Stale bread from Mooncrazy

To participate in Is My blog Burning's food blogging event hosted by An Obsession With Food I needed to leave a loaf of French bread to get stale. Not an easy task in our house as darling husband loves bread and let's be honest, I do as well. I did manage to hide the loaf long enough to make Stale Bread Baked French Toast.

Egg mixture
6 large eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon or more nutmeg (none of that canned stuff)
1 small loaf stale french bread cut into 1" pieces or enough to fill a 9x13 glass baking dish

Topping
1/4 cup softened butter
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
3 tablespoons maple syrup

Butter baking dish. In a bowl whisk the egg mixture ingredients. Place bread in dish in single a layer with sides touching, really squeeze the bread in. Pour egg mixture over bread, cover and refrigerate overnight.

Next morning, preheat oven to 350. In a small bowl combine topping ingredients and spread evenly over bread. Bake 40 minutes or until puffed and golden. Cut into squares or pull out the separate pieces of bread and serve dusted with powdered sugar.

The egg mixture turns the bread into a light and fluffy custard not unlike a savory strata. This is a great brunch dish because you don't need to deal with butter and syrup for each serving. We had leftovers and they are tricky to reheat. Try the oven rather than the microwave as the eggs get a bit chewy and that's not a tasty texture.