Overnight Apple French Toast

When I was in college, I studied abroad in Paris for a semester. It was amazing. I loved it, and I wish I had been more adventurous or more experienced, because I wasted a lot of my time while I was there. I loved it just the same, and felt like I really grew a lot. I learned to know and love a city besides the one where I grew up, and I learned to find my way around. I became a lot more independent.

But I still missed home. A lot. I didn't live at home as a student, but I attended a university only about an hour away from home, so I saw my family really whenever I wanted. Being in Europe for four months really helped me gain independence from that, but I was really ready to see my family when I got home.

A few weeks before we came home, I asked my mom to make me apple French toast when I got back. It was something she often made for us on holidays, especially Thanksgiving or Christmas, and it was just special. I loved the warm caramel syrup on the bottom and crispy edges of the toast on top that concealed the moist, eggy interior. It seemed like a great welcome home.


My flight arrived in late at night, around 10pm. We all headed home from the airport and went to bed after I shared some of the gifts I had brought back, and I was excited for my apple French toast the next morning. For some reason, I classified that as my official homecoming.

But the next morning when I woke up, I didn't smell the caramel. I got up, thinking my mom had waited so it would be warm when I was ready to eat it, but she hadn't made it at all.

"I was sure you'd sleep late with the time difference," she said.

I was crestfallen. That day, life went on as usual, as if I hadn't just embarked on the greatest adventure of my life.

She never did make me that welcome-home-apple-French-toast.

But now, I know how to make it for myself. This was what we had for breakfast Christmas morning last year, amazingly the first Christmas we've actually woken up in our home. Every other year since we married we have spent Christmas morning at one of our parents' houses. But last year, we finally enjoyed our own Christmas morning.

Jeff also made this for me for our fifth anniversary which we just celebrated a couple of weeks ago. What a stud, huh? He did the whole thing by himself.

I've definitely got myself a winner.

And for the record, my mom felt awful--she hadn't known it was that big of a deal to me.

Overnight Apple French Toast
Printable Recipe

1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 tablespoons cornstarch
4 tart and firm apples, such as Granny Smith
1 loaf Texas Toast (thicker slices than regular sandwich bread)
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
Dash of salt
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons cinnamon, divided

Peel and slice apples and arrange in 9x13 inch pan. Sprinkle with the cornstarch. Slice the crusts off the bread, and then slice the slices in half so they are rectangular instead of square.

Microwave (or melt in a saucepan on the stove) the butter, sugar, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, and corn syrup. Stir to combine. Pour brown sugar mixture over apples.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and salt.  Dip bread into egg mixture, then arrange bread slices, slightly overlapping, on top of apples. Cover and chill overnight. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes, without covering.