Baked French Toast Bread Pudding

One of my all time favorite company-worthy breakfast entrees that I like to make is Baked French Toast. It's essentially regular French toast but the bread is soaked in the egg and milk the night before and stored in the fridge until morning. It's then baked for about thirty minutes until it's a bit crispy on the edges of the bread. It's creaminess and buttery texture is always a sure fire hit.

The recipe I've always used is found here at Allrecipes.com. It includes a caramel sauce that I usually avoid because it always seems way too sweet for breakfast. Each time I make it, I can't help but think that the recipe was really more like a dessert than a breakfast, so when Stacie told me she wanted bread pudding a light bulb went off in my head. Could I use the Baked French Toast recipe to make a bread pudding? The answer is a big YES!

I had to tweak the recipe a bit. I sweetened the egg mixture, added more cinnamon, and used Challah bread instead of French. I also introduced raisins that I soaked first in a cup of warm water so they would plump up a bit. I wasn't sure how to cook it though. I was worried that the top and sides would cook too fast and leave the center raw so I cooked it very slowly in a water bath - over an hour.

All in all, it came out really well. I made my husband, son, and me individual portions. Considering how rich this is, it was the perfect serving size. The outcome was great! The texture was perfect - soft and moist on the inside and crispy and sweet on the top. My husband really enjoyed this and he's not even a fan of bread pudding!

I'll post the recipe after I've made it a few more times. I ended up cooking it for about an hour, due my experimentation with the cooking. For now, here's the recipe for the fabulous Baked French Toast, courtesy of Allrecipes.com.

Stacie, I really hope this is what you had in mind. Happy Birthday!

Baked French Toast
1 (1 pound) loaf French bread, cut diagonally in 1 inch slices
8 eggs
2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups half-and-half cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup unsalted butter
1 1/3 cups brown sugar
3 tablespoons light corn syrup

1. Butter a 9x13 inch baking dish. Arrange the slices of bread in the bottom. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, milk, cream, vanilla and cinnamon. Pour over bread slices, cover, and refrigerate overnight.
2. The next morning, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a small saucepan, combine butter, brown sugar and corn syrup; heat until bubbling. Pour over bread and egg mixture.
3. Bake in preheated oven, uncovered, for 40 minutes.

Yield: I made this in a 9x9x3 baking dish and fed about 8. If I had made it in a longer, shallower dish, I probably could have feed 12.

Would I Make This Again? Yes, definitely! This one is a keeper! 5 out of 5 stars,

Yolanda's Raspberry-Lemon Trifle

Yolanda was very specific with her request. Although she didn't say she wanted a trifle per se, she did say she wanted something that was cold, wet, and fruity. She also didn't want anything that contained chocolate. The choice was obvious; it had to be a trifle.

Since raspberries are in season this recipe jumped out to me. It seemed the epitome of summer to me and it tasted like it too with it's flavorful lemon curd, and bright, sweet taste of the raspberries, this dessert was everything I hoped it would be. My only problem was that I didn't buy enough pound cake (I bought a 10 oz instead of the 16 oz) so it was a little on the small side. It worked out fine though. Yolanda was thrilled.

Raspberry Lemon Trifle

Adapted from Bon Appétit, June 2001

Syrup
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup water

Curd
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

Fruit and Topping
4 1/2-pint baskets fresh raspberries or 1 bag frozen raspberries
1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar

1 16-ounce frozen pound cake, thawed and trimmed of outside dark outer shell (save trimmings to be added to center of trifle later)

2 cups chilled whipping cream

For syrup: Combine sugar, lemon juice, and water in small saucepan. Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 1 minute. Cover and chill.

For curd: Whisk eggs, sugar, and lemon juice in heavy medium saucepan to blend. Add butter and lemon peel. Stir over medium heat until curd thickens to pudding consistency, about 10 minutes. Transfer to small bowl. Press plastic wrap onto surface of curd. Chill until cold, at least 4 hours. (Can be made 3 days ahead.)

For fruit and topping: Combine raspberries and 1/4 cup sugar in bowl. Mash berries coarsely with fork. Let stand until juices form, stirring occasionally for at least 30 minutes.

Cut cake crosswise into 8 pieces. Cut each piece into 3 strips. Line bottom of 3-quart trifle bowl with 8 cake strips, trimming to fit. Drizzle with 3 tablespoons syrup; spread with 2/3 cup curd, then half of mashed berries. Repeat layering. Top with remaining cake, syrup, and curd.

Beat cream and 3 tablespoons sugar in bowl until peaks form; spread over trifle. Cover; chill overnight.

Yield: This will serve several. With the 10oz loaf of pound cake I was able to make about 15 or so 1/2 cup servings, so I'm guessing with a 16 oz loaf, that would be streched to at least 20 or more similar sized servings. It's all in how you plate it.

Would I Make This Again? Yes! The lemon curd was so good! I'd make that by itself any day and will be my go-to recipe for curd for now on. Next time I'll try this with blueberries. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Aleigh's Lemon Poppy-Seed Rice Pudding

I always love to think outside of the culinary box when cooking and it seems the more I cook, the more brazen I get. So when I asked Allison, a fellow foodie, what she wanted for her birthday treat and she said she liked the idea of something with lemon and poppy-seeds, I wanted to make her something out of the ordinary. With Allison's blessings, I opted for to go flour-less. I had seen a recipe in last November's issue of Food & Wine for a lime and poppy-seed rice pudding* that I thought with just a little tweaking, would make both of us happy. The upgraded the rice to arborio, omitted the mango, simply substituted lemon zest for the lime and lo! a delicate, new lemon poppy-seed dessert gem was born. So the next time you want a lemon and poppy-seed confection but a muffin, scone, or cake just won't do, try this pudding. Delishy!

Lemon Poppy-Seed Rice Pudding

• 3 quarts of whole milk
• 1 lb of arborio rice (Risotto quality rice)
• 1 14oz can of unsweetened coconut milk
• 1 whole vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
• 2 Tbsp poppy-seeds
• 1 1/2 cups of sugar
• 1/2 cups of heavy or whipping cream
• Zest of one lemon

1. In a large, heavy pot, combine milk, rice, coconut milk. Mix well and let sit for 30 minutes. Add vanilla bean (entire bean and scraped seeds) and poppy seeds. Mix well and bring to a simmer over a moderately high heat. When it starts to bubble, reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring often, until the rice is tender (approximately 50-75 minutes).

2. Add the sugar, cream, and lemon zest and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes. Let cool to room temperature and cover with plastic wrap. Store in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Yields about 12 cups

* The adapted Food & Wine recipe can be found here