This smoked salmon soup was prepared by my sister while we were staying in a basic cabin while camping in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which connects Vancouver Island and Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. It’s delicious and oh-so-warming.
| Prep Time: | 9 hrs |
| Cook Time: | 40 mins |
| Additional Time: | 20 mins |
| Total Time: | 10 hrs |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ½ cup butter
- 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
- 1 cup chopped pecans, divided
- 12 slices French or Italian-style bread
- 6 eggs
- 1 ½ cups milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup butter
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup butter and 2 tablespoons corn syrup. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened.
- Pour sauce into a 9×13 inch baking dish and sprinkle with 1/2 cup pecans. Place 6 slices of bread on top of the sauce, sprinkle with the remaining pecans and cover with the remaining 6 slices of bread.
- Combine eggs, milk, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt in a blender. Pour egg mixture evenly over bread slices, cover the baking dish, and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.
- The next morning, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Remove the French toast from the refrigerator 30 minutes prior to baking. Bake in preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes, until lightly brown. Drizzle sauce over the toast right before serving.
- To make the Caramel Sauce: In a small saucepan, combine 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup butter and 1 tablespoon corn syrup. Cook until thickened, stirring constantly.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 615 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 73 g |
| Cholesterol | 189 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 12 g |
| Saturated Fat | 14 g |
| Sodium | 527 mg |
| Sugars | 46 g |
| Fat | 33 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I’ve been making this as part of our Easter Brunch for years, and it’s a big favorite in our family. The best advice I can give is don’t cook the caramel sauce too long in the sauce pan. If you cook it as long as the recipe says, by the time it’s done baking in the oven it will harden and then it’s hard to eat. Also, I don’t do a double layer of bread, just a single layer in two pans. If you do it that way though, you might want to double the caramel.
I used hard French bread on bottom, crescent dough in middle with shredded cheese and cooked sausage crumbles on top-wow! Delicious!!
great recipe, my family loves it. I suggest instead of the whole slices of bread, to take all 12 and shred them into junks, then we just throw it all on top of the caramel base layer. We also use Pepperidge Farms Cinnamon Raisin bread instead of plain french bread.
This is our “go to” Christmas morning breakfast. It is absolutely delicious and so, so easy. I make the sauces in the microwave. It takes about five minutes. Because there are only three of us, I only use six pieces of Texas Toast (thick white bread.) it is enough for Christmas and Boxing Day mornings!
Halved the recipe, skipped the caramel topping and served with pancake syrup. Very rich! Would be good for brunch. Next time will try it with cinnamon bread.
Made this and added pecans instead of walnuts. My husband a french toast with butter and sugar lover loved this. I served with scrambled eggs and bacon. I even made a mistake. I only did one layer of french bread and when I put it in the oven I thought oh no I forgot the vanilla. I took it out of the oven and squished the rest of my french bread in between the slices. I poured 3/4 cup of milk into a measuring cup added the vaniila with another half a tsp. and poured in between and over all. Then I just moved them around a little so they’d all get some vanilla and wet from the milk mixture on the bottom. When done I tipped it over on a plate so the sauce was on top as some suggested (great idea), and didn’t make anymore sauce to serve. I t was delicious!
No changes. My sons favorite!
I’ve been making this for years and it’s evolved into my own creation! I don’t use the final syrup recipe, I make a light cream cheese frosting in the center along with some Canadian bacon. I use whatever nuts & bread I have on hand for variation. It’s a family favorite!
I made this twice for work functions. Everyone raved about it. No left overs! The first time I made it, I cooked it with very thin sliced apples. It was good but I liked it better without the apples
I used maple syrup instead of the corn syrup. I would only do 1 layer of bread, just cut a bit thicker.
I’ve been making this for years! I don’t have a problem with it being soggy. Instead of pouring egg mixture over, I dip each slice of bread into the egg mixture as you would for regular French toast. Then, I stagger them in a standing/leaning rows in the pan, pour over any remaining egg and follow the rest of the directions. I also turn it out, upside down, to serve.
Loved this recipe. I used cinnamon apple fritter bread. So gooey and yummy. It was a hit. I cooked for 5 minutes less than what recipe called for.
We really enjoy this French Toast. It reminds me of caramel cinnamon rolls my mom used to make. (Ok, not as good, but I’m not spending all day baking, either. ) I was out of nutmeg the first time I made this, and it turned out so good that I’ve just never added it. I don’t think I’ve ever had this sit before baking for more than 3 hours; and I’ve actually put this in the oven less than an hour after getting it assembled. Yes, it’s sweet but we don’t think too sweet – and we always add the caramel topping! Just yum! We enjoy this with maple flavored sausage, for some reason it seems to taste better than regular sausage, and we eat this at any time of the day!
I will definitely make this again. My family enjoyed it for Christmas brunch. It is very sweet and quite moist without adding the final caramel topping, as there is a layer of caramel in the bottom of the baking dish. Flip each portion over when serving to reveal the caramelized pecans and sweet caramel.
Very yummy. Used a loaf of italian bread thickly sliced and placed into a 9 x 13 pan, and when we made the custard we only used 1 cup of milk, went a little short on the nutmeg and cinnamon though I don’t know that we needed to do that. Delish
Made this per the directions. The nutmeg flavor was way too strong and I agree with another post that the topping of more caramel sauce was too much. Going to remove this one from my saved file.
I love this recipe. I have used it time and time again. I cut a whole french loaf in to squares. I like it better that way. you can use all kinds of nuts and or apples or bananas if your into them. it’s perfect the way it is. thanks for the share.
I used Hawaiian bread instead of French bread.
This is super easy and a great breakfast treat! Something I would recommend is to use Texas toast instead of french bread.
It was really good. I didn’t modify much…used challah instead and didn’t do the second caramel sauce. It came out perfect. Not soggy or too sweet. I think it could have been good still with the second caramel sauce, but that’s all dependent on how sweet you like things. I don’t typically go for a lot of sweet for breakfast.
Way toooooo sweet, easy to put together, but sauce hardened shortly after serving. Will toss this recipe; been cooking 60 years so I do have experience cooking.