Recipe #32: Salted Caramel Apple French Toast Casserole
Choice of libation: Chad, who makes excellent beer, has never made a cider before. This one does not disappoint. Crafted in time for the opening of the show "Isaac's Eye" at Writers Theatre, it was aptly named "Isaac's Cider." I hate it when hard cider just tastes like apple juice, and this one doesn't. You can tell it's a little boozy and because he added some ginger, there's a little bite to it.
Choice of music: Food, Kelis's amazing new album. Of course I would love it. It's a lot of throwback R&B soul. AND IT'S CALLED "FOOD." I have rotating favorite tracks on this album, but right now, I'm jamming on the first two, "Breakfast" and "Jerk Ribs."
Spiced rum obviously goes with all those fall flavours. Also, the recipe called for it. Well. Vanilla extract. But whatevs.
I tend to like my french toast really cinnamon-y, so I actually put a lot more in than the recipe calls for. Ditto for the nutmeg.
Make sure that each bit of the bread is soaking up some liquid before you put in the fridge overnight.
You don't want no dry french toast casserole.
There. That's better. It looks gross, but in the morning, you will be not be sorry.
The cool thing about this recipe is that you can do most of the work the night before, so that if you're, say, hosting an all day marathon of Lifetime movies at your house and you'd rather not spend the whole morning in the kitchen, aside from a few simple steps, all you have to do that day is pop it in the oven!
And here is a picture of badly diced apples.
Oh, did I mention, YOU GET TO MAKE YOUR OWN CARAMEL SAUCE?
Yeah. Good morning.
\
Then you stir those badly diced apples into that caramel sauce. And your kitchen will smell divine.
Now. You could just sit around and do nothing while you wait for the glorious casserole to bake.
OR. You could do something productive and educational, like ask your hilarious and adorable friends to read aloud excerpts from Tori Spelling's memoir, "Unchartered TerriTORI." While I don't have video of that, I do have a clip of Tori Spelling in the Lifetime movie, "Death of a Cheerleader."
Yeah, that was Becca from "Life Goes On." BACK OFF, MONICA.
But back to the reason all of us are here. I did mean to take a picture of the casserole, all pretty on a plate, but we kind of ate all of it before I could do that. Needless to say, you should probably make this for your next fall brunch. Caramel, sea salt, apples, carbs, rum...YES.
stolen then adapted from www.ambitiouskitchen.com
1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 medium apples (I used golden delicious), peeled and diced
1 1/2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk
2 eggs
3 egg whites
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (OR SPICED RUM, and maybe 4 tablespoons...)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (though I put in 2 teaspoons, and I wasn't sorry about it)
pinch of nutmeg
Spray a 13x9-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
In a large bowl, whisk together almond milk, maple syrup, "vanilla", eggs, egg whites, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pour egg mixture over the bread, making sure to soak each cube. If there are some dry pieces, simply press them down a bit to soak up some of the egg mixture. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours, or overnight.
Once ready to bake, place small saucepan over low heat and add brown sugar, butter and maple syrup; whisk occasionally until butter is melted and combined with sugar. Add salt and diced apples to caramel and stir to combine. Drizzle apple caramel mixture all over bread cubes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and bake for 40-45 minutes or until the top of the french toast bake is golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes then cut into 12 servings. Serve with warm maple syrup.
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