My brother was curious as to what eggnog tasted like so he bought a quart of it to try. As it turns out none of us really liked it much. I’m sure it’s better with some liquor in it, but it was too thick and custardy for me. So, now I’m stuck with a quart of eggnog that no one was going to finish. What to do? What to do?
The eggnog reminded me of the mixture that you make french toast with so I decided to look for a recipe. We had a guest staying for the weekend so it was perfect timing. I found a lot of french toast casserole recipes online, however I wanted one that could be made the night before and was “easy”.
I finally found the perfect recipe on a website called Five Heart Home. The recipe was for Overnight Eggnog French Toast Casserole.
- 1/2 cup or 1 stick of butter
- 1 cup of packed brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons of maple syrup – I didn’t have any real maple syrup and just Aunt Jemima’s
- 1 loaf of French bread, cut into 1-inch cubes – I used Brioche bread, because I’m fancy like that
- Cinnamon to taste
- Nutmeg to taste
- 8 eggs
- 2 cups of prepared eggnog
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla
- You can use a 9×13 inch baking dish or 2 8×8 baking dishes. I wasn’t paying attention to this part and ended up using just 1 8×8 baking dish…
- Using butter or nonstick cooking spray, grease the baking dish(es).
- Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the brown sugar and maple syrup. Stir until the mixture comes to a boil. In case you haven’t realized it, because I didn’t at all, this is basically caramel.
- Pour the brown sugar mixture into the baking dish(es) and arrange the bread cubes on top.
- Sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg, to taste. I went more heavy on the cinnamon than I did nutmeg.
- Whisk the eggs in a large bowl. Then add the eggnog and vanilla.
- Pour the custard mixture over the bread cubes. Make sure that the bread soaks up the mixture. Since I made the boo boo of using just 1 8×8 baking dish, I had some custard mixture leftover. Don’t make this mistake!
- Cover the casserole with aluminum foil and place it in the refrigerator overnight. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours.
- When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 325°F.
- Leave the aluminum foil over the casserole and bake covered for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes increase oven temperature to 375°F and remove foil.
- Bake the casserole uncovered for 5 to 10 minutes. You can insert a knife or chopstick in my case in the center of the casserole to check if it’s done. The knife or chopstick should come up clean and mostly dry. The top will be golden brown.
The bread cubes are really packed into this baking dish. That’s because I read the instruction wrong and used 1 8×8 baking dish instead of 2. I had a lot of custard mixture left over, but tried to pour as much of it onto the bread as I could. What a waste of eggs! I did end up tossing some to my dismay. Next time read the instructions more thoroughly Cathalee!
You can add fruit, powdered sugar or any topping you’d like. I kept it simple and just ate it the way it is, which was AMAZING. It wasn’t overly sweet, which is great for those of us who don’t like that. My sister couldn’t get enough. She kept scooping spoonfuls from the middle.
Look at all that caramel at the bottom of the baking dish! I wasn’t sure about this when I was making this casserole, but it’s the best part of the dish. I was literally spooning more caramel onto every bite of french toast.
I had enough left over from my breakfast that I took the dish to work the next day. Everyone really liked it and I had a few ask me for the recipe. This is one of those dishes that’s even better the next day if that gives you an idea of how good it is. I highly recommend that you treat your family to this breakfast casserole this holiday season!
