The best way to welcome a new year is with a good meal. That’s what makes New Year’s brunch so essential. This year, make a delicious meal at home with this Pull Apart French Toast recipe. If you’re feeling ambitious, we’ve also included a recipe for winter citrus salad and spiced maple yogurt to round out the meal with flavors of the season. Whether you’re feeding a full house or just feeding yourself, this meal is sure to start the year off right.
Pull-Apart French Toast With Maple Yogurt and Minted Citrus Salad
INGREDIENTS
1 long French loaf (or Braided Challah!)
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
4 eggs
2 tsps cinnamon
4 Tbsps butter, melted
2 Tbsps coarse sugar like Demerara or Turbinado
COOKING INSTRUCTIONS
Pull-Apart French Toast:
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a sheet pan with 2 long pieces of aluminum foil in an X pattern. Using a bread knife, slice through the loaf at ½ inch intervals, without cutting all the way through. Place onto the foil-lined pan.
In a large measuring cup or medium bowl, whisk together the milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and eggs until well-combined. Carefully and evenly pour the mixture into the bread loaf (some may spill out). Wrap the foil up and around the loaf and bake for 25 minutes, or until the bread is nicely spongy. Remove from the oven, uncover the top, and brush the melted butter all over the loaf. Sprinkle the coarse sugar evenly over the top and bake for another 5 to 10 minutes, or until the center is no longer soggy and the top is nicely browned.
Maple Yogurt:
Stir together a tub of greek yogurt (35oz) along with ½ cup maple syrup and 1 teaspoon cinnamon.
Citrus Salad:
Peel and segment a dozen different citrus fruits (grapefruit, navel orange, blood orange, clementine). If this is a task for the kids, just have them separate the sections as they would a clementine. Those with more knife skills can supreme the citrus – here’s how. Toss these pieces together with ¼ cup of pomegranate seeds and the leaves from a bunch of mint.
Happy New Year, chefs!
