Married to the Empire

Friday, September 19, 2008

Praline-Topped French Toast

We had a breakfast for our youth group on Sunday morning, and my contribution was 2 pans of praline-topped French toast. This is a really fabulous recipe that always garners tons of compliments. Just pretend that it's good for you!

Praline-Topped French Toast Casserole

1 (13-16 oz.) loaf of French bread
8 large eggs
2 cups half-and-half
1 cup milk
2 T. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. salt

Praline topping:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans (I beg you; leave this vile part OUT!)
2 T. light corn syrup
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Cut the bread into 20 (1-inch) slices. (If you buy pre-sliced bread, don't worry about this part, obviously.) Arrange in a generously buttered 9"x13" baking dish, overlapping the slices. Combine eggs, half-and-half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Beat until well blended, but not bubbly. Pour evenly over the bread slices, spooning some between the slices. Cover tightly and refrigerate overnight.



When ready to bake casserole, combine praline topping ingredients (except for the pecans, because they are GROSS!) in a medium bowl.



Blend well and spread evenly over the egg-and-bread mixture in the casserole dish.



Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden.



Cut in squares to serve. Makes 8-10 generous servings. Recipe can be cut in half for smaller groups. (Or you can double it, like I did in the pictures.)

I got this recipe from The Nestle Inn in Indianapolis, which is where we stayed in 2005 for Star Wars: Celebration III. Really nice place run by really nice people.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you have to refrigerate over night?

Anonymous said...

Do you mean you dislike pecans in general? Or you don't like them in this particular recipe?

Anne Marie@Married to the Empire said...

Jill, I assume so. The bread needs to soak up the egg/milk mixture. An hour or 2 would probably suffice, though. And if you're making it for a breakfast, it really is nice just to pull it out of the fridge in the morning, smear the topping on it, then pop it in the oven.

Becky, I think pecans are the most vile food ever created! If you like pecans, they're probably just fine in this recipe. If you're making it to share with a variety of people, some of whom may not like nuts, my recommendation is just to place a few pecans on the top that can be eaten or easily picked off. The B&B where we first ate this did that, so I was able to eat it without gagging.

Anonymous said...

This looks absolutely wonderful!!! Thank you for sharing! We were in Indy too. So much fun. I wish we could have hung out together, would have been a blast! I'm just certain we crossed paths at least once or twice :)

*carrie* said...

Anne Marie,

I can't believe you hate pecans--yum! I thought praline stuff had to have pecans--hmmm.

Maureen said...

Oh, this looks incredible! I will definitely have to try it, thanks!

Anne Marie@Married to the Empire said...

Carrie, technically, you're correct. But it doesn't sound very appealing to call it A-Whole-Lotta-Butter-and-Sugar-Topped French Toast! ;-)

Catherine said...

We made this for Christmas morning breakfast and it was a HUGE HIT! We always joke about food being awful when it is amazing and my mom got a kick out of your commentary about hating the pecans. So, now it is OFFICIALLY called Vile-Praline Bread Pudding in our house. :-) Thanks so much for sharing this.