Baked French Toast, 1 hr, 15 min, Easy, $4/family

Ingredients

Butter, for greasing
1 loaf Crusty sourdough or French bread
8 whole eggs
2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tbls vanilla extract
Topping
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
Freshly Grated Nutmeg, optional
1 stick cold butter, cut into pieces
Warm syrup, for serving
Butter, for serving
1 cup fresh blueberries, for serving


Preparation Instructions:
For the French toast: Grease the baking pan with butter. Tear the bread into chunks, or cut into cubes, and evenly distribute in the pan. Crack the eggs in a big bowl.  Whisk together the eggs, milk, cream, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla. Pour evenly over the bread. Cover the pan tightly and store in the fridge until needed (over night preferably).

For topping: Mix the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and some nutmeg in a separate bowl.  Stir together using a fork. Add the butter and with a pastry cutter, and mix it all together until the mixture resembles fine pebbles.  Store in a plastic bag in the fridge.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Remove the casserole from the fridge and sprinkle the topping over the top.  Bake for 45 min for a softer more bread pudding texture or for 1-hour plus or more for a firmer, crisper texture.

Note: I baked mine for an hour and I needed to cover with foil after 45 min so the topping would not burn.