Mother's Day Blueberry Baked French Toast

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day!  Our Mother's Day celebration started the night before, when Brett made the Challah I would be needing for breakfast the following morning.  My mom hung out in the kitchen while he worked and we all visited.  We had the extra egg for egg-wash this time and it turned out so shiny and golden and perfect!

On Mother's Day, Brett slept in and I got to work.  I saw this recipe on Giada at Home two weekends ago.  It was the Mother's Day brunch show.  I watched and said, "Yum, I'll make that for my mom." But when I went to find the recipe online, I couldn't find it!  So I had to catch that episode again and take notes on all the measurements, baking time, and temperature.

Giada's Blueberry Baked French Toast

6 eggs

3 cups milk

3/4 cup maple syrup

2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of salt

zest from one lemon

1/2 loaf of Challah

2 cups blueberries

Topping: 3 T sugar mixed with 1 T cinnamon

Whisk together the  first six ingredients to make the batter then gently stir in the blueberries and chunks of bread.  Pour into a large buttered baking dish.  Sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar topping.  Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

This recipe will feed a crowd, so I halved it and it was still plenty.  I'm not sure about the measurement on the bread.  I cut a few large slices of bread into chunks, put them in the batter and then decided to add some more because it looked way too wet.  I just kept adding until there was only a little bit of liquid still in the bottom of the bowl.

I was a little worried that there would be too much cinnamon, but it tasted delicious.  The most surprising taste was how strong the lemon zest was.  I really liked that unexpected zing.  Yum Yum Yum!  I highly recommend this one for a special occasion breakfast!  And the most important thing was that my mom liked it.  I love you Mom!