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Golden, egg-rich challah makes the most decadent French toast, since it really soaks up the custard and adds a richness of its own. And, because the entire dish can be assembled the night before it’s popped into the oven, it’s the ideal dish for serving brunch to a house full of guests.
Ingredients
- Unsalted butter for greasing
- 6 eggs, lightly beaten
- 2 cups (16 fl. oz./500 ml) half-and-half
- 1 Tbs. vanilla extract
- Grated zest of 2 Meyer lemons
- 1/4 cup (2 oz./60 g) firmly packed light brown sugar
- 1 loaf day-old challah, about 1 lb. (500 g), cut into 1-inch (2.5-cm) slices
- Confectioners' sugar for dusting
- Mixed fresh berries for serving
- Maple syrup for serving
Directions
Butter the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch (23-by-33-cm) baking dish. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, half-and-half, vanilla, lemon zest and brown sugar until combined.
In batches, dip the bread slices into the egg mixture, turning the slices to coat them evenly and letting the bread sit in the bowl for about 2 minutes to absorb the liquid.
Arrange the slices in the prepared baking dish, overlapping them slightly. Pour any of the liquid remaining in the bowl evenly over the bread in the dish. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.
Preheat an oven to 350°F (180°C).
Transfer the pan, still covered with the aluminum foil, to the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking until the French toast is puffy and the top of the bread is lightly browned, about 15 minutes more.
Lightly dust the French toast with confectioners’ sugar. Serve with fresh berries, if desired, passing the maple syrup alongside. Serves 6 to 8.
Williams Sonoma Test Kitchen
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Pinkhorse from
Like a fluffy cloud!
This recipe came out perfect! I made some challah the day before, then made this the next morning letting it sit for 2 hours in the fridge before baking. I used a 10 inch pan with its lid instead of a 9 x13 pan with foil. I also baked it without the lid for about 20 minutes longer than the recipe says. It turned out perfect, nice and fluffy inside with a slightly toasted outside.
Date published: 2021-05-29
Rated 4 out of
5
by
Onecrazycook from
Not your typical French toast
Most important: Use the specified amount of lemon and don't use a moist bread.
Since I have a small oven and the brunch for 6 had many items to cook, this was an excellent recipe that allows you to prep the whole dish the evening before and store in the fridge overnight, to pop in the oven while making other items for the meal.
I started with a dense, sour dough that was a few days old, so those slices were excellent. Because there a sizeable amount of egg/milk mixture left over (and I didn't want to throw it out), I cut up a few pieces of artisan bread that I had just bought earlier that day to add to the dish. Those pieces were OK, but a little too soggy. Also, I do not recommend pouring the remaining amount of mixture in, if left over.
Do use good quality lemons, and don't skimp. (Yup, guilty.) It had a very good taste, that would be even better with more lemons, but not to over power it all.
I'll be making this for sure in the future for big get together, since it prepares nicely in advance.
(Definitely look at the other reviews. I found some good observations in them.)
Date published: 2020-11-01
Rated 5 out of
5
by
blips from
Delicious recipe!
I do wish, however, that with all your recipes that you give instructions for alternate size/shape pans to use, as in this one it says use a 13x9 baking pan, but the picture of the completed dish is in what looks like a 12" skillet! Please adjust your recipes in the future to coincide with your pictures , or at least clearly state what alternatives can also be used.
Date published: 2020-01-13
Rated 5 out of
5
by
delaMi from
Delish!
One of my favorite go to recipes for French toast. It works for challah and brioche. I threw in fresh blueberries on one batch and made a mascarpone compote instead of maple syrup.
Date published: 2019-11-24
Rated 5 out of
5
by
delaMi from
Delicious!
After reading reviews, I thought I should just attempt trying it. They had me at Meyer Lemons. It was a big hit at a brunch party. This was so delicious. It came out perfectly. I made a mascarpone cream topping and had blueberries on the side as another way to serve along with maple syrup. I even added a little Grand Marnier in recipe. Will definitely keep in the recipe box!
Date published: 2019-08-05
Rated 4 out of
5
by
TwinMom from
Great flavor, mushy texture
We’ve made this a few times. The flavor is good. The texture is a little more mushy than we prefer so I no longer soak the bread as long and toast the bread in oven for 5 minutes on each side at 200 degrees prior to stiffen it up even more or make sure to leave it sitting out for couple days. I use an All Clad D5 pan as shown and have never had it burn on bottom as others said - I just rub pan well with unsalted butter. Make sure to use Meyer lemons and not regular lemons. If you don’t have access to Meyer lemons (can find at farmers markets or in our case, the neighbors tree), mix zest from one normal lemon and 1/2 large orange instead of 2 meyers to get that orangey flavor Meyers provide. We have trouble finding Challah near us so I tried substituting Brioche and it didn’t work as well - too mushy. I like to make a berry compote for top which really kicks it up a notch (berries of choice, 1/4 sugar, 2 tbls water bring to simmer and stir about 6-8 minutes).
Date published: 2019-01-21
Rated 1 out of
5
by
Scrabble from
Burned
Although I thoroughly buttered the skillet, the bottom of the slices all burned so badly that they stuck solid to the skillet. Perhaps I didn't use enough butter, but the recipe contained no warning of such an outcome. Also no discernible lemon flavor from the zest. Truly awful.
Date published: 2018-03-20
Rated 4 out of
5
by
Zolamom from
Meyer Lemon French Toast
i found this very easy to make and can be modified with different spices. I did not have a sauté pan to transfer this to, so I had buttered my glass dish well, left it sitting over night and baked according to the directions. The top looked beautiful when removed from the oven, but the bottom burned. Would it have done the same thing if I had a oven ready sauté pan?
Date published: 2016-02-22
