Lemon-Raspberry French Toast Strata

By Kath Dedon

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A couple of years ago Laura and her friend, Mary, made a wonderful Mother’s Day brunch for their lucky moms—me and Julie! They researched recipes at epicurious.com and found Lemon-Raspberry French Toast Strata. Well, it was a big hit, and has been in our family’s brunch repertoire ever since.

I have always made it with regular whole milk, but last Sunday (Father’s Day) I tried it with unsweetened vanilla flavored almond milk. I had  noticed that several reviews of the recipe at epicurious mentioned adding vanilla or almond extract; the vanilla almond milk seemed like it would be a good substitution. It worked really well with the almond milk, so that’s a great option if you are cooking for someone who is lactose intolerant. (I had leftover almond milk and found that it was very tasty on my Go Nutty Granola!)

The original recipe serves 8 – 10 people; I made half of the recipe last Sunday because I didn’t want a lot of leftovers. It probably would have been quite good, though, reheated the next day in the oven or microwave oven.

The Lemon-Raspberry French Toast Strata was part of our Father’s Day brunch that included scrambled eggs, lots of bacon, and fresh Bing cherries. Yum!

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Update June 25, 2013:  Make it Gluten Free! 

Udi’s Gluten Free has developed a similar recipe using Udi’s GF White Sandwich Bread instead of regular bread. I think that would work quite well with this recipe if you need a gluten free option. 🙂

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Lemon-Raspberry French Toast Strata

(Adapted from a recipe at epicurious.com, attributed to Tracey Seaman, March 2007)

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(print the recipe)

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Serves 4 – 6 (Double and make in a 9×13-inch pan to serve 8 – 10)

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¼ cup pure maple syrup, plus additional for serving

3 cups 1-inch cubes of white bread (crusts optional, I left them on)

¾ cup fresh raspberries

3 large eggs

2 cups whole milk (or almond milk)

½ teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

1/8 teaspoon salt

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1. Preheat the oven to 350˚.

2. Butter an 8×8-inch baking pan; pour the maple syrup in the pan.

3. Distribute the bread cubes and the raspberries in the pan.

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4. Beat the eggs, milk, lemon zest and salt together and pour over the bread cubes.

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5. Bake until puffy and golden brown, about 50 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes before cutting.

6. Serve with additional maple syrup.