Marmalade Baked French Toast

There are so many things to like about this baked breakfast/brunch recipe. The most important one is, of course, it’s fabulous deliciousness! But when it comes to logistics and construction, it has lots more to offer as well.

To sum up this dish, it’s two layers of buttered French bread slices with orange marmalade and cream cheese sandwiched between them. A lightly sweetened custard gets poured over all of it, the whole thing sits in the refrigerator overnight, and then it gets baked.

I love the make-ahead nature of this as well as the ease with which it goes together. You can have it waiting in the refrigerator when you wake up, not really all that well-rested, on a weekend morning, get it into the oven and take a little nap while it bakes. (Is it just me?) The reward will be out of proportion to your small evening effort.

This bakes up firm, but moist. The flavor of the marmalade and that little bit of cream cheese (I took the liberty of stealing that idea from another recipe) stand out well within the mild flavors of bread and custard. It’s not overly sweet, since citrusy marmalade isn’t so sugary. If you want something sweeter, you could drizzle some syrup on your serving, but I found it not to be needed.

I’m sure you could use other jams or jellies in place of the marmalade. I’d like to try raspberry, myself. You could also go without the cream cheese, or add some nuts or fresh fruit. I’m going to keep this recipe close by, using it as a template for whatever flavors seem like they might be great. And, since I can put everything together ahead of time, I don’t have to worry about making those flavor decisions in the morning. Not my best time of day!

Marmalade Cream Cheese Baked French Toast

Adapted from Cooking Light magazine

1 16-ounce loaf French bread, cut into ½-inch slices

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

12 ounces orange marmalade

4 ounces cream cheese, cut into small pieces

6 large eggs

1/3 cup sugar

2 ¾ cups milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

1. Spray a 13 x 9 inch baking dish with cooking spray. Spread half of the butter on one side of half of the bread slices. Arrange the buttered slices, butter side down, in the prepared baking dish. Overlap slightly as needed to fit.

2. Spread the marmalade evenly over the top of the bread. Distribute the cream cheese evenly over the marmalade.

3. Spread the remaining butter on one side of each of the remaining slices of bread. Arrange these bread slices over the marmalade and cream cheese layer with the buttered side up.

4. In a medium-size bowl, beat the eggs and the sugar together. Beat in the milk, vanilla and nutmeg.

5. Pour the egg mixture over the bread. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 8 hours, or overnight.

6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 F. Bake, uncovered, at 350 F for about 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the egg mixture is no longer liquid. Let stand 5-10 minutes before cutting into squares to serve.

Makes 8-10 servings.

Leftovers can be refrigerated. Microwave individual leftover servings.

Another recipe like this one: French Toast Casserole with Cardamom and Pears

One year ago: Chocolate Pie with Graham Cracker Crust and Marshmallow Topping

Cappuccino Coffee Cake

It’s great when an idea turns out to be a really good one. That’s what happened with this delicious coffee cake. And while I can definitely say that I got this idea, I can’t exactly say that I came up with it on my own. It’s more like I acquired it.

Actually, this coffee-flavored coffee cake is a combination of two ideas that came from other people. The authors of many cookbooks that have recipes for quick breads will tell you that muffin recipes can be converted in to coffee cake recipes simply by baking them in a cake pan. This makes perfect sense, of course. (After all, the cupcake is just a different way of baking a cake.) I decided to make a coffee cake out of the batter for these Cappuccino Muffins.

 

The second idea I totally stole is Dorie Greenspan’s “Cocoa Crumbs” from Baking Chez Moi. In that book, she suggests that, while she likes to bake these crumbs into crunchy bits to sprinkle on desserts like mousse or pudding, they would be also be great sprinkled on cake batter like a streusel topping.

These two great ideas turned out to make beautiful music together, or at least a wonderfully delicious coffee cake, perfect for a lazy weekend morning. I added some instant expresso to a half batch of the crumbs to give them a mocha twist, and their bittersweet crunchy goodness is a fabulous accompaniment to the soft, coffee-rich muffin-turned-cake. The cake is at its absolute best when still a little warm from the oven, but it’s great later on, too, or even the day after (just be sure to wrap it up well.)

It’s hard to know which is the more triumphant victory: the success of the cake or the success of the crumbs. You know, I think I’ll just revel in this as a win-win. I’ll try not to let it go to my head.

Cappuccino Coffee Cake with Mocha Crumb Topping

Adapted from The Ultimate Muffin Book by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough and Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan

For the Mocha Crumb Topping:

½ cup all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons light brown sugar

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder

¼ teaspoon fine salt

2 ½ tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

For the Cake:

8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick)

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons instant espresso powder

2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon fine salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 large egg

1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon almond extract

1. To make the topping: in a medium bowl, combine the ½ cup flour, brown sugar, 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, cocoa, 1 teaspoon espresso powder, and ¼ teaspoon fine salt. Mix together well. Add the 2 ½ tablespoons butter cubes and rub them into the dry ingredients, squeezing to create coarse lumps. Set aside, or refrigerate until ready to use.

2. Preheat oven to 400 F. Spray a 9-inch square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray or grease it with butter. Melt the remaining stick of butter and set aside to cool slightly.

3. In a small saucepan, heat the milk over medium-low heat just until there are just a few bubbles around the edges of the pan. The milk will be scalded but not yet boiling. Stir occasionally to keep the milk from scorching on the bottom of the pan. Whisk in the espresso powder. Set aside to cool slightly.

4. In a large bowl, combine the flour, 2/3 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon fine salt, and cinnamon. Whisk together to combine well. Set aside.

5. In a medium-size bowl, whisk the egg and the cooled melted butter until smooth. Slowly whisk in the milk mixture. Whisk in the vanilla and almond extracts.

6. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir until the dry ingredients are just moistened. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan. Squeeze the topping into clumps and sprinkle them over the batter.

7. Bake at 400 F for 25-30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached. Cool completely or enjoy slightly warm.

Makes about 12 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Cappuccino Muffins, Hazelnut Latte Muffins, Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake, Blueberry Muffin Coffee Cake with Crumb Topping

Apple Baked Oatmeal

In August, when I was on a little vacation, I had a lovely baked oatmeal dish for breakfast one day. It was exactly what I hoped it would be and exactly what I wanted for breakfast. I decided it was exactly what I was hoping to be able to make at home.

Well, I didn’t really get a chance to search too hard for a recipe after that, but then I was reading through a copy of The Apple Lover’s Cookbook by Amy Traverso, and found one that looked like what I needed. I finally got a chance to try it out on a lazy Saturday morning, and it was delicious! Still exactly what I want for breakfast!

 

While I went through all the steps of the recipe on the morning I was going to eat it, I think you could do some of the prep work ahead of time to get breakfast on the table a little faster (although this does need to bake for about an hour.) I think you could mix up the dry ingredients, and cover and store them at room temperature, then mix up the wet ingredients and store them in the refrigerator. The next day, while the oven is preheating, you could cut up the apple, mix the wet and dry ingredients together, mix in the apple, pour into your pan and bake.

I used Cortland apples in this dish, a type with which I’ve had mixed results when baking. This time, they kept their shape and much of their firmness, which I didn’t mind. You could use whatever apple you like to bake with, and if it is an apple that cooks down to a softer texture, you would probably get a baked oatmeal that is moister than what I got. The texture of mine was almost cake-like, which, again, I didn’t mind.

This dish isn’t especially sweet, but you could add maple syrup or more brown sugar to your serving if you’d like. My husband threw himself on a second serving to test this concept with maple syrup and gave it the thumbs-up. You could also use different nuts and dried fruits (or none). I quite liked the dried cranberries and walnuts with the apples and cinnamon. I also quite liked that this makes a full 8-inch square baking dish full of breakfast and the leftovers were also great warmed up for a few days after the original baking day. No effort on weekday mornings: now, that’s exactly what I want for breakfast!

Apple Baked Oatmeal with Walnuts and Cranberries

Adapted from The Apple Lover’s Cookbook by Amy Traverso

2 cups old fashioned rolled oats

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup chopped walnuts

½ cup craisins

1 ½ cups diced apples, peel if desired

3 large eggs

1 cups milk

1/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg, preferably freshly grated

1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Spray an 8-inch square baking dish with cooking spray or grease as desired.

2. In a large bowl, combine the oats, baking powder, salt, walnuts and craisins. Toss together to combine. Stir in the apples.

3. In a medium-size bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add the milk and brown sugar and whisk together until smooth. Whisk in the cinnamon and nutmeg.

4. Pour the egg mixture over the oat mixture and stir to combine. Pour into the prepared baking dish.

5. Bake at 325 F about 50-60 minutes or until the top is brown and the center is no longer liquid.

Makes 6-8 servings.

One year ago: Parsley Hazelnut Pesto