Baked Blueberry French Toast

I love brunch entertaining. With blueberries at the height of season, this decant dish is similar to a bread pudding, so it can be used as an entrée or cut smaller for dessert with a scoop of vanilla gelato. In this recipe the French toast is soaked overnight like bread pudding — in the morning all you need to do is add the topping and pop it in the oven

Ingredients 

For the Bread:

One 24-inch baguette

6 large eggs

3 cups whole milk

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (optional)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup pecans (about 3 ounces)

1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon unsalted butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups blueberries (about 12 ounces)

For syrup:

1 cup blueberries (about 6 ounces)

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Directions

1. The day before: Butter a 13 x 9-inch baking dish. Cut twenty 1-inch slices from baguette and arrange in one layer in baking dish. In a large bowl whisk together eggs, milk, nutmeg, vanilla, and 3/4 cup brown sugar and pour evenly over bread. Chill mixture, covered, until all liquid is absorbed by bread, at least 8 hours, and up to 1 day.
2. Preheat oven to 350°F.
3. In a shallow baking pan spread pecans evenly and toast in middle of oven until fragrant, about 8 minutes. Toss pecans in pan with 1 teaspoon butter and salt.
4. Increase temperature to 400°F.
5. Sprinkle pecans and blueberries evenly over chilled bread mixture. Cut 1/2 stick butter into pieces and in a small saucepan heat with remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar, stirring, until butter is melted. Drizzle butter mixture over bread and bake mixture 20 minutes, or until any liquid from blueberries is bubbling.