When I was small, I remember my mom making this decadent recipe on special occasions. She made it for Christmas morning sometimes, and we often ate it when my Grandma visited.

If we were going to be home on Christmas morning, we’d be eating this for sure.

Except, we won’t be home, we’ll be traveling. Tomorrow, however, we are having my parents and sister over for brunch and opening presents. It’s the perfect time for Mom’s French Toast Casserole!

Mom’s French Toast Casserole
Ingredients:

• 1 pound of bread, cut into cubes and divided in half – My mom said to buy a bag of bread cubes in the bakery. I was going to do that, but it cost $3.29 for 12 ounces of bread, and I could get a whole 20 oz. loaf of whole wheat Italian-style bread for $0.99. No contest. When we got home, I took the bread of the bag and laid it in a single layer on a wire cooling rack for the rest of the afternoon. When I was ready to make the casserole, the bread was sufficiently stale and easy to work with. I separated it into 2 stacks, each with 9 slices. I used a big serrated bread knife to cut one stack into strips and then the strips into smaller sections. It’s sort of important to keep your two piles separate.
• 1 1/2 to 2 (8 oz) blocks of cream cheese, cut into cubes – This was much harder than it sounded. For the first block, I attempted to cut the cream cheese, while still semi attached to its silver wrapper, into cubes. Then I tried to pick the cubes up with my fingers and “sprinkle” them into the pan. It was a miserable failure. There was as much (now partly melted) cream cheese on my hands as in the pan. My suggestion to you is this – cut the cream cheese into four or five sections parallel with the short side of the block. Use a butter knife to pick up one section of cream cheese at a time, and use a second butter knife to cut a cube and push it off the first knife and into the pan. This way, there was no mess and no waste at all. Much, much easier.
• 12 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon Cinnamon Plus spice blend or Pumpkin Pie Spice (to taste)

Instructions:

1. The preparation for this recipe takes place the day before cooking. You have to plan ahead.
2. Grease a 9×13 pan. I like to brush the pan with melted butter, but you can spray it with nonstick spray or grease it in any way you like.
3. Put half of the bread cubes into the bottom of the greased baking dish. Sprinkle cubes of cream cheese evenly over the bread. Repeat with the remaining bread and cream cheese.
4. In a large bowl, whisk the remaining ingredients together, taking care to break all of the egg yolks. Pour over the bread and cream cheese. The fluid will not cover all of the bread, but don’t worry about it. Push the bread down into the fluid a little, and then cover the whole thing and put it in the refrigerator over night.
5. In the morning, preheat your oven to 350. Cover the dish with foil, and bake for 20 minutes.
6. Remove foil and bake an additional 10 to 30 minutes, until center is firm and bread is browned. A knife inserted in the center of the casserole should come out clean when it’s done.
7. Cool for 15 to 20 minutes. Serve warm with more maple syrup.

Reminder:
This contains a lot of eggs, so you don’t want to undercook it.

Happily submitted to Saturday Stirrings