So. Life is busy.
When I was on summer break and just working 3-4 shifts a week, I had heaps of time to bake. HEAPS.
I was baking, well, pretty much almost everyday. Sometimes twice a day. I was loving it!
Now that I’ve started at culinary school, there isn’t so much time to throw around. All the early mornings of school and then all the early mornings of baking shifts leave me pretty exhausted in the evenings too, so there hasn’t been that much baking happening.
There hasn’t been too much baking happening at culinary school either, because for the first week they were too busy showing us how to turn on the ovens, set the timers and adjust the gas burners. Not kidding.
The second week wasn’t that much better. We made a garden salad in my kitchen class. And faulted pound cakes in my cake class. Whoo! Making a salad should totally take 5 hours. And making a cake should totally take 4. NOT.
I’m whingeing, I know, I’m sorry, but it’s lame, and it’s boring, and I needed to let it out.
So anyway, I had a massive bake-fest all by myself in my kitchen last Sunday just to make up for lost time. This baked french toast was part of my baking day, as were two fruit pies that I will be posting soon!
This french toast was so easy. You soak the bread the night before, chop the strawberries and make the crumble. The next morning you wake up, put it all together, put it in the oven and you have breakfast!
It makes a big pan which is great, because I hate trying to think about breakfast on a rushed, early morning so I can just grab a slice and go for the next few days. Perfect.
STRAWBERRY BAKED FRENCH TOAST
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman.
For the french toast
1/2 large loaf of chewy bread
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp thickened cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 punnet strawberries (250g, 9 oz)
For the crumble topping
1/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cubed (25g, 1 oz)
pinch salt
Cut the bread into inch-sized cubes. Arrange in a medium baking dish.
In a jug, whisk together the eggs, milk, cream and sugar. Pour it evenly over the bread, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight, or for at least 1 hour.
Hull and quarter the strawberries. Put them in a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until required.
In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, butter and salt for the crumble. Use a fork to cut the butter into the dry ingredients until they resemble sand, and there are a few pea-sized dots of butter left. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed.
When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 180 C and take the french toast baking dish out of the fridge. Scatter the strawberries among and over the bread. Sprinkle the crumble topping evenly over the entire dish.
Bake for 40-45 minutes until topping is golden. Serves 8.