This Rugelach French Toast Bake was created on a wintery morning when there was nothing to feed the crowd other than some leftover rugelach filing, a very stale baguette and half a carton of eggs. It certainly hit the spot and has been a weekend fave ever since. The ingredient list is very flexible. If you don’t have walnuts, leave them out! Prefer chocolate chips to raisins? Go for it! Have challah? Use it!
This can be made the night before, so in the morning you can just turn on the oven, put in the prepared dish and go back to bed to watch that last episode on Netflix or snuggle with your love. It can also be made as a last minute resort with only 20 minutes ‘soaking’ time. Either way, we guarantee that you’ll be having seconds.
Ingredients: serves 4 to 6 depending on hunger level
For the rugelach mixture:
1/4 cup (55 g) brown sugar
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup (55 g) walnuts
1/4 cup (35 g) raisins
2 teaspoons cinnamon
zest of one orange (optional but recommended)
For the rest of the bake:
1 stale baguette, challah, brioche or other bread
6 eggs
2 cups (500 ml) milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch of salt
To make the rugelach mixture, put all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until the raisins and walnuts have broken down a bit. It doesn’t need to be pulsed to a powder, we prefer smaller chunks, but it’s up to you. This can be made even a couple of days ahead.
Butter a 9x12 inch (23x30cm) baking dish. Cut the baguette up into 1 inch cubes. Mix eggs, milk, vanilla and salt in a large bowl. Add half the bread cubes to the baking dish and sprinkle over half of the rugelach mixture. Add the remaining bread cubes and sprinkle with the rest of the rugelach mixture. Pour the egg mixture over the bread cubes and squish them down so that they’re all submerged. At this point you can either put it all in the fridge overnight, or heat the oven to 350F (180C). If you’re not using the overnight method just keep pressing the bread down so that it all gets a good soaking. Cover with foil, and when the oven comes to temperature, bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for a further 20 minutes.
Serve with fresh orange wedges, maple syrup, or however you like your french toast. Now, go have a great start to your weekend!
