What's for Breakfast? Apple Crumble French Toast Souffle!

     Scrumptious!  This is what you want for that special holiday breakfast!  Easy to make; you mix it up the night before, then pop it in the oven the next morning for an hour and voila! Can be baking while you are prepping the turkey, or at Christmas, while opening presents.

      First the recipe, then a tad more at the end about how it came to be.

Apple Crumble French Toast Soufflé 

Ingredients-

2 loaves of Vienna or Italian Bread, (crust removed).

3-4 large apples, peeled and sliced, into bite size slices;
      toss in: 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon.

For custard-

3 eggs

2 cups of 1/2 & 1/2

1/2 cup of sugar

1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

Dash of cinnamon

Filling-

8 oz. cream cheese softened

1/4 Sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract.

Crumble Topping-

1/2 Dark brown sugar

1/2 cup AP Unbleached Flour

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

4 Tablespoons of Butter

     

     Directions-

After removing crusts from bread, tear loaves into bite size pieces, into large mixing bowl.  Set aside.

For apples- peel and slice, into bite size slices.  Toss in 1/2 sugar and 1/2 cinnamon.  Add 2/3 of apple slices into bread bites.  Mix to make sure apple slices are distributed evenly. 

For the custard- Whisk eggs, then add 1/2 &1/2, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon.  Set aside.

For the filling- Mix the softened cream cheese, the sugar, egg, and vanilla till well mixed.

To assemble- butter a 2.5 quart (I use a 2.5 liter from Corning) baking dish.  Then layer half of the bread and apple mix in bottom of dish.  Pour on evenly, half of custard mix, a little over 1 cup.  Spoon the cream cheese filling evenly over lower layer of bread and apples.  Top with remaining 1/3 of apple slice, and sprinkle additional cinnamon over all.

Top with remaining bread and apple pieces, then evenly pour the remaining custard over all.  Cover with lid, and set in fridge overnight. 

The morning of- Preheat oven to 350F.

For crumb topping, mix brown sugar, flour, cold butter pieces, and cinnamon in small bowl, with either a pastry blender or your hands, till you have course crumbs, then spread over casserole. 

Bake at 350F, for 30 minutes covered; then another 30 without lid.

Serve with warm maple syrup.

Makes 12-15 servings.

     Years ago, I tasted a similar casserole at my friend's bridesmaid brunch.  Her aunt had made it, and was kind enough to pass along the recipe.  For that recipe, it is the bread, with the same custard mix, and the cream cheese filling which is mixed with canned peaches.  There is no crumb topping. 

     That recipe has served as a holiday staple for several years.  However this year, I thought one with apple, cinnamon, and a crumb topping would be a tasty change.  So  I started looking for recipes, and found what sounds like a great one at I Heart Eating; "Dutch Apple Pie French Toast Casserole." It didn't have the cream cheese, and had spices and oats, that I wasn't sure would fly with my 2 youngest deciding factors.  So I merged the two recipes so to speak; and the result: a hit all around!

Hope you enjoy!