Saturday Brunch + French Toast Casserole Recipe - The Small Things Blog (2024)

FAQs

How do you keep French toast casserole from getting soggy? ›

Avoid soft, pre-sliced sandwich bread. It can result in a soggy French toast casserole!

French toast will always signify a slow Sunday's morning where an indulgent breakfast is calling to be enjoyed. The way to achieve this is to make your egg mixture the night before and leave the bread slices to soak up the batter overnight.

French toast casserole is made with all your usual French toast ingredients: bread, eggs, milk, sugar, and vanilla. We use half-and-half to achieve a rich custard, and we sprinkle in some toasted pecans for more flavor and a little texture.

Breakfast sausage – It is easy to throw a bunch of sausage links into the oven or a skillet to serve alongside. Good quality bacon – I'm not a huge bacon fan, but most people love it on a brunch menu. Smoked Salmon – If you're wanting to give your brunch menu a little fancy touch, set out slices of smoked salmon.

Ideally, the bread should be slightly stale. A drier bread will soak up all the custard. Bread can be left out with the wrapper open the day before cooking. If you find yourself in a pinch, dry your bread slices in a 275°F oven for 10 minutes before soaking them in the custard.

Your French bread will be perfectly delicious if you decide to just skip over the vanilla and continue making your French toast as-is. However, if you'd like to incorporate a little more flavor into the dish, you can try replacing the vanilla with a substitute like maple syrup, bourbon, or almond extract.

Freezer and Make-Ahead Tips

Freeze cooked French Toast Casserole for up to three months. Remove it from the freezer the day before you want to serve it and let thaw in the refrigerator overnight. Cover the pan with foil, then reheat at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes or until warmed through.

The first recipe resembling French toast appeared in a fourth-century CE cookbook from the Roman empire, though experts believe a version may have existed as early as the first century.

The binder, a liquid that holds the other ingredients together. – Fat-free milk, broth, fruit juice, soup, eggs, or a thickened Béchamel/White sauce.

A French Oven is a more modern version of the Dutch Oven made in France from enamelled cast iron. A Casserole dish is a shallower dish, designed for slow cooking or baking in the oven.

What are catchy names for French toast? ›

French toast is a dish of sliced bread soaked in beaten eggs and often milk or cream, then pan-fried. Alternative names and variants include eggy bread, Bombay toast, gypsy toast, and poor knights (of Windsor).

Assuming that you want to serve the casserole hot and the streusel crispy, keep the casserole and the streusel separate until almost serving time. This means you will have to bake the streusel on a cookie sheet until crisp and ready, then let them cool uncovered and transport them in a separate container.

Just because your casserole is starting to look a bit soupy doesn't mean it's beyond saving. In fact, all you need to do is add some pasta noodles or grains to your base. This trick works for the simple reason that both types of ingredients soak up water as they cook.

For best results, bring the it up to room temperature before reheating. Add a ¼ cup of water or milk to the top before you put it in the oven to reheat. The added moisture will do wonders in preventing the it from drying out. The best way to is to cover it and put it into a cold oven.

Pre-cook the veggies. Veggies are naturally watery. As they cook, they release that moisture. If they only cook in the casserole, all that extra moisture will also be IN your casserole.