Overnight French Toast Waffles

Updated on 6/3/2017.

Here’s my original post from 2010:

A few months ago I bought two gallons of milk (it was on sale, I was using it for a recipe) in one sitting, and after using the two cups I needed for the recipe; I had a lot of milk left over. So I decided to make waffles and freeze them for an easy breakfast. After a few hours of toiling in the kitchen, I probably made somewhere between 16 and 20 waffles. What I found when reheating them (using the toaster) was that they just weren’t as good as when they first come out of the waffle iron. So I thought about what I could do with all of the frozen waffles in my freezer and came up with this idea: reheat them into French toast waffles. I love waffles, and I love French toast. So I figured the combination of the two would be amazing. Maybe I could start a trend; get this new breakfast hybrid on menus all over the world. But first I needed to try it in our kitchen.

This is a breakfast I was going to need to try on my own. As mentioned before, BF doesn’t really like bread/starchy breakfasts. He has eaten these very waffles — non French toast style — in the past. It’s rare I can get him to eat anything other than eggs for breakfast. Secretly, I think it’s because he’s trying to maintain his figure by going lo-carb. Actually, I accused him of this when I first met him and he declared his aversion to bread and bread products. (He staunchly denies a like for bread and bread products to this day.)

Here is the basic recipe for the waffles I had frozen a few months ago. Briefly I searched the internet for a French toast recipe to use in my experiment and found one on the Food Network website. It’s a pretty basic recipe.

My adaptation is below. It occurred to me that this dish might work better if you used a recipe where you soaked the waffles in the custard mixture overnight. So I changed the recipe from what I’d originally made in 2010.

ingredients.

2 c. half-and-half
6 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
4 T. golden syrup, warmed in microwave for 20 seconds
pinch of salt

directions.

In medium size mixing bowl, the night before you plan on eating this dish, whisk together the half-and-half, eggs, syrup, and salt.
Place waffle pieces in one-layer in a greased oven safe dish such as a 9×13 glass dish. I had to break the waffles apart to be able to crowd them into the pan I used.
Pour custard mixture over the waffles. Store in the refrigerator overnight.
When you’re ready to eat, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until the waffles start to brown.
Let cool slightly before serving. Eat with butter, maple syrup, golden syrup, powdered sugar, whipped cream or fruit.

Here’s what I said about the original recipe back in 2010. Keep in mind, I was not soaking the waffles overnight but instead dipping them into the egg mixture and pan frying them.

I had to make a few basic changes to the recipe. First, I was making this for one, so I reduced the ingredients to 1/3 of everything that was needed. Second, I didn’t have honey. I didn’t substitute anything for honey in the recipe. I just omitted it. Third, I didn’t use the butter because I wasn’t cooking the toast in a pan. I was using my waffle iron so I sprayed it with Pam Cooking Spray. With prep plus cook time, it probably took me 15 minutes to complete everything.

First I soaked one of the waffles in the egg mixture.

While I was soaking the first waffle I decided to thaw the second waffle so that more of the egg mixture would soak into it. The egg mixture seemed to soak more quickly into the thawed waffle versus the frozen waffle. (The next time I try this recipe, I will make sure I was using thawed waffles.) After completely soaking the waffles in the egg mixture, I sprayed the waffle iron with cooking spray, placed the waffles into the iron, and closed the iron for 2 to 3 minutes. The waffles were starting to steam pretty heavily at the three minute mark. Once I removed the waffles from the iron, I put them on a cookie sheet and baked them in the oven for the directed amount of time.

When I was young, my mom used to serve us French toast with butter and powder sugar. I decided to eat my French toast waffles the same way. (We don’t have any maple syrup in the fridge even if I wanted that as an option.)

The first waffle I bit into was the waffle that I had soaked in the egg mixture while frozen. It tasted pretty much like a waffle to me. I couldn’t really tell much of a difference.

When I tried the second waffle (soaked in the egg mixture when thawed), I thought it tasted slightly more French Toast-y, but basically still like a waffle. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed that my new breakfast hybrid wasn’t an immediate success. I am not turned off by the idea of making French toast waffles, however. I think the recipe could work – perhaps with a different waffle recipe, a different French toast recipe, or both! I mean, how many times is an experimental recipe perfected on the first try? Probably never.

I’ll keep you posted!

I originally rated this recipe two apples but the new version is rated five! This French Toast is almost like a bread pudding. You could top it with ice cream and golden syrup for a delicious treat!