When I was a child, my Mexican grandmother would always have a pot of beans simmering on the stove. Even decades after Grandma passed away, the aroma of these “drunken” beans (my modernized version) that I frequently prepare for my family keeps her close to my heart. I wish your family the same enjoyment as mine.
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Cook Time: | 30 mins |
| Additional Time: | 9 hrs |
| Total Time: | 9 hrs 40 mins |
| Servings: | 9 |
| Yield: | 1 8×8-inch dish |
Ingredients
- 1 cooking spray
- 8 slices cinnamon bread
- 2 Golden Delicious apples – peeled, cored, and chopped
- 4 large eggs, lightly whisked
- 1 cup half-and-half
- ½ cup milk
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ½ cup packed light brown sugar
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Instructions
- Spray an 8×8-inch baking dish with cooking spray to coat. Layer 4 slices bread on the bottom of the baking dish; sprinkle with 1/2 of the apples. Repeat layers.
- Combine eggs, half-and-half, milk, sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl. Mix well. Pour over the bread. Cover with foil and refrigerate, 8 hours to overnight.
- Pull out of the refrigerator 1 hour before baking.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Mix butter, brown sugar, pecans, maple syrup, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a bowl. Spread over the top layer of apples.
- Bake in the preheated oven until puffed and golden, 30 to 40 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 364 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 36 g |
| Cholesterol | 121 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 8 g |
| Saturated Fat | 10 g |
| Sodium | 157 mg |
| Sugars | 24 g |
| Fat | 23 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This was very “wet” after 40 minutes, so I ended up cooking another 13 minutes @ 400ºF. It was hard to cut with a fork because the bottom bread slices were so crusted. May be a result of the additional cooking time?? I’m not convinced you need a full stick of butter to top an 8×8-inch baking dish, so I could see cutting that amount back a bit. This has a lot of liquid so, perhaps, cut back the half-and-half and milk (do you really need both?) which might help with the wetness of the casserole after 40 minutes. I think adding some chopped pecans along with the apples between the bread layers might be a good idea (my husband’s comment) instead of all of them going into the topping. I used Egg Beaters instead of eggs, fat free half-and-half, and 1% milk in an effort to improve the nutritional breakdown. The serving size is small, but this is a very rich dish, so that worked for us. Do place the dish on a foil-lined baking sheet in case there’s any spillage (I had a little) which might be avoided with less liquid. If I were to make this again, I’d probably try cubing the bread to avoid those crusty whole bread slices on the bottom, not a lot of additional work, but keeping the two layers. It does taste very good, just a little tweaking involved to bump it up to 5 stars for me.
I used an 8×8 pan, as per the recipe, and a lot of liquid spilled over the edges onto the bottom of the oven, which set off the smoke alarm during the baking process. Next time I will either set the pan on top of a cookie sheet while baking or use a slightly bigger pan so that I don’t end up with a big burnt mess in the oven. Otherwise, it tasted good.
This was a very easy recipe to put together It was easy and used old bread. Made my morning wonderful
So good! Forgot to take a picture though!
This is the best French toast bake that I have made! The addition of chopped apples over the bread, and the butter, pecans, sugar and spice mix poured over the top are so good! I dipped my bread slices in the batter before putting them in the baking pan rather than pouring it over the top, and used Macintosh apples because that is what I had on hand. Thank you for this recipe!
I can’t really rate this recipe yet. I would love to make it, but there is a typo on one of the ingredients. So, I don’t know what it is. I have a feeling it is the apples. I don’t know if they are chopped, sliced, cubed?