Baked French Toast

Enjoying a lazy Saturday morning? Haven't had breakfast yet? Go make this. Even if it's the most productive thing you do all day, you will not regret yet.  "Baked French Toast" basically means you get to eat bread pudding for breakfast.

Every bite is heart-warmingly delicious. It's all the goodness of french toast without gloopy fingers and sticky pans.

Chocolate & Banana Baked French Toast
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Yield:
2-4 servings

Ingredients:
4 slices bread (we used sourdough), torn into pieces
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar (white or brown, your preference. I used a little of both)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
2 bananas, sliced
1 tsp powdered sugar, for dusting

Method:
Preheat oven to 375*. Butter your pan of choice (I used a 9in pie pan). Arrange bread in single layer along pan. Place banana slices over the bread pieces, again in a single layer, if possible. In a medium sized bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together eggs, milk, sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla extract, cinnamon and salt until well combined. Pour mixture over the bread & banana, coating every piece. Push bread slices down into mixture with fork or spatula, to soak up as much liquid as possible. Place into oven and bake for 30min, or until a fork poked in the middle comes out clean. Let cool for a minute or two, then dust with powdered sugar. Slice and serve.
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Orange + Yogurt Pancakes

Big news, folks: we're moving to suburbia! Our offer was accepted on a beautiful home in San Jose, and we'll be making the migration from the big city in the next couple of months. We're super excited. Especially for: more space, actually being able to hang pictures on the wall, our OWN washer & dryer, and a large backyard -- perfect for growing fruits & veggies.

On one of our recent visits to the home for an inspection, the current owner gave us a parting gift of a bag full of oranges from OUR soon-to-be backyard!

Wanting to put these to good use, we came up with this little breakfast treat.

 

 


Orange & Yogurt Pancakes
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Yield:
7-8 medium sized pancakes

Ingredients:
1 cup pancake mix (I'm still going through a Costco-sized bag of Krusteaz Buttermilk Mix)
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup yogurt (homemade, greek, or full-fat, for best & fluffiest results)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp orange zest, for both the batter and garnish
powdered sugar, to taste

Method:
In a medium sized bowl (or large measuring cup with spout), whisk together pancake mix, orange juice, yogurt, vanilla extract, and half of the orange zest until just combined. Be careful not to overmix, as the more you mix, the less fluffy the pancake. It's OK to have lumps!

Heat a skillet on medium heat, add butter. Pour pancake batter onto pan, in desired shape and size. After a couple minutes, flip and cook both sides evenly. Transfer to a plate and top with remaining orange zest and powdered sugar.

Enjoy with syrup! For added orange flavor, mix 1 tbsp orange juice with maple syrup & heat briefly in microwave. Pour over pancakes.
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