Pumpkin Bread French Toast. Either your mouth is watering, or you’re turned off. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, why? I don’t know. What I do know, is no matter what time I wake up, 8am, 11am, 3pm, or 7pm, the first thing I need to have is something “breakfast” related; i.e. cereal, pancakes, eggs, etc. I got the idea from a lovely wine bar – DiWine – where I met some friends for brunch on Sunday to celebrate a birthday. I had banana nut bread french toast. It was delicious. With the impending storm brewing, I made sure to go to the store and stock up on things to do some baking, aka the non-essential stuff.
During this lovely Hurricane/post tropical storm/super-storm/tropical storm/Frankenstorm called “Sandy,” Fatima and I had some time away from work so we focused on cooking some fun things. Fried Oreos, chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin bread french toast, and an attempt at fried peanut butter cups.
To prepare for this dish, you need to make the pumpkin bread the night before. Any good french toast uses stale or dried out bread. The bread soaks up the egg mixture better when it’s dried out. Typically you want to take the bread out the night before your breakfast. Pumpkin, as I mentioned in almost any recipe posted, will moisten your dish. So taking this out the night before is crucial. I found this pumpkin bread recipe on the Food Network to be reliable and simple – perfect for french toast.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups shredded fresh pumpkin
- For French Toast – 1 egg, dash of milk, dash of cinnamon
Directions (Pumpkin Bread)
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
- In one bowl, mix sugar, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla.
- In another bowl, mix the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together.
- Combine both mixtures and fold in the shredded pumpkin. Bake your bread in a tin loaf or nonstick pan.
- Bake for an hour and 15 min. A knife or toothpick should be able to come out cleanly. Remove and let it cool.
- Cut into bread-like slices, and place on a wire rack overnight. Keep out of the reach of children, pets, and hungry roommates.
Directions (French Toast)
- Preheat a skillet or griddle on medium heat.
- Take one egg, a dash of milk, and cinnamon and whisk in a small bowl.
- When the skillet is hot enough, take one slice of bread, dip in the egg mixture, and onto the skillet. NOTE: I cut my bread slices in half to thin them out, as they were not cooking through as well.
- Turn over when the bottom is cooked through or golden brown.
- Repeat for the other side.
- Serve warm with cold syrup, eggs and bacon on the side.
