If you're searching for a simple, frugal breakfast recipe — this one for Baked french Toast is sure to be a crowd-pleaser. Because you can use stale or day-old bread, it's relatively inexpensive as well. Someone brought it in to my husband's office a few months ago, and he raved about it. His co-worker was nice enough to share her recipe and we just made it this weekend for a family gathering. Here's how to make it:
Baked French Toast
1 loaf French bread, cubed (or any kind of stale or day-old bread)
1 8-oz. package cream cheese, cut into 1-inch cubes
8 large eggs, beaten
2 1/2 C. half and half (use milk to make it even more frugal)
6 Tbsp. butter or margarine, melted and cooled
1/3 C. maple syrup
Cinnamon
Grease a 9×13 pan. Put half of the bread crumbs in the pan, spreading out evenly. Top with cream cheese slices. Add the rest of the bread cubes. In a separate mixing bowl, combine the eggs, half and half, butter, and maple syrup. Pour over the top of the bread cubes/cream cheese. Pat everything down into the pan to ensure it all gets moistened. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sprinkle with cinnamon before placing in the oven. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown. Top with maple syrup as desired and enjoy! Serves 8.
I’m curious as to how this is frugal??? It would cost about $7 for me to make this.
Looks yummy though!
It serves 8-10 people, Melynda – so it is easily under $1 per serving.
Kimberly – Thought I’d share that I made this even more frugally today. I’ve been making the kids homemade “uncrustables” for school lunch and saving the edges of the bread to make homemade croutons. Instead of that recipe, I cut up all the leftover bread and used it in this French Toast recipe. No one noticed that it wasn’t whole bread slices and it tasted fine. (It was soggy, but I’ve read more comments now and realized I should have let the bag sit open for a day to dry out a bit first.) Thanks for giving me a use for all that bread!!
Great idea!
You could always use the bread from the discounted racks at your bakery or stores like WalMart, a french loaf on the rack is only $0.90 and the eggs are usually $0.95-$1.45/dz depending. I think this is going to be a great experiment. Has anyone tried adding vanilla extract? I’m wondering how that will be.. hmm..
Tried mine with vanilla! Came out delicious, added just a splash 🙂
YUM!!!
I have tried something similar in the past. How do you keep the middle from getting soggy? The kids love it until they get to the “squishy part”.
The middle wasn’t soggy for us. I’m not sure why that would’ve happened for you, unless too much milk or cream was used or it wasn’t baked long enough.
Looks very tasty and simple to cook! I’ll give it a try when I’ll have some spear time.
I just prepped ours for breakfast in the morning. I am so excited! Thank you so much for sharing! 🙂
could you mix the creamcheese with the egg mix, thereby getting it thru out, or are slices of cream cheese the desired effect?
Tanya, baked french toast can get soggy in the middle if the bread isn’t stale or firm enough. That happened to me once and I think it was because the bread was too soft and fresh. When I make baked french toast (or any kind of french toast for that matter), I take the bread out of the wrapper and let it sit out for a few hours to get just a bit hard.
I have never used cream cheese before though, so I am definitely trying this one out. thank yoU!
Great advice, Jeanette! Thanks for posting.
I made this recipe exactly as listed – however, it has been baking for well over an hour & it is still soggy….and not just in the middle. The top looks awesome but under the first layer is eggy mush. I’m super disappointed. I’m hoping that eventually, it will be done?
I had the same problem, it eventually burnt on the top and was grossly soggy at the bottom, I think the bread may have been to fresh?? I don’t know, I felt like I wasted a bunch of ingrediants though. I’ve had it made by a friend before so I know it can be done, guess I may try again!
Those of you who said your bread was soggy, did you use French bread? It tends to be thicker than regular white bread. I can see how using another type of “fluffier” bread would result in a soggy middle. Also, are you refrigerating it overnight? That’s another important step. HTH!
I make this all the time for my family and they LOVE it! The recipe I use is even more simple…use cinnamon raisin bread (cubed), 3 cups milk, 6 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla. Mix wet ingredients together, put bread into baker and pour other ingredients over the top. Bake at 350 for about an hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with hot syrup. This started as a Christmas morning treat and is now a special request from the teenagers. They love it. It is best to let it sit in the fridge for an hour or so before baking (overnight is awesome!)
It looks similar to a bread pudding. Try cooking it in a crockpot on low for about 4 hrs. Comes out perfect! I’ve done it before.
We will be trying this tonight for dinner with some turkey bacon! Hope its good! I found this to be very inexpensive to make especially since all the inedients except the half n half were already in my house!! It was also super easy to make!!
i could see me making this maybe once a month for breakfast. just warm up a little each day.
I loved it–next time I’ll just use the cream cheese on half as my kids weren’t crazy about that part. A friend saw the recipe and suggested serving it with strawberries and fresh whipped cream–that sounds yummy to me!!
I mixed the cream IN my mixer with rest of ingredients and it great! Also put1/2 cup sugar in mix. Topped with chopped pecans. I was worried about the soggy thing so I baked covered for 45 min then uncovered to brown.
I made this twice and it was a huge hit both times. Didn’t have time to bake it for an hour the first time. Nor did I refrigerate for an hour. It was still great. The second time, I let it sit overnight and then put the topping on and baked it for an hour. It will be a regular in my collection. Thanks for sharing.
So glad you liked it!