Baked Banana Streusel French Toast

Baked Banana Streusel French Toast - made April 25, 2015, adapted from Sunset Brunch cookbook

I still had the (overpriced) loaf of brioche I'd bought from Voyageur du Temps in my freezer and decided it was time to put it in use as well as use up some milk before it expired.

I started off with this recipe for baked French toast from a very old cookbook that my mom had from back in the day. I've never made much from it but since it was a brunch cookbook and I needed a French-toast-like recipe, it was a good place to start.

I did add the banana, the streusel and the glaze on my own to make it more bread pudding like instead of plain French toast. For the most part it worked. The streusel was good, nice and crisp-crunchy after it's cooled slightly.

I recommend eating this the same day you make it though as the butter-brown sugar syrup that results from the streusel makes the underside of the bread a bit too sweet the next day.

Good dish for a brunch. If you don't like bananas, you can keep this plain and omit them for a more traditional cinnamon streusel French Toast bake.

4 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 pound challah, cut into thick slices then cubed

Streusel
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup butter, cut into pieces
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1-2 large bananas, sliced into rounds

Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons milk or until desired consistency
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Whisk eggs and milk together in large bowl; add sugar and cinnamon. Add challah cubes and let soak for at least an hour, covering bread completely with mixture.
2. Make streusel, cutting in cold butter until streusel is coarse crumbs. Squeeze handfuls together to make large clumps.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease 8 x 8 pan or similar size. Arrange soaked bread in even layer. Place sliced bananas evenly on top. Sprinkle with streusel, covering top as evenly as possible.
4. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until custard is set and streusel is browned. Let cool for 15 minutes.
5. Whisk together glaze ingredients and drizzle over top of streusel. Serve warm.