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This luscious baked French Toast is a perfect weekend breakfast. Farm fresh sweet cherries are topped with toasted cubed artisan bread soaked in eggs and half and half, and then baked to create an almost bread pudding like French Toast.
You can use any good, dense, chewy bread in this recipe. I used Volker’s Cranberry Orange bread. A fabulous bread with a great chewy texture and loaded with tart, sweet flavors. You can buy Volkers amazing bread at Farmer’s Markets in the Salt Lake area.
This summer I participated in the Utah’s Own Recipe Roundup. My Baked Cherry French Toast recipe was the winner of round two. So on Friday I got to compete with the other seven weekly winners at the Utah State Fair.
This was my first time competing in the Utah’s Own contest and it was a fun opportunity. I loved learning more about and helping raise awareness of the great Utah’s Own products. The winner of this year’s Recipe Roundup was Carmell Childs with an elegant Truffle Crepe Cake.
We were given two tickets so we could bring someone along to help. I asked fellow food blogger and my sweet friend, Becky, Vintage Mixer, to come help me set up and be my “stylist” for the competition. She has an amazing sense of style and I don’t know what I would have done without her help and support. Thanks Becky!
Also, a big thank you to Utah’s Own for hosting such a fun event. I’ve already started thinking of fun recipes for next year’s competition.
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Baked Cherry French Toast
Ingredients
- 1 loaf Volkers Bakery Orange Cranberry Bread cubed*
- 6 Oakdell eggs
- 1 ½ cups Meadow Gold half and half
- 1 ½ teaspoons Dutch Mill imitation vanilla
- Redmond Real Salt fine salt
- ½ cup Xagave agave nectar*
- 1 tablespoon Cornaby’s Thick Gel Food Starch corn starch**
- Zest of 1 orange
- 4 cups McMullin Orchards cherries pitted and halved*
- ¼ cup Meadow Gold butter melted
- Kodiak Mountain Berry Syrup for serving
Instructions
- Spread bread evenly in a jelly roll pan and toast for 20 minutes at 350°. Cool to room temperature.
- In a medium bowl beat together eggs, half-and-half, vanilla, and a pinch of salt. Pour egg mixture over cooled toasted bread. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
- Combine agave, cornstarch, orange zest and a pinch of salt. Fold in cherries. Pour into a greased 13×9 baking pan.
- Place the chilled bread mixture on top of the fruit mixture. Drizzle the melted butter over the bread.
- Bake at 400° for 30 minutes or until golden brown and sauce has thickened. Cover with foil if the top is getting too brown.
Blond Duck
Awww geez….yum!
My Inner Chick
—Barbara,
Now that’s what I call Frech Toast. WOW )))))) !!
Alison @ Ingredients, Inc
This looks fabulous! Great post!
Lorraine Not Quite Nigella
Mum I’m so proud of you!! WEll done and well down on showcasing Utah’s produce too 🙂 xxx
mimi
Congratulations on your winning recipe. It sounds like a very fun event.
Mimi
Barbara | Creative Culinary
I can only imagine how good this was, especially starting off with a special bread. Congrats on the contest and hope more to come!
Tamra Watson
Beautiful Blog Barbara as always!! 🙂 Thank you for sharing your Utah’s Own recipe with our team. I can’t wait to see what you come up with next year!
natalie (the sweets life)
congrats! you came up with a fabulous recipe!
Becky at Vintage Mixer
It was an honor to be a stylist of such an amazing cook! Plus I got to eat some of the leftovers!!
Kathleen
Barbara this looks and sounds amazing! A total winner girlfriend! Good Luck in the upcoming round.
Katrina
How fun and yum and congrats for being involved. The French toast looks de-lish. Why do I see a little chocolate grated on top? (I love chocolate and cherries AND I always need chocolate on just about everything.) 😉
Maria
Looks like a winning recipe to me!
Ashley @ Kitchen Meets Girl
Wow…I can see why this made the finals! Just gorgeous!
Rosa
That bread looks so scrumptious and your French toasts too! A great fall/winter treat.
Cheers,
Rosa
Amy
It really is a luscious baked French Toast! So pretty too. What a fun event. And your creation is a winner to me!
Deborah
Your recipe looks like a winner to me!! And how fun to have Becky along to help you out!
kristy
Oooo….CONGRATULATIONS on the winning, Barbara! Hope to see you in the grand final. I’m truly excited for you. Wishing you all the best, dear. And this awesome baked cherry french toast as amazing. Thanks for sharing & have fun!
Break a leg!
Blessings, Kristy
Bonnie
What a wondrful recipe Barbara. I am going to try this one for sure. Love the cherries.
Paula
Wow! Congratulations! What a fantastic and fun opportunity for you and all involved. Wonderful photos, delicious recipe.
Becki's Whole Life
What a great event and way to promote your local products! Your french toast sounds wonderful and I’m sure the Cherries taste great in the custard of the toast. I would love to try the Kodiak Berry syrup. This is making me very hungry for breakfast! This would be good with some almonds over top, too.