Overnight Custard French Bagel Bake

A twist on French toast using bagels instead if bread!  Soak overnight or for a few hours before popping in the oven for an hour. Less than 10 minutes of prep work for a delicious, crowd pleaser breakfast treat! 

Breakfast time around here is a cereal/oatmeal/toast free for all.  You aren't going to get any fresh muffins or eggs at 7 am - we all are too hungry to have a nice breakfast!

 

But come lunch, that's when the goods are baked and fried and stacked.  We have a breakfast for lunch every week and it is my brother's favorite.  They could live on scrambled eggs, hash browns, and French Toast forever.

 

Breakfast day is my least favorite day.  Now, don't get me wrong!  I have a major with breakfast food, but only certain kinds. Give me a bowl of granola or a big stack of pumpkin oatmeal waffles, but please, don't give me French Toast.  I see no point in soggy bread covered in more soggy and sugary syrup.  That is just not my cup of tea!  But this French Toast bake changed my opinion.  I could live off of this recipe forever.

 

I think it is because this isn't really French Toast.  There, I admit it.  It is bagels ... covered in custard.  *aka freaking delicious*

 

Instead of day old bread, I used day old bagels.  These were homemade whole wheat bagels, but any store bought will work as well, just make sure they are plain or cinnamon.  Don't try an a cheese or everything bagel in this recipe, it ain't gonna work.  But other than that, this is one of those recipes that you can be lazy about and it still turns out amazing. 

 

This past week would've been perfect for this recipe!  We all have been sick with sore throats and major congestion.  Although I haven't had a fever, I've still felt very out of it!  Hence this post.  I actually made this several weeks ago when we were babysitting four neighbor kids.  (I know, this is math, but that means there were 12 kids in our house.  That is a lot, just saying.)  Making food that satisfies everyone, including the picky eaters, is hard.  But this made it easy!  Not only does it require very little hands on time , I was few to do whatever up until taking it out of the oven and serving it. 

No frying a few pieces at a time. 

No standing over a griddle. 

No missing out on eating with everyone.

No waiting for seconds. 

Cover it in syrup or powdered sugar or peanut butter - it is guaranteed to be good.  The whole thing was gone by the time lunch was over.

Because it was in the oven up unt serving time, I had no time to do nice photos. 12 kids aren't interested in waiting and I don't blame them. So this ended up in the "ugly" post section aka the "I'll-post-only-if-I-have-nothing-else-to-post-because-the-photos-are-so -bad" section.  

 

Or when you have been sick and you haven't baked anything. ;)

 

 

Overnight Custard French Bagel Bake

Recipe Source: Adapted from Pepperidge Farms

Yield: 12 servings 

 

6 cups whole wheat bagel cubes

3 cups milk

6 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

1/4 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons brown sugar

 

Place bagel cubes in a lightly greased 9x13 pan.

Whisk milk, eggs, vanilla, sugar, and cinnamon together.

Pour over bagel cubes.

Press down, with a spatula, so that the bagel cubes soak up the milk mixture.

Refrigerate for at least three hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350.

Remove pan from the refrigerator.

Sprinkle brown sugar over top.

Bake for 60 minutes.