French Toast doesn’t have to be a labor intensive breakfast activity. Instead, make this Apple Ricotta Stuffed French Toast Casserole and watch it do a disappearing act after you barely did anything to make appear in the first place!
Oh happy day, it’s Friday! I don’t know about you but I love the joy that Friday brings most people. I won’t be at the gym today but usually I see it when there. PEople are much more cheerful, they interact more, talk more and are just plain excited. I would love if everyone acted like every day was Friday, but I know that’s not logical.
Anywho, that being said, I wanted to bring you a recipe for this lovely Friday. I wanted to bring you more recipes this week BUT WordPress just updated to this new Gutenberg update and I’m all kinds of confused. You probably won’t notice much on your end but on the back end, it’s like they decided to change everything from English to French. I took French but I am still not capable of holding a conversation in it. So yea, that’s what it’s like back here. I can get you content but man am I struggling to get you my recipes.
Apple Ricotta French Toast Casserole
Speaking of French, (that was a totally unplanned segway by the way)…I bring to you one of my new favorite (and super easy might I add) Apple Ricotta French Toast Casserole. I made this for the first time at my annual Craft Night but didn’t write down the recipe.
So, me and my wonderful intern, Stephanie decided to recreate it this week and I think we knocked it out of the park. I think ricottta is a totally underutilized cheese and wanted to get the feeling of stuffed french toast without having to do the extra work. I tend to have a track record of NOT stuffing things (see: not-so-stuffed peppers) as I like to create meals that are easy and are an efficient use of my time and yours.
Holiday Entertaining
I made this recipe not just so that I could enjoy it but also so that you could enjoy French Toast without having to be a slave to the skillet. I mean, don’t get me wrong, French Toast is still easy to make on its own but isn’t is SO much nicer to just put everything in a pan and forget about it. (Please don’t forget about it in the oven).
This casserole is tasty and not super sweet, because the only sweet tooth I have is for cookies and not breakfast. That being said, you can certainly add more maple syrup on top if you want to treat yo’self this holiday season (or if the family complains that it’s not sickeningly sweet). You can also use pears, apples, or a combo of the two depending on what you have around the house!
Pro Tip: you can use any loaf of bread, even gluten-filled if you don’t need to be gluten-free, just make sure you allow the bread to soak up the ricotta deliciousness!
Preheat oven to 400°F & grease/spray a 9″x13″ baking dish, set aside
In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat, add apples & saute for 5 minutes or until softened. Toss in 1 tsp of cinnamon, set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk ricotta, eggs, milk, maple syrup, 1 tsp cinnamon, & vanilla until combined.
Dip each slice of bread in the ricotta mixture and let sit for 15-30 seconds then add 1 slice at a time to the baking dish and top each slice with a few apples. Continue to layer with bread & apples.
Once all bread & apples are in baking dish, pour the rest of the ricotta mixture over the bread.
Place in oven and bake for 20 minutes uncovered then cover & bake for an additional 20 minutes or until cooked through.
This is one of those dishes you could make ahead of time if you are expecting a crowd around the holidays. Make it the night before then all you have to do is reheat it and the people will be so pleased and well fed. Enjoy!
What are your favorite dishes for the holidays?! xoxo, Sassy
[…] the work by cooking up and binding everything nicely together. You may even want to pair it with my Apple Ricotta Stuffed French Toast Casserole for a breakfast of champions this […]
[…] the work by cooking up and binding everything nicely together. You may even want to pair it with my Apple Ricotta Stuffed French Toast Casserole for a breakfast of champions this […]
[…] Apple Ricotta Stuffed French Toast Casserole from The Sassy Dietitian […]