Lemon French Toast Bake

Nothing is better than waking up to a ready-to-bake breakfast that is oh so luxurious. This lemon french toast bake, inspired by Molly Baz's French Toast Casserole, fits that bill perfectly.

I modified her recipe slightly to better suit my fridge and my tastebuds. In Baz's recipe, she uses heavy cream and whole milk. I rarely have cream in the fridge and wanted to simplify the recipe, so I tried using just whole milk and just nut milk. I know heavy cream is probably a delicious addition, but both of my versions were super scrummy too, so feel free to use your favorite milk.

I also switched up Baz’s recipe by adding some lemon juice and zest, rather than holiday spices. This gives this dish a refreshing twist that my whole fam loves. Serve with maple syrup and fresh fruit for a real treat!

Let me know what you think of the recipe and don't forget to follow the sustainability tips below.

Ingredients

• 5 large eggs

• 1 1/2 cups milk of choice

• 1/4 cup lemon juice (from about 2 lemons)

• 2 tablespoons lemon zest ( from about 2 lemons)

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1-lb. loaf of day-old challah

• 1/4 cup coconut sugar, or lightly packed brown sugar

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• A few tablespoons raw sugar for topping

Steps

1. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, lemon juice, lemon zest, vanilla and salt until well combined. Set aside.

2. Cut the challah into 1-inch slices. Arrange the slices upright in an 8-inch by 8-inch baking dish. Try to stagger the slices to fill as much of the baking dish as possible.

3. Pour the egg mixture over the bread. Press down gently on the bread to soak up the egg mixture. Cover the dish and refrigerate for at least four hours or overnight.

4. Preheat oven to 350 F. Sprinkle a few tablespoons of coarse sugar over the bread. Bake for 40-60 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the custard is slightly jiggly. Eat up!

Sustainability tips

• Bread: Getting bread from a local bakery will not only taste exquisite, but it will also support your local economy and ensure that the bread didn't have to travel too far to get to you. If you're a real go-getter, try making the bread yourself with ingredients you know are sustainable.

• Eggs: Local eggs are usually pretty easy to find in the grocery store, so take advantage of that. Buying local will decrease the distance your eggs need to travel and help support your local farmers.

• Milk: For max sustainability, opt for a non-dairy milk. Cows are basically wrecking the planet, so avoiding dairy is always great. Whole milk from a B Corp is another great option here because B Corps are held to super high environmental standards, which could outweigh the impact of the cow emissions.

• Lemon: If you make this dish during lemon season (winter for most varieties), your lemons won't have to use the energy of a storage cooler for months, and it’ll be much easier to find local lemons. Buying lemons from as local as possible will decrease GHGs released during travel.

• Sugar: I like getting coconut sugar because it's easy to find fair trade varieties. If you'd rather buy fair trade brown sugar, go for it. Read all about sustainable sugar in my sustainable cane sugars post!