Pumpkinpalooza: Pumpkin French Toast Bake & Pumpkin French Toast Muffins!

I know...I know, I am a little behind on the pumpkin posts but I promise the one that I'm giving you today makes up for my absence! I always love combining my love for breakfast with my love of pumpkin. Pancakes are my first love, but French toast is my other breakfast passion. So I decided to combine the two and make a fall breakfast or any time of day really, a pumpkin French toast combo that takes the cake! Get in the kitchen now and bake up these pumpkin delights for your family! Mine will be enjoying some this Saturday morning before a pumpkin picking trip. The best way to start a beautiful fall day: French toast and pumpkin!!!!  

This week’s Pumpkinpalooza recipes are:  Pumpkin French toast muffins and also a bonus recipe of Pumpkin French toast bake!

Pumpkin French toast muffins

1 large loaf of French bread, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (about 12 cups of bread)
1 12.5 oz can of pumpkin puree

2 cups milk
6 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Topping:

1/4 cup cold butter
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon.

2. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin, I add muffin cups for easier clean up but it works just as well with cooking spray. Add about 1 cup of bread cubes to each muffin cup. Carefully pour pumpkin and milk mixture evenly over each muffin tin. You may need to press down on the bread cubes after you pour a little mixture and then pour more. Pour slowly, its messy. Cover the muffins with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours.

3. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. To make the topping, in a small bowl, combine butter, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt. Mix together with your hands or cut in with a pastry blender, until you have a crumbly mixture. Add a handful to the top of each muffin carefully, this can get messy too.

4. Bake for 25 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Let muffins cool for 5 minutes. Remove from pan and serve with butter and maple syrup, if desired.

Yields 12-16 muffins

To Freeze:

Prepare your muffin tins with the bread and the pumpkin mixture. Be sure to put then into muffin liners if you freeze. Just so you are not taking up one of your muffin tins.  Let them set and you can freeze them for up to six months.

To eat:

Defrost the muffins overnight, place them in the muffin tins, add your topping mixture and bake 25 min. Enjoy

Pumpkin French toast bake

*Same ingredients as pumpkin French toast muffins

Directions:

1. Cut the large loaf of French bread into 1 in pieces. Put them into a greased  9x12 in baking dish. Add the entire pumpkin, milk and egg mixture to the bread. Let sit in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours, just like the muffins.

2. When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Pull the pumpkin and bread mixture from the fridge and add the topping mixture.

3. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 min or until the crumb topping is golden brown.

Serve with butter and maple syrup if desired

Serves 6-8

To freeze:

Prepare the bread, add to baking dish. Prepare the pumpkin, milk and egg mixture. Add to the bread. Place into the freezer for up to six months.

To eat:

Defrost overnight, preheat oven to 350 degrees, add the topping mixture and bake for 30 min until golden brown

Cook with love,