Baked French Toast

The Winegar side all headed town for our annual trip to St. George to see the parade of homes. Mama Winegar assigned each couple a meal and I was in charge of breakfast one day. I liked this one off of Mel's Kitchen Cafe because it takes hardly any preparation and you can do all of it the night before so the morning of all you have to do it throw it in the oven. Be aware that the bread needs to soak in the egg/milk/brown sugar mixture up to 8 hours so plan ahead!

1 French bread baguette
6 large eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup packed brown sugar, divided
1 cup pecans, chopped
1/2 stick plus 1 teaspoon butter
2 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed and drained (I used a bag of frozen mixed berries and it turned out great. I'll bet fruit that is in season would be even more awesome though)

Butter a 9×13 baking dish. Cut 1 1/2 inch slices from the baguette and arrange in one layer in the dish (about 6-8 slices). Whisk together eggs, milk, nutmeg, vanilla, and 1/2 cup brown sugar in a large bowl and pour evenly over the bread. Refrigerate mixture, covered, until all liquid is absorbed by the bread, at least 8 hours and up to 1 day.

When you are ready to bake and serve, preheat oven to 350 F. Spread pecans evenly in a shallow baking pan and toast in middle of oven until fragrant, about 4 minutes. Toss pecans with 1 teaspoon butter. OR you can toast the pecans in a skillet in one layer over medium heat, stirring often. Toss with 1 teaspoon butter. (I did this the night before to save time the morning of.)

Sprinkle pecans and blueberries evenly over bread mixture. Cut remaining 1/2 stick butter into pieces and heat with remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar in a small saucepan, stirring, until butter is melted and sugar is dissolved. Drizzle butter mixture over bread and bake mixture
30 – 40 minutes or until any liquid from blueberries is bubbling.

Makes 6 generous servings.