Baked Apple and Pecan French Toast Casserole

I used to be eager to try new things for breakfast every weekend possible. Great sides of student life! As I started to work I’ve grown lazier and lazier, and rather spend my late mornings sleeping than preparing luxurious brekkies to S and myself. 

While browsing through the memory card of my camera I came across with this breakfast dish I prepared already some months ago. It was a perfect breakfast in a sense that it took only a quick moment to prepare. Next time I would perhaps make it a brunch dessert, as it’s too sweet to be a breakfast dish alone.

In case you’re not a big fan of apples, I assume you could substitute them with pears, pineapple or peaches as well. Talking about peaches, I’ve been thinking of this supergood looking grilled peach dessert for some time now, and will do it sometime soon!

The basic casserole recipe was adapted from here. 

Baked Apple and Pecan French Toast Casserole

1 loaf brioche or French bread, sliced into 2cm thick slices

8 eggs, slightly beaten

500 ml whole milk

1,5 dl light brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 green apples, halved, seeds removed and rather thinly sliced

0,75 dl brown sugar (I used muscovado)

50g butter, softened

1 teaspoon cinnamon

handful of pecan nuts

+ butter to grease the baking dish

Preheat oven to 175 C°. Rub a medium baking dish with butter.

Place the bread slices on the dish, overlapping. 

In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, sugar and vanilla. Pour 2/3 of the mixture over the bread slices.

Arrange the apple slices nicely on top of the bread and top with rest of the egg mixture.

Mix together brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly on top of the apples.

Dot the surface generously with butter and pecan nuts.

Bake casserole for 30-40 minutes on a center oven rack. Let cool before serving and enjoy with some vanilla ice cream.