Oven Baked French Toast

• servings: 2 servings
• active time: Prep: 10 minutes
• total time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

4 large eggs

1 cup whole milk

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

1/4 teasoon of salt

6-8 slices brioche bread (½ to ¾ inch thick)

cinnamon (optional) to dust on top prior to baking

butter (optional)

maple syrup (optional)

Alternate: Use eggnog in place of the milk and add 1 oz. of rum, 3 TBSP of sugar to the egg wash. And sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg with the cinnamon.

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Grease a large steel, non-stick rimmed half sheet pan (18x13 inches). I use a rubber spatula to spread a thin layer of butter across the pan while the pan is still cold. I still had some sticking when using sprays because they leave spots that aren't oiled. PS: There's a high likelihood of sticking in an aluminum pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla extract, and salt until well-combined.

Pour the egg mixture into a second pan.

Put the bread slices in the egg mixture in a single layer; let them sit for a minute or two to soak up half of the egg mixture.

Flip the bread slices over and soak the other side the same way. There should be very little egg mix remaining.

Bake for 13 minutes on the middle rack or until the bottom of the bread is golden brown. If you soaked the bread for the full minute or longer, it will start to puff up about the time that this side is cooked. This should be an indicator of the doneness of the egg mix inside.

Flip the bread slices over; bake for an additional 13 minutes. Again the bread should puff about about the time that the egg mix is cooked through.

Notes

These directions give a nice golden colored crust to both sides of the french toast with a bread pudding like middle layer.

Finished French toast can be frozen and when ready to eat, put the frozen toast in an air fryer. To freeze, lay them out spaced apart, on a wire rack in the freezer for about an hour. Then package them and keep them in the freezer for up to a month. To heat them back up, place the frozen slices in an air fryer, set it at 320F, for 8 minutes. No flipping needed.

425F for 10 minutes gave similar results but interior was more wet. 400F for 12 minutes seemed just a little on the wet side to me. 400F for 13 minutes were a little on the dark side for me. But the interior was very nice. Next I'm going to try 350F for 13 minutes to lighten the color some.

Included pictures of toast cooked for 12 minutes, 13 minutes, and puffed up ready to flip.