Savory French Toast

Someone saw this recipe on The Chew and told me about it.  I'm not really a fan of The Chew.  I don't think I've even seen a full episode but this sounded very similar to the style of the French Toast I make for Easter, except it is a savory type instead. I heard bacon and cheese and said yum I need to make this.  I thought it would be a nice thing to make for Mother's Day for myself (since I have no little kiddies making breakfast for me any longer on Mother's Day) and it's really a matter of just putting in the oven in the morning.

First off I had to use homemade bacon.  The Sous Chef makes his own bacon.  He does a sweet and a savory.  I used the savory here.  You can find details on how to make your own bacon here and here. It is actually quite easy.  The most difficult part is ordering the pink salt.

I also got some of those farm-fresh eggs from my friend again. Since eggs are one of the main ingredients, this recipe was just screaming to me.  The only thing I didn't have were the scallions. I felt that the scallions probably added a lot of flavor.  Well I had some errands to run, so I picked up some scallions (OK and also some Klondike Bars - couldn't resist.   I mean they were on sale.  What was I supposed to do? And what is up with them? They used to be so much bigger! You know what? Charge some extra money and leave their size be!  Why do they always have to shrink everything? I mean it's a Klondike Bar you're eating. Obviously I'm not calorie counting and worried that it might be too big. It's just so much easier for them to shrink the size and let people think they are getting the same product for the same money.  Well you know what? Leave the size be! They are messing with the chocolate to ice cream ratio - which was just fine in the bigger size thank you very much. OK tirade over).

Savory French Toast (adapted from The Chew)

10-12 slices of bread
6 oz butter, softened
8 oz bacon
6 scallions
6 oz shredded cheddar cheese
6 eggs
4 cups milk
salt/pepper

Butter slices of bread.  Place one layer butter-side down in a 13x9 pan.  Saute bacon in a skillet until cooked.  I used thick slice bacon and cut it into a rough dice before cooking.  If you are using regular sliced, leave in strips for cooking and then cut into pieces after cooking.

Rough chop the scallions and layer over bread. Spread cheese and bacon over scallions.  Top with another layer of bread. This time butter-side up.

In a bowl mix eggs, milk, salt, and pepper.  Pour over bread.  Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

Bake at 350 covered with foil for about 35 minutes.  Remove foil and cook an additional 15 minutes.

MMmmm Bacon

No Shingling here

They recommended shingling the bread.  I thought by shingling the bread you mess up the cheese, bacon to bread ratio and in my opinion I don't want anyone messing with that ratio.  I want my share of bacon and cheese. The same as my ice cream to chocolate ratio in the Klondike Bar (I know, I know, there I go again).

While this is not really a "looker," it is really rich and delicious. I used a multigrain bread in the hopes of pretending that this was a healthier version. HAH! The original recipe tells you to pour off some of the bacon fat into the milk and egg mixture. Now I'm all for bacon fat, it really tastes good but in this case I think it would've been totally over the top.  This was rich enough as is.