Fabulous French Toast

Last night/this morning I tried out my first baked French toast. I looked at a BUNCH of recipes but couldn't find one that was exactly what I wanted. So I just decided to wing it!

Ingredients:
5 eggs
1-2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 loaf of French bread
fresh fruit

The night before:
Slice the loaf of bread into one-inch thick slices and quarter each slice. I used about 3/4 of my loaf. 

Put all of the cut pieces in a 9x13 pan:

In a small bowl, mix together 3 eggs and 2 egg whites (You can play around with the amount of eggs and egg whites you use...you just need enough to coat however much bread you use). Add the baking soda, vanilla and cinnamon (to taste. I used 2 tsp which appears to be A LOT of cinnamon, but it worked out fine!)

Pour the mixture over the bread and use your hands to make sure all the pieces are evenly coated:

Press a piece of wax paper down over the bread and place in the refrigerator overnight.

In the morning, remove the wax paper and bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or so:

Top with fresh fruit and syrup!

*IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE: Don't forget to grease the pan!! I know, I know...cooking 101, but it was late and I was not devoting my full attention to this activity. If you don't grease the pan, you may end up with something that looks like this and some of the nice crusty bottom will get stuck in the pan :( Oh well, I say I'll live and you can learn from my mistake!

This recipe doesn't have the added sugar, butter and heavy cream that many of the recipes I looked at online had in them. And it was still plenty delicious!

*Variations: You can also mix the fruit in with the bread in the morning prior to baking, switch the fruit around- blueberries would be good- or leave the bread in slices instead of cutting it into cubes.

Enjoy!

--Lindsay--