French Toast Sticks

golden brown with some maple syrup to dip

After two weeks of south of the border inspired recipes, I thought it was time for something completely different. You may know french toast sticks as something in your groceries freezer section. I'm here to tell you that these are easy to make AND easy to freeze + much less expensive than the kind in the grocery store. Make up a big batch, freeze them, and have super delicious times for less money for snacks and breakfasts.

I thought that just french toast sticks, while delicious, wasn't very well rounded (I at least like to cover two food groups with my snacks) so I made some tasty fruit-salad kebabs. Really you could just make fruit salad, but kebabs are more hand held for snack purposes. They would be more economical in the summer/fall when fruits are in season, but my local store had some fruit on sale and I took advantage of that.

My intention was to make a maple cream cheese dipping sauce for the french toast sticks, but I forgot to buy cream cheese. Maybe in the future I will update this because it would be seriously tasty.

French Toast Sticks

Ingredients

fruit kebabs in a mason jar

About half a loaf of Italian bread (texas toast or french bread would also work)
1 cup milk (I used 2%)
3 large eggs
1tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp real maple syrup
pinch salt

Directions

The night before you plan on making your french toast, slice your bread into about 3/4 inch slices and put on a wire cooling wrack to stale up over night. The stale bread holds up to the batter better.

Preheat your oven to 360 degrees (I found 350 wasn't quite hot enough).

Mix together all of your ingredients in bowl until the egg is well incorporated. Pour the mixture into wide dish (a casserole dish works really well).  Slice your bread slices into 1-1 1/2 inch fingers. Set each finger into the mixture, letting it absorb for about 30 seconds on either side. Set back on the cooling rack to drain excess mixture for at least 2 minutes.

Place fingers on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Don't let them touch as they will stick together.

Bake for 30 minutes, flipping half way through. Sprinkle with cinnamon if desired and serve with maple syrup or fruit.

These were really yummy with a nice custard texture inside and crunchy outside. And the best part? Baked, not fried for a little healthiness boost!