baked french toast casserole

Lookit, I love The Pioneer Woman. Truly, I do. Her wild rice and corn casserole is slap-your-mama good. Her stuffed mushrooms? To die for. But I always find myself tweaking her recipes to contain less fat-- not that it's not delicious, but if I ate her recipes as is I would be roughly the size of the Goodyear Blimp. I'd love to know her secret!

When I came across her recipe for baked french toast that contained 2 cups of whole milk PLUS 1 cup of heavy cream PLUS A WHOLE STICK OF BUTTER, my eyes almost fell out of my head. So I gave it a loving revision. And it's still delicious. Lemme tell you how:

the insides:
1 loaf of sourdough (or bread of your choosing, enough to rip up and fill a 9x12 casserole dish)
nonstick spray
12 eggs
1 C buttermilk, I used 2%
4 T sugar
4 T bourbon* (*optional, I guess)
2 T vanilla

the topping:
1/2 C - 1 C pecans, toasted
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 C flour
1 T cinnamon
1 pinch salt
1/2 stick butter, cubed and very, very cold

Directions: rip up your bread and fill your greased casserole dish. In a large bowl combine 12 eggs, buttermilk, sugar, bourbon, and vanilla and beat lightly with a fork. Pour it over the bread, cover with foil, and stick in the fridge for at least 4 hours (I say overnight. I mean dude, that took what, 5 min? Perfect thing to do before bed on Christmas Eve.)

For the topping, throw the toasted pecans in your food processor with flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and a pinch of salt. Add in the cold butter cubes and pulse until it resembles small pebbles. Stick that in the refrigerator too.

The next morning, sprinkle the topping on and bake at 350 for 45 min to 1 hour, depending on if you like yours eggy vs. toasty. I put maple syrup on mine and served it with cayenne & brown sugared bacon.

Serves 12, and if you care: 400 calories, 20g fat, 12g protein, 3g fiber.