rows in a square baking dish. Pour whatever liquid is remaining evenly over the top.

Cover with tin foil and bake in a preheated oven at 350' for about 35 minutes, or until puffed and no longer soggy. I removed the tinfoil for another 5 minutes or so of baking to crisp up the edges a bit.

Remove after a minute of cooling, and place on a serving plate. Serve warm with syrup and whipped cream. I added a splash of maple bourbon to mine.

The first time I tried it, I added pecans to the top. I enjoyed that, but the boys aren't crazy about them, so I left them off this time.

I liked that we could just cut wedges and add a dollop of cream. It was a really simple thing to put together and an even easier breakfast to serve the next morning - perfect for the holidays!