Boozy Baked French Toast
This is a breakfast bread pudding. It's fun to make and great for a crowd. Sometimes frying up individual chunks of french toast can be a pain. But this way you just do a big pan and it's all ready at once. Reheats well too.
What you will need
1 loaf bread
3 cups milk
3 eggs
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 vanilla bean
How to cook
1
If the bread is crusty, I like to remove the ears and the bottom crust because it might not soften in the oven. Watch yer fingers!
2
A few slices down the length, one through the middle, and dice.
3
Combine egg, milk, sugar and salt for a basic custard mix that we will soak the bread.
4
Scrape out a vanilla bean into the custard base and mix it up.
5
Whisk in the cointreau. Definitely feel free to experiment with different liqueurs.
6
Dump the bread chunks into the custard mix. Squish em a bit to get the custard into the crumb. Let them soak while the oven is heating up.
7
Preheat the oven to 425 F.
8
Rub some butter in a baking dish that's big enough to accomodate your bread chunks. For bonus points, sprinkle some brown sugar and cinnamon in there too.
9
Pour the custard-soaked bread chunks into the greased baking dish. Spread it out and squish it down a bit.
10
Bake
Bake for 30-40 minutes. It's done when it is set. You shouldn't see any liquid in the dish.
How to Scrape a Vanilla Bean
Fresh vanilla bean really does knock the shorts off of your run of the mill vanilla extract. It’s more expensive, but totally worth it for certain dishes.