Overnight French Toast

Overnight French Toast
from About.com
Serves 4

• 4 Tb. butter, room temp
• 12 3/4inch thick French bread slices*
• 6 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 Tb. maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt
• confectioner's sugar and extra syrup

*I used day-old French bread. AB says that French toast should always be made on day old bread so that it's thirsty. :) Basically, I took a loaf of French bread and left it out for a day before using it.  Please don't go to Publix and ask the bakery lady for day old bread. And after she tells you that they make their bread fresh daily, don't ask where the trash can is. Luckily, I was just a witness to this event, not a participant. 

Spread the butter over bottom of a 9x13 pan. I didn't do a very good job of reading this obviously, because you can see that I did not spread and my butter wasn't room temperature. BAHaha. Oh well. 

Arrange bread slices in the pan.

Combine eggs, milk, sugar, syrup, vanilla and salt in a large bowl; whisk until well blended. Pour egg mixture over bread. Turn bread slices to coat evenly (damn, I must have been super tired that night since that's two steps I missed!). Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. 

The next morning, turn off alarm and put on your robe before heading into the kitchen. I know you're still groggy but make sure that your oven is preheated to 400° F. Bake for 10 minutes. Serve with extra syrup and sprinkle with confectioner's sugar. 

NOM NOM NOM. This was the best and easiest French toast I have ever had. Sooo good. I may just have to pick up a loaf of French bread tomorrow ;)

UPDATE: Upon being asked for the nutritional information, I went to my food log to find the calories. In my food log, underneath the day, I often figure out the calories of meals by listing the ingredients one by one. This led me to discover that while I found the recipe above, I didn't exactly follow it....haha Here is a revised ingredient list that I used to make it a little more diet friendly:

• 9 oz French bread (didn't need the whole loaf)
• 2 Tb. butter (may omit it next time since I know see the purpose is just greasing the pan...)
• 6 eggs (Organic Valley...yes, it does matter because they have 10 less calories per egg)
• 1 1/2 cups 1% milk
• 2 Tb. sugar
• 2 Tb. fat free maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt

Nutritional Information (per slice): 182.7 calories / 7.2 g fat 

Omitting the butter (which I will def try next time): 160 calories / 4.7 g fat