Breakfast · Pumpkin · Vegetarian
Gingerbread Pumpkin Baked French Toast
A make-ahead brunch that eats like gingerbread bread pudding. The sour tang of the bread keeps all that molasses and spice in check, and the cool clementine yogurt and tart pomegranate finish it off.
Prep
30 min
Cook
30 min
Total
1 hr
Serves
12
- Equipment
- 9x13 glass baking dish · large mixing bowl
- Oven
- 350°F
Instructions
Soak the bread
- Mix the base. Melt the butter and let it cool. Whisk it together with the eggs, milk, pumpkin, molasses, maple syrup, all the spices, and the salt.
- Cube the bread. Chop the bread into 1-inch cubes and put them in a 9×13 glass baking dish.
- Soak. Pour the base over the bread and massage the bread around so the base soaks evenly into every piece. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Top and bake
- Check the bread. In the morning, if the bread looks dry, pour another ¼–½ cup of milk over it and press it in. Very stale bread drinks more.
- Make the crumb. Mix the flour, brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, and salt. Drizzle the molasses over the dry ingredients. Put the butter in the freezer for a few minutes, then chop it with a knife into small cubes and work it in with your hands until it forms coarse crumbs. The freezer trick makes this faster, and the crumb comes together before the butter warms up and gets harder to incorporate.
- Bake. Heat the oven to 350°F. Scatter the crumb over the soaked bread and bake for 25–35 minutes, until set and brown on top. If the top browns too quickly, tent it with foil.
- Rest. Let it sit for 5–10 minutes before cutting.
Serve
- Clementine yogurt. Make the Clementine Yogurt Sauce: Greek yogurt with clementine zest, vanilla paste, and maple syrup. It’s best made the day before and kept in the fridge.
- Plate. Serve warm squares with a spoonful of the yogurt, a scatter of pomegranate arils, and a drizzle of maple syrup.
