Pumpkin French Toast Bake

I have seen several recipes for Pumpkin French Toast or Pumpkin Bread Pudding floating around the Internet lately, and I just loved the idea. I love breakfast, and if it's something I can just pop in the oven in the morning, that's even better!

The first time I made this, I followed the recipe pretty close, and the second time I tried a few different techniques. Somewhere in the middle I found something heavenly.

First I'll explain how I will probably make this when I make it again (which is pretty inevitable), and then I'll follow up with some tips on how you can personalize it.

PUMPKIN FRENCH TOAST
*1 loaf of good bread (I used sourdough from a local bakery)
*8oz of pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
*2c. Milk
*6 Eggs, beaten
*1 Tbsp Vanilla
*1 tsp Pumpkin pie spice
* 1/2 tsp Cinnamon

First cube your bread into about 1 in. cubes and place in greased 11x7 casserole dish. In a separate bowl mix remaining ingredients. This makes what I am calling a custard. Pour your custard evenly over bread cubes. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight. (I did it overnight.) At this point, or in the morning, you can put together your streusel topping. 

Make a custard with eggs, milk, pumpkin, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, and cinnamon.

Pour that beautiful amber colored custard over top of your bread.

Cover as much of the bread as possible.

Streusel Topping
*1/2c. Brown Sugar
*1/2c. Flour
*1 tsp Cinnamon
*1/2 tsp Pumpkin pie spice
*1/2c. Cold Butter, cut in pieces
*Chopped pecans

Mix together 1st 4 ingredients. Cut in butter using a fork or even your hands until it is coarsely combined. Then add in the pecans. If you make it the night before, combine the dry ingredients and cut in the cold butter in the morning.  

I was a little lazy, and didn't combine the streusel well enough, but it still turned out awesome.

See, look how delicious this thing looks!

When you wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed, top your French Toast with the streusel topping and pop it in the oven @ 350° while you get yourself beautiful for the day. Serve with some syrup and you are good to go.

Additional tips:

*The first time I made the recipe I just used plain store bought bread. It tasted great this way too!

*Feel free to go heavy on the pumpkin if you want. I had a 16oz can, so using half allowed me to make the recipe twice.

*To give the dish more of a 'bread pudding' texture, gently toss the bread cubes in the custard and evenly coat before adding to your baking dish.

*Feel free to use whatever nuts you have on hand in place of the pecans...or no nuts at all if you so desire. You could even skip the streusel topping if you were in a real hurry, but I just love the texture and flavor it adds to the dish.

This tastes delicious as leftovers too, or for dinner, or for dessert, or a mid-afternoon snack...However you want it, this baby will fit the bill...

Breakfast Sandwiches

Ah, Northeastern Ohio...how you toy with us...chilly, warm, cold, warm, hot, then arctic freezing weather- and all in one month! You just can't make up your mind! Now last winter was very mild, hardly a snowstorm, but this year it seems like we will have a more typical winter. But what does all this have to do with breakfast sandwiches??

My husband and I very rarely get a day off from everything. Whether it be work or volunteering, we usually have somewhere we have to get up and go in the morning. Needless to say we don't often sit down and eat breakfast together. So when we did get a snow day yesterday, we took advantage of it! Nate went to the movie store and I started on breakfast. Several ideas crossed my mind. First I thought about this tasty 'Puffy Oven Pancake' I made a few years ago. It's extremely easy and very good, but Nate isn't a huge sweet eater (weirdo!), so then I was thinking of sausage gravy and biscuits but we had eaten that recently, so I decided on breakfast sandwiches.

As I perused Pinterest for easy biscuit recipes I happened on a recipe from Taste of Home for 'Angel Biscuits' that sounded worth trying, so I did (with a few changes).

Angel Biscuits inspired by Taste of Home
* 1 1/4oz package dry active yeast
* 1/4c warm water
* 1c warm buttermilk
* 2 1/2c all purpose flour
* 1tsp salt
* 1tsp baking powder
* 1/2tsp baking soda
* 1/2c room temperature butter (or shortening)

Combine the yeast and warm water. Leave it alone for 5 minutes and combine dry ingredients. Add buttermilk to yeast mixture and leave it alone again (yes I know that's hard!) Cut in the butter or shortening with a pastry blender (or just use a fork like I did). Combine until coarse: so there are no big hunks of butter. Next add your liquid ingredients and just combine.

Preheat oven to 450°. Roll dough out onto a floured surface and gently knead just a few times. Roll to a medium thickness, like the length of your thumbnail. Use a biscuit cutter, a cup, or just free form your biscuits and then place on a lightly greased cookie sheet or one covered with parchment paper. Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden brown.

Now the rest of the fun begins... I had a few pre-made breakfast goodies that I used to pull these sammies together, I cooked up several eggs over-medium (the sandwiches could be messy since we were eating at home) and of course CHEESE! Nate got a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit, and I made myself a sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit. The biscuits were so good; very light and flaky. They also go great with a little bit (or a lotta bit) of strawberry freezer jam on them.

What about you? What would you make for a stay at home breakfast or brunch?? Comment below!

Pop Tarts - my way



Yum! :)



I know, they're bad for me, and perhaps they don't actually taste that great, but I do admit to giving in to a hankering for a pop tart occasionally.

The original is a good go-to, a strawberry filling encased in flaky goodness with icing on top. And I looove the Hot Fudge Sundae pop tart. It's pretty addictive.  But guess what?! It's is super easy to make homemade pop tarts! They are ridiculously easy and I think they would even be a fun little dessert for parties because they're little hand-held novelties.

All you need is some jam (or whatever delectable filling you're in the mood for...nutella anyone?) And pie crust. (I use store bought.) 

Just jam and pie crust!

You can cut your crust into nice even pieces, or you can be lazy like me and just cut them into whatever shapes your crust normally forms.  I cut mine big enough to fold over instead of doing separate pieces for top and bottom.
Add a dollop of jam in the middle and fold over. Crimp edges and bake at 425· (or whatever temp your crust is suggested to cook at) for 7 or 8 minutes.
Now, if u wanna get really fancy, you can make a glaze or drizzle with melted chocolate. That's it! So easy and tasty! Hope you try these fun little treats!

Add a dollop of jam (no, not daisy!)




Fold your crust in half over top of the filling.



Crimp the edges with a fork to make 'em pretty.

You could make them all uniform in size...

But I wanted to use all my crust up, so I have some odd-shaped ones.



Nice and crispy out of the oven

Yum! :)