I am not a fan of pumpkin pie or French toast, yet, somehow I ate two servings of this and didn’t hate it.
After Thanksgiving I was given a few slices of pumpkin pie to take home. I’m not a pumpkin pie fan — it’s the texture that bugs me, not the taste — but I hate to waste food.
Some serious Googling ensued and I ended up at this Pumpkin French Toast Bake recipe from Minimalist Baker. I figured pumpkin pie innards are the same as pumpkin puree and spices.
I took the photos with my iPhone and with my shaky hands. Sometimes I don’t know how I type–they’re just so unsteady. Please know that, yes, this did turn out well and was delicious.
A big thanks to my awesome friend Kristin for being my recipe tester/guinea pig and for bringing some damn outstanding banana bread as back-up in case this concoction went up in flames. Always have a plan B & don’t forget to grease the baking dish like I did. I am not looking forward to that scrub job.
Pumpkin Pie Baked French Toast, adapted from Minimalist Baker; makes one baking dish
Ingredients
Approximately half a loaf of challah, slightly stale, cut/ripped into bite-sized/large pieces
4 large eggs
1 scant cup Half-N-Half or milk
Innards of three slices of pumpkin pie (about 1 cup)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 Tbs. sugar
pinch of salt
Method
1. In a bowl, whisk together pumpkin pie filling, eggs, Half-N-Half, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, sugar and salt until well combined. Put the bread pieces into a greased/buttered baking dish (I used a 2-quart casserole dish) until they fill the dish.
2. Pour the egg mixture over the bread and gently stir so the mixture covers every inch of the bread. Let the bread sit and soak up the liquid while the oven preheats to 375* F.
3. Cover dish with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 10 minutes until the top is crispy. Serve hot.
You can make this the night before and let it sit overnight so the flavors really have a chance to develop and permeate the bread. As far as the bread goes, I used challah because it’s a sweet bread but another type of bread would work well too with maybe some adjustment to the sugar.
Given that I’m not a French toast fan in general, it is kind of shocking to think, “Hey, I could make this again.” I might play around with the flavor next time. Maybe try an orange/lemon combo, or cranberry sauce?
I served this with some plain Greek yogurt and black berries. The tartness of the yogurt really helped cut the sweetness of the French toast, and the berries are just good.
