Overnight Baked Ice Cream French Toast

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This easy Overnight Baked Ice Cream French Toast takes just minutes of active preparation time and is the perfect breakfast to make when you have house guests or a special occasion to celebrate. I teamed up with my friends at Hudsonville Ice Cream to create this recipe – their ice cream makes a rich custardy French Toast with just the right amount of sweetness.

One of the struggles we are all facing these days is how to make occasions like birthdays feel special when we need to stay at home. Preparing a special meal is one of the ways I like to break up the monotony and get out of the winter slump.

We were lucky to be in Maine for my sister’s birthday, and to mark the day, I cooked up some Hudsonville Ice Cream French Toast – and served it in bed. Usually, we would have gone out to a restaurant, but a cozy brunch at home in our pajamas was fitting for a cold December day. 

While I made this meal to celebrate Kelly’s birthday, this is the perfect meal to serve to celebrate one of the most fun food holidays: Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day! This important culinary holiday is on February 6^th, and since it falls on a Saturday, you can celebrate properly! Stay in your pajamas, cook up some Ice Cream French Toast, and have an indulgent and lazy morning. 

I made the Ice Cream French Toast two different ways: I made a traditional French Toast and an Overnight Baked French Toast. Both were absolutely delicious! I am so excited to share these recipes with you – I know you will love them just as much as my family does.

Both of these recipes only require four ingredients: brioche bread, eggs, a touch of butter, and, of course, Hudsonville Ice Cream. When a recipe requires so few ingredients, it is really important to use high-quality ingredients. I adore Hudsonville Ice Cream because it is so creamy. It’s wonderful on its own, and incredible in recipes! The brand has a permanent spot in my freezer at home.

The trick to making the Overnight Baked Ice Cream French Toast is simple: you want to buy unsliced brioche, cut it into 1-inch thick slices, then lightly toast it and pour the ice cream mixture over. Let it sit overnight in the fridge and bake it in the morning. Toasting the bread is the secret to making sure that the thick bread will totally soak up the ice cream mixture. The result is super custardy French Toast. This recipe will not be the same if you don’t use thickly sliced bread.

I used Hudsonville Traverse City Cherry Fudge ice cream to make the Overnight Baked French Toast. We loved how the brioche soaked up the creamy amaretto ice cream and how the French Toast was topped with the cherry chunks and fudge ripple from the melted ice cream. Letting the bread soak in the ice cream overnight lets it get completely saturated; this is what gives the French Toast its soft custardy texture. The top of the French Toast, however, toasted and browned beautifully as it baked – almost caramelizing it. These contrasting textures make this French Toast exceptional.

I chose Traverse City Cherry Fudge because Kelly loves cherries. But, this recipe would work well with most ice cream flavors. Just take into consideration that any ice cream toppings could melt as the French Toast bakes – this isn’t a bad thing. We loved how the fudge melted giving us some chocolatey bites. Use this scoop locator to find Traverse City Cherry Fudge and other Hudsonville Ice Cream flavors in stores.

This recipe makes 12 slices of French Toast and uses a full carton of Hudsonville Ice Cream. It would be easy to make a smaller batch – just use 1 egg and two slices of brioche for every cup of ice cream. So, if you want to make French Toast for two, use one pint of ice cream, 2 eggs, and 4 slices of brioche.

Preparing the French Toast the night before took just about 10 minutes. Then I covered the dish and put the French Toast in the fridge. The next morning it went into the oven for about 55 minutes. It was so easy. 

With the baked French Toast in the oven, I whipped up another batch of Ice Cream French Toast using Hudsonville Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream. This is made like traditional French Toast. The batter was made with eggs and ice cream. Then individual slices of brioche were soaked in the ice cream mixture and cooked in a skillet greased with butter. 

This French Toast was far better than the basic French Toast I make with eggs, milk, sugar, and vanilla but it had the same texture. Compared to the Overnight Baked French Toast, it wasn’t quite as custardy. It also required more active preparation time since I needed to cook the French Toast in batches. But it was certainly worth the time and effort.

Since this was a celebration, we topped the French Toast with scoops of ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream, and sprinkles. We even put a cherry on top! The following day I served the leftover French Toast with maple syrup which was also very good and perhaps more fitting for breakfast.

To celebrate Kelly’s birthday, we had breakfast in bed – and of course, we wore our matching pjs. I even made Kelly a tinfoil crown, which she insisted on wearing for the photos. It was a fun at-home celebration and we plan to make this recipe a birthday tradition.

Overnight Baked Ice Cream French Toast Recipe:

Ice Cream French Toast Recipe:

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This post is sponsored by Hudsonville Ice Cream. The opinions expressed are always my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that make The Kittchen possible.