This 100-year-old recipe for Baked French Toast is baked in the oven on a cookie sheet until golden brown and slightly crispy with a bread pudding-like texture.
I love when family and friends reach out to share cherished dishes from their own recipe box. This one came to me courtesy of my husband’s cousin Shansel, who is the keeper of their great-grandmother Maria’s recipe for Baked French Toast.
It’s a sweet and simple version that Maria used to make for her eight children, more than 100 years ago, before they would walk to their country school.
According to the recipe that was passed down to Shansel from her great aunt Lenore, all the kids thought the French toast was delicious. Lenore notes, “of course, at that time, great-grandma only had a wood stove.” Yet, she still managed to toast and butter each piece of bread before baking it to perfection in a mixture of eggs, milk and sugar.
Why I Love this Recipe
This delicious French toast does not require any fancy ingredients or many ingredients at all. Heck, you don’t even need to add vanilla or nutmeg. And, you don’t need any special bread.
- Some recipes call for stale bread but just toasting bread beforehand will help to dry it out so it absorbs more of the custard. We used Sara Lee White with Whole Grain Bread—it has a nice, fluffy texture and reminds me of the bread my own grandma would likely have on hand in the old days.
- Butter the bread and place it buttered side up in the pan before pouring the remaining custard on top.
- Let the bread sit about 30 minutes before baking to give it a chance to absorb the custard.
- We baked the French toast for about 45 minutes but covered it with foil toward the last 15 minutes when the bread started to puff up a bit and turn golden brown.
The result is French toast that is golden brown and slightly crisp on top with a softer, creamy, bread pudding-like texture underneath. For such an easy recipe with only a few ingredients, it is so good. And, I can see why Maria found this recipe to be an efficient way to feed her small army of hungry children before they walked to school.Thanks to Shansel for sharing this family recipe!
