Hello Thanksgiving breakfast.
Pumpkin French Toast: A made-from-scratch breakfast casserole with sweet cinnamon and creamy pumpkin in every delicious bite. It’s perfect for feeding a crowd, or for enjoying on a quiet and chilly autumn morning. Simply assemble the night before, and pop it into the oven in the morning for a delicious and comforting breakfast.
If this were a Friends episode, it would be called: The one where she has way too much fun taking “pouring shot” photos.
Pumpkin Baked French Toast
(Serves 4-6)
- 3 1/2 cups cubed bread (I used Ezekiel, but other types are fine. French bread would be really good in this recipe, as would cinnamon-raisin. Depending on the type of bread, you might need more or less than 3.5 cups. You want enough to fill an 8×8 pan.) (175g)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or just add a little extra cinnamon)
- sweetener of choice (If you want to top the casserole with syrup post-baking, use 3 nunaturals stevia packs or 3 tbsp sugar. If you’d prefer a sweeter breakfast casserole that needs no topping, increase the amount to 5-6 tbsp)
- 1 1/4 cups milk of choice (300g) (Depending on your choice of bread, you might need to use less. This is a good amount for the Ezekiel bread.)
- optional: 2 tbsp butter-type spread of choice (for a more buttery result) (30g)
- 1 cup MoriNu silken-firm tofu, or 1 cup yogurt of choice (240g)
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree (I used canned pumpkin) (120g)
- optional: handful of raisins
In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except bread, and stir very well. (If using the tofu, you should blend these ingredients. Otherwise, just stir by hand.) Grease an 8×8-in baking pan, and pour the cubed bread into the pan. Cover evenly with the wet mixture, then cover the entire dish with a lid or saran wrap and fridge overnight. The next morning, preheat oven to 400 F and cook about 30-35 minutes. Top with maple syrup or your favorite French toast topping (or eat plain, if you opt to use the extra dry sweetener pre-baking.)
And for everyone who asked:
Can you guess which Gossip Girl character I was?
I didn’t include costume photos in my original post for a few reasons, the main one being it’s not a very elaborate costume. I didn’t think it was worth posting. I also don’t normally take my camera to parties, which was why the post was made up of recycled photos. In retrospect, I probably should’ve skipped posting on Thursday altogether. But one’s mind doesn’t always think straight on two hours of sleep. (Side note: I borrowed the Chanel bag from a friend, and it’s actually a knock-off from Canal Street in NYC. I’m thinking Serena would not approve. Other side note: I wanted to be Blair, but they said I was too blonde. Yet another side note: …I think I’ve written enough side notes. I’ll stop now.)
Link of the Day: Healthy Pumpkin Recipes
I made this for breakfast today. The flavor was very good, but it was a little dry. 🙁 Maybe I just over cooked it. Either way it was still delicious! 😉
I tried making this and it didn’t turn out anything like the picture. Not sure what I did wrong but I followed the direction exactly. It had spot where it was more like bread pudding. Any suggestions?
Hi anonymous,
Can you give me more specifics as to what you did? What bread, what tofu, did you preheat the oven, etc. It’s very hard to know what might’ve gone wrong when I wasn’t there to see how you made it.
So interesting to read through the comments and see all the different reactions to the recipe. I made it exactly as described in the recipe and it was very wet and mushy. I spread the mixture out even thinner and re-baked but to no avail. It never really recovered and was just a soggy mess.
That’s weird! What bread did you use? Ours was not soggy at all, it was perfect, so maybe it’s the type of bread you used?
I used whole wheat bread that I made from scratch.
Can you give me more specifics as to what you did? Did you use the mori-nu silken-firm tofu? Did you preheat the oven? What sweetener, etc. It’s very hard to know what might’ve gone wrong when I wasn’t there to see how you made it.
I did use the MoriNu silken-firm tofu. I did preheat the oven & I used Whey Low as the sugar substitute. This is a sugar sub that I’ve used for years and it works very well. The taste was definitely there but the texture was way off so I may try this again using ezekiel bread. By the way, how did you measure one cup of tofu?
It definitely should cook all the way through :-?.
Maybe, depending on your bread or the climate of where you live, you need to leave it in longer or up the temperature? That’s the only thing I can think of, since mine wasn’t the slightest bit soggy. Sorry for the trouble 🙁
Thx so much for trying to troubleshoot 🙂
Katie, this was fantastic!
FANTASTIC!
My kids now think I am mom of the year ;). Thanks for making me look good in their eyes and getting veggies into them before it’s even lunchtime! You are a magician!
Between the three kids, they ate it all up and I barely even got any. But it’s ok because I have more bread and am already planning to make more in a few minutes for tomorrow’s breakfast.
So good, CCK!
This looks delicious! I made your cookie dough bites the other week and they were really good! I actually didn’t have oatmeal on hand so I used steel cut oats, which I would definitely not advise. The dessert still turned out well but next time I’ll definitely use the softer oats to produce a better consistency. Thanks!
Made it for breakfast today, and it turned out really well! I felt like I was eating a fancy brunch at a diner, and my boyfriend said the recipe’s a keeper.
THAT is a huge compliment, trust me! 😉
I was wondering, could you replace the tofu or yogurt with more pumpkin? Just curious 🙂 Cannot wait to try this either way! (and I LOVE your favorite fall breakfast also…course I love anything pumpkin) I just finished having flax pumpkin pudding stuff I made up and then pumpkin rice hot cereal today!
If you try it, let me know! 🙂
Had it for breakfast and it was really good. Will make again. Thanks.
I left a comment on your most recent post, but I wanted to leave one here as well in case you don’t see that one. I wanted to thank you because your blog has been a blessing to me and my diabetic husband. I can’t tell you how much it means to me that I can serve him food that he actually looks forward to eating again. His life has been made ten times better by the discovery of your blog, and it’s made my life better in turn.
Thank you for all that you do. It helps people in ways you would never imagine.
Also, we have had this recipe for breakfast the last four days in a row!
This came out terrific.
I used cinnamon raisin bread from a local bake shop, and it was absolutely deeeeevine :). Made the house smell really good, too. I’m planning on making it again to impress my mother in law on Thanksgiving morning.
Wish me luck!
I finally got around to making this recipe for breakfast this morning, and it did not disappoint at all. It was the perfect breakfast for a cold morning here, and we all had two helpings, finishing it off in no time. Too bad, that means no leftovers for tomorrow! 😉
My husband even loved it, and when I told him it had tofu he just shook his head in amazement. A few years ago, he wouldn’t even go near tofu, but your chocolate bar pie changed that, and now he says “I’ll eat tofu. But ONLY if it’s a Chocolate Covered Katie recipe!”
🙂 🙂
Hey Katie, I can’t wait for your book to come out! I know your busy, and I don’t mean to rush you, but when will the book come out? By Christmas? Valentines Day? Or will it be some time in late 2013? I know it will be awesome! Good luck!
Aw this made me smile so much. There isn’t a set date yet… I’d hoped to have a set date this week, actually. The events in NY have slowed things down, but I will post it as soon as I know!
Made this today and it was a big hit! I would recommend dried cranberries instead of raisins to continue with the autumn theme.
One problem, though. Twice in the last 2 days I’ve gotten a pop-up window using Chrome on my iPhone to view your page. Something about “mobipanels.com” and I’m the 1000th person from my town to click there and I can be entered into some drawing. Don’t know if this is legit or not, but it smells of malware. I can’t get it to go away, even after restarting the phone. Going to try to uninstall and reinstall Chrome and see if that helps. If this is from an advertiser of yours, please get them to remove it!
I got the same problem, but viewing a different web page, did you get rid of it? if so how?
Thank you both for letting me know! I’m seriously appreciative you took the time to tell me. I took down one of my ads and am contacting the ad service company. I’m so sorry about this… and if it ever happens again or continues to happen now, please do not hesitate to tell me!
Uninstalling and reinstalling Chrome worked. Thanks, Katie, for fixing that!
I just tried this recipe 🙂 I used yogurt, homemade bread, and flax milk, but my mixture didn’t solidify when baking. I think I may have used too little bread, as the bread didn’t completely cover the pan with no gaps. It still tasted delicious though! My prepared uncooked dish had solidified in the fridge, so I think if I put the leftovers in the fridge it will reach a somewhat solid state.
I’m definitely making this again for Thanksgiving breakfast!
This. Was. So. Good.
I have made it FOUR times since you posted. Yes, four. Obsessed much?
Thank you for all the amazing recipes!!!
I have you beat! I have made this recipe a whopping EIGHT times since it was first posted.
Granted, I have a very large family and we go through two entire pans per breakfast, so maybe I am disqualified ;).