Boxing Day Brunch Bake

Queen Victoria must have loved Christmas to have declared the following day as yet another holiday. Boxing Day, celebrated on The Feast of St Stephen, is an English tradition -- the one day of the year when household help was given a bonus and a full day off as a reward for providing good service throughout the year.

For upper class Victorian families it meant the kitchen help would prepare foods in advance that the mistress of the house could manage without much fuss. For modern Brits, the day of goodwill has evolved into a banker's holiday encouraging the search for post-Christmas shopping bargains. Either way what's needed is a good breakfast, easy to prepare and this amazing brunch treat can be refrigerated up to twenty-four hours before baking.

FRENCH TOAST BRUNCH BAKE
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/8 cup orange favored liqueur
1 tablespoon maple syrup
8 slices Portugese sweet bread, approx. 3/4 inch thick
2 cups half anf half
3 large eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
dash of salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Lightly grease bottom and sides of a 3 quart baking pan, oval or rectangular. In a medium saucepan, mix brown sugar, butter, liqueur, and maple syrup. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture comes to a boil. Lower heat to medium and cook uncovered for one minute. Pour into greased pan. Set bread slices on top of the brown sugar mixture.

In a medium bowl beat eggs, half and half, vanilla, salt, and nutmeg. Pour evenly over bread slices, using a wooden spoon to press bread gently as the bread soaks up the liquid. Cover and chill for at least one hour or up to 24 hours before baking at 350 degrees F. Bake uncovered for 45 minutes to an hour, or until a knife inserted into the midde of the pan comes out clean. The top should be golden brown and will pouf up a bit during baking. Allow to set 10-15 minutes before serving -- the puffiness will relax as the casserole sets. Makes 8 servings.

Add a side dollop of creme fraiche, a few of your favorite berries and enjoy.

Comments

  1. UnknownDecember 27, 2009 at 8:46 AM

    omg this sounds wonderful!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. TinkyDecember 27, 2009 at 2:01 PM

    I love things I can make in advance--ESPECIALLY for brunch since I hate getting up early in the morning. Thanks, Deb.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Grape Infused Vodka Update

Image
It took an overnight frost for our homegrown grapes to sweeten up but the wait was worth it. A big sloppy thank you smooch goes out to Mayor Mike Tautznik of Easthampton, MA for sharing his home infusion method for fruit flavored vodka. Fiddling around with Mayor Mike's sure-fire recipe helped me come up with the perfect formula for home infusing store-bought vodka with the Concord grapes from our backyard garden. And the abundance of those grapes carefully cultivated by the Man of the House deserves another big sloppy thank you smooch, this time for Farmer Paul. Start by boiling a big pot of water to sterilize pint-sized canning jars and their covers. Once they are cool, fill each about 3/4 full with thoroughly washed Concord grapes plucked from the ripest of bunches. Add one teaspoon of super fine sugar. Pour your choice of plain vodka over the grapes, leaving about 1/2 inch headroom before closing the jars. Shake gently to dissolve sugar before storing in a cool dark spot. Two w
Read more

The Joy of Holiday Cookies

Image
Nothing sweetens the season like holiday cookies! The name comes from the Dutch koejke which translates to "little cake" -- the perfect single serving treat. Cookies have been part of cooking history for more than a thousand years and nearly every culture has a bite sized sweet that qualifies as a cookie. Every year I try to come up with a new twist on an old favorite to celebrate the season for my annual cookie swap. These tasty morsels are my version of rugelach , a traditional Jewish pastry filled with nuts, raisins or apricots, cinnamon and sugar wrapped in a flaky crust. A few good friends sharing a bottle of bubbly then going home with the bounty of a platter full of homemade cookies and the recipes. Lots of fun and yumminess, too! RUGELACH Dough 2 cups all-purpose flour Dash of salt 1 tablespoon white sugar 1 cup unsalted butter 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese 1/3 cup plain or lemon flavored yogurt Filling 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon 1 cup finely
Read more

Seasonal Surprises: Savory Blueberry Chutney

Image
My first taste of Sheila Lukins came after stumbling across The Silver Palate food shop on Columbus Avenue, NYC in the late 1970s.  It was a short road to discovering chutney wasn’t just a mango and ginger concoction.  Sheila Lukins of Silver Palate Cookbook fame was cutting edge back then.  I was hooked from that first taste all the way to mixing things up with blueberry chutney to glaze Asian style roast chicken . Blueberry chutney was the inspiration for my Spicy Blueberry Barbecue Sauce, an original recipe that made me a national award winner in the Highbush Blueberry Council’s 2008 recipe contest.  Who’da thunk?  Next month will mark two years since Sheila Lukins died -- too young but not without having made her mark on a generation of home cooks like me. This recipe is adapted from an original Silver Palate recipe.  Over the years, I’ve added and subtracted this or that.  Serve with roasted turkey, duck or goose, meat or curries.  Hint: Mix a tablespoon of chutney with
Read more