Make Ahead Christmassy French Toast #Christmas recipes

With Holiday Greetings from Mary Jane Maffini 

Enough with the baking and cooking! If you’re like us you’ve spent a lot of time in the kitchen this month with more to come. Don’t you want to put your feet up and enjoy an easy made-ahead breakfast on Christmas Day?  I sure do.   And I have a plan. I had been going for an eggnog French toast, but didn’t like the results with commercial eggnog.  This is what I ended up with after tinkering with a number of recipes. Apparently I needed to practice putting my feet up. Of course, with French toast you can mess around and make it to suit yourself.  This is not terribly sweet. You could make it sweeter or less sweet to suit your tastes.  

Be warned: It smells fantastic as it's baking.  

If you have something special you add to French toast, be sure to come by and let me know.

Make Ahead Christmassy French Toast 

Serves two to three depending on capacity (You could easily double it)

Ingredients

6 slices of French bread

1 ½ cup heavy cream  (You could use milk)

6 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

¼ cup butter, melted

3 tablespoons brown sugar (I use a Splenda blend but you choose)

2 tablespoons dark rum or brandy

3 tablespoons maple syrup, plus more to serve)

pinch of cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

Optional and not shown:   Icing sugar and berries or other garnish

Directions:

Grease a 10 x 10 baking dish (or equivalent – enough to lay out your bread)

Beat eggs with cream, maple syrup, rum and vanilla.  

Add brown sugar to melted butter and mix to dissolve sugar

Add to egg mixture. Add pinch each of cinnamon and nutmeg to egg mixture.

Blend well.

 Pour over bread, turning bread over to ensure egg mixture is absorbed.

Cover and refrigerate overnight

Preheat oven to 350 F

Take French toast from fridge 20 minutes before baking. Remove plastic wrap.

Bake about 30 minutes until puffed and golden brown.

 Sprinkle with icing sugar if you'd like. It does dress it up a bit!

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Serve with berries and maple syrup. 

I hope your holidays are tasty and restful. Wishing you peace and harmony and a much better 2021!  Many hugs, from my household to yours. 

Mary Jane Maffini is the author of three and a half mystery series: the Camilla Maffini mysteries, the Fiona Silk capers and the Charlotte Adams mysteries – number six coming soon!  The Charlotte Adams books have recently been optioned for television films. Details to come when they can be made public. With her daughter Victoria Maffini, MJ collaborated on The Book Collector Mysteries as Victoria Abbott. Victoria Abbott spent several happy years on Mystery Lovers Kitchen. MJ  is very glad to be back. 

Don't forget to check out MJ's Canadian books:  Camilla MacPhee features a fortyish widowed lawyer who runs an advocacy agency for victims of violet crime, in Ottawa, Canada's capital city. Life would be easier if she didn't have the world's worst office assistant, the world's bossiest sisters and, arguably, the world's greatest stubborn streak. If you like your mysteries a bit edgy with a side order of humor, these could be for you.

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