What do you do when you are expecting out-of-town house guests from England for a whirlwind trip of only a couple of days and have no time to cook during their visit? You prepare Make-ahead Freezer French Toast!
Long-time, close friends arrived just after the Christmas holiday for a quick 3-day trip. Here primarily to visit my mother, we had no time to fuss over meals. Needing to feed this small crowd, I made many things ahead of time, so that I could just pop them in the oven and spend as much quality time with them as I could. Stay-tuned for other make-ahead recipes for a crowd to follow!
Super simple, Make-ahead Freezer French Toast comes together in minutes, leaving you free to prepare even more make-ahead dishes for your guests. I used “French Toast Bread” made by my local grocery store chain. This bread is sliced slightly thicker than regular sandwich bread, making it less likely to fall apart when coated with the egg/milk batter.
It also has little maple-infused spots all over the bread making it the perfect bread for French Toast.
After whipping up the egg batter, I cooked them on a griddle pan 6 at a time. Since I was making a total of 24 slices, cooking them 6 at a time made quick work of this project and in no time, I had stacks of finished French toast!
Good thing I made these at night, after dinner! The smell was enticing, even intoxicating! After allowing them to cool completely, I lined a large rimmed cookie sheet with waxed paper and then placed 8 on the cookie sheet. Another layer of waxed paper followed by 8 more slices. Repeat!
Here’s a side view of the stacked Make-ahead Freezer French Toast. Separated by layers of waxed paper, the top layer was covered in wax paper, too. Then, the entire cookie sheet was covered in heavy-duty aluminum foil to protect the French Toast from freezer burn. I cleared a shelf in my freezer and placed them inside to freeze.
Once frozen, you can remove them and re-stack them in freezer bags to make better use of your freezer space.
Easy to reheat, just place the frozen slices on a baking sheet and warm them for 10 minutes in a 350 degree preheated oven. Slice them on the diagonal, dust them with powdered sugar and no one will know that you weren’t slaving away over a hot stove to prepare them a delicious breakfast!
Along with Make-ahead Freezer French Toast for one of the breakfast meals, I made bacon ahead of time, too. Then, I reheated the bacon in the microwave while the French Toast reheated in the oven. I served them with fresh berries and maple syrup.
My beautiful, sweet young English friend, Ali, was delighted that I made French Toast for her (for them). She fondly remembers my father making French Toast for her over the many years she has returned for visits to America.
“Young” Ali is really an adult now. Funny how that happens; you blink and the young children in your life are suddenly adults. Want to see a picture (or two) of Ali? Check out these earlier posts for pictures of her and her brother, Sam, on an prior trip to San Diego:
Serve Make-ahead Freezer French Toast with milk in cute little milk bottles with pretty straws to make your breakfast extra special.
Be sure to make extra! Even though a serving is 2 slices of bread (4 halves), Make-ahead Freezer French Toast is so good, hungry guests may eat more!
Here’s the recipe:
PrintMake-Ahead Big Batch Freezer French Toast
Easy to prepare, this recipe let’s you freeze and reheat French Toast for busy days.
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 30 mins
- Yield: 12 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Cuisine: French
Ingredients
- 24 slices of French Toast bread (or other thick-sliced bread)
- 7 eggs
- 1 3/4 cups milk
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- Powdered sugar (for garnish)
- Maple syrup (for serving)
- Fresh berries (for serving)
Instructions
- On your stove top, preheat a non-stick griddle over medium heat.
- Add eggs, milk, salt and cinnamon to a pan deep enough to dip slices of bread (I used an 8″ x 8″ glass baking pan) and whisk together until combined.
- Dip sliced bread in egg/milk mixture and turn over to coat both sides.
- Place dipped bread on preheated griddle; repeat with other bread slices until griddle pan is filled with French Toast.
- Cook over medium heat 3 to 5 minutes; flip each bread slice over and cook another 3 to 5 minutes (watch carefully so you don’t burn them!).
- Remove from griddle to a plate or pan and allow to cool completely.
- When cool enough to touch, turn over and cool other side of French Toast.
To Freeze:
- Repeat until you have cooked all 24 slices.
- Line a large rimmed cookie sheet with wax paper.
- When completely cool, place 8 slices of cooked French Toast in rows on the cookie sheet.
- Add another layer of waxed paper and top with 8 more slices of French Toast.
- Cover with another layer of waxed paper and top with the final 8 slices of French Toast.
- Add the final layer with waxed paper and then cover all with heavy-duty aluminum foil, crimping foil tightly around edges of cookie sheet.
- Place in freezer and freeze until ready to reheat.
To Reheat:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Remove desired number of pieces of French Toast from freezer and place on a cookie sheet.
- Bake in oven 10 to 12 minutes until warm to the touch, turning over halfway through cooking time so that both sides have a little crunch to the edges of the toast.
- Remove from oven and transfer to serving platter.
- Slice on the diagonal and dust with powdered sugar.
- Serve immediately with maple syrup and fresh berries.
Notes
This recipe makes 24 slices of French Toast, enough for 12 servings.
Tootles,
Related Posts:
(other breakfast recipes)
This is a brilliant idea – I’m always at a loss about how to handle breakfast when there are houseguests! Thanks so much for linking up to Awesome Life Friday! We’ll be pinning this – we’re looking forward to seeing what you have to share this week!
Thanks, Lynda! It’s a great recipe for a crowd – delicious every time it’s reheated!
This looks perfect! There’s nothing better than a make-ahead breakfast, especially if it’s delicious 😉
Thanks so much! They were delicious every time I reheated them (which was a couple of different days, because I made so many!).