French Toast Muffins

Every Sunday, after everything from Shabbat has been cleaned up and put away there's usually one thing that is still left on the counter from Shabbat and that is leftover challah. Fresh challah is delicious on Friday night when we sit down for our Shabbat meal. It's fluffy and warm, and it is the centerpiece of every Shabbat table. When Shabbat is over, there is often leftover challah and it is a little stale and dry which makes it perfect for croutons, bread pudding, stuffing, and of course french toast. These are all great ideas for day-old bread because the dried-out bread is the perfect canvas to absorb delicious flavor. This time instead of making any of those tasty options I had the idea to take the classic french toast and muffinize it. 

Traditionally for french toast, you would slice the day-old bread, dip it in a sweetened egg and milk mixture, and then pan-fry it in some butter. The resulting dish is delicious, but it's a bit tedious standing over the stove dipping piece after piece until saturated and then frying until golden brown. By turning french toast into muffins all of the bread gets soaked in the egg and milk mixture at the same time and then gets baked in a muffin tin which allows the muffins to get golden brown and a bit crispy all around, but still soft and slightly creamy in the middle.

Feel free to mix in berries or chocolate chunks to make these french toast muffins to the next level. 

French Toast Muffins

Large challah, sliced into about 10-12 slices then cut into 1/2-inch cubes - READ NOTE BELOW*

2 cups milk 

6 eggs 

2 tsp vanilla extract 

1/3 cup sugar 

1/2 tsp cinnamon 

1/4 tsp salt 

Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F 

Liberally grease a standard-size muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray. 

Place the bread cubes into a large bowl. 

In a medium-size bowl mix together the milk, eggs, vanilla, sugar, cinnamon, and salt until well combined. Pour the egg mixture over the cubed bread and using a large spoon or your hand gently toss the bread with the egg mixture until all the bread is well saturated. 

Scoop the french toast mixture into the prepared muffin tin and top with any extra batter left in the bottom of the bowl. Feel free to add some chocolate chunks or berries to the mixture. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes until the muffins puff up and are golden brown. 

Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes in the pan and then run a knife around each muffin to release them from the pan. 

Serve these warm topped with confectioners' sugar or maple syrup or you can make a big batch and freeze them. Allow the muffins to cool completely then either store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days or freeze in a ziptop bag or airtight container defrost by warming in the microwave for about 45 seconds. 

NOTE: Really any day-old bread would work for this recipe, but the best bread for french toast muffins is challah or brioche so try to get either of those if you can. You want to have about 10-12 cups of bread cubes. Don't worry about being super exact you just need to make sure that you have enough bread to soak up the egg mixture you can always add a bit more milk if you have too much bread. 

To really take these over the top - in addition to adding berries or chocolate chunks - place a small pat of butter in the bottom of each cavity of the muffin pan before adding the batter french toast batter and top each muffin with some turbinado sugar before baking.