Coconut Pumpkin Ale Overnight French Toast Bake
Coconut Pumpkin Ale Overnight French Toast Bake
Every interview, radio and TV, that’ve done the past two months has involved answering questions about pumpkin beer.
I told you about the harvest question incident already, and the problem with pumpkin beer. Beer people, for the most part, see this time of year as hop harvest season more than pumpkin season. Fourth quarter has some of the most incredible beer. We have wet hop, barrel aged beer, winter warmers, holiday ales, barley wines. There is so much to explore when it comes to beer. Pumpkin beer can be fantastic but the truth is if pumpkin beer disappeared tomorrow—never to be seen again—I’d hardly notice.
Pumpkin fanaticism this time of year grows to such a fevered pitch it’s hard not to be irritated but the fascination points to a growing trend: in-season produce. That’s good news. Although the obsession gets derailed by the a spice blend that contains no actual hint of the produce other than the name, the idea is still solid. We should do this more. We should lose our minds of blood oranges in January, infusing our beer and lattes as much as possible. We should freak out over apricots in June. We should await peach harvest every summer like a kid on Christmas morning. I’m hopeful these obsessions will continue, pushing us to focus more on the produce that just came out of the ground. Pumpkin, I’m hoping, is just the start of the produce loving snowball rolling down hill.
Pumpkin beer is a great cooking beer. Especially for those who would rather drink something else. Of course it’s strange to add beer to your breakfast, but you make this the night before when finishing the remaining beer from the bottle you open is a lot less strange. The yeast and carbonation give this a slight leavening effect, they way a beer cheese dip can have a soufflé texture out of the oven. The center will puff slightly and the bread will turn slightly puffy and creamy.
And you can pair this with coffee, pumpkin spiced or not.
Coconut Pumpkin Ale Overnight French Toast Bake
Ingredients
- 1 loaf 1 lbs Challah or Brioche bread, cut into cubes
- 5 large eggs
- 1 can 400 mL full fat coconut milk
- 1 cup 226g pumpkin ale, brown ale, or winter ale
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup 122g pumpkin puree
- ¼ cup 55g brown sugar
- 3/4 cup 150g white sugar
- 1 ½ tsp 6g pumpkin pie spice*
- ½ tsp 3g salt
- maple syrup or whipped cream for serving, optional
Instructions
- Add the bread cubes to an 9x13 baking dish.
- In a large bowl whisk together the remaining ingredients. Pour over the bread.
- Cover and refrigerate overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350. Bake until the top is lightly springy and appears to have puffed in the center, about 35-45 minutes.
- Slice and serve warm with whipped cream or maple syrup.
Comments
Nathalie November 13, 2015 um 1:09 pm
Looks absolutely fab!
Thank you for the recipe and inspiration 🙂
xx
http://potsofsmiles.blogspot.com/
Ann Marie November 14, 2015 um 7:11 am
This looks amazing! Did you leave the bread cubes out to get stale first, or is it better for them to be fresh? Definitely giving this a shot 🙂
Thanks!
AM
Jackie November 15, 2015 um 6:04 pm
I used them fresh because I like the creaminess they get that way. You can also use stale or day old.