Tres Leches French Toast Casserole

Well, now I’ve gone and done it: I’ve taken brunch up about a million notches. Tres Leches French Toast Casserole should be the ONLY french toast you ever eat again!

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Can you believe that, until about six months ago, I’d never had tres leches cake? I know, right? A dessert blogger never having eaten this classic cake? It was unbelievable. If I’m being 100% honest, before I tasted it I didn’t even know what the “three milks” were that made up the cake (tres leches translates to 3 milks) and I’d never even had the urge to try it, let alone make it.

Again, I hang my head in dessert blogger shame. Will you forgive me?

So anyway, last April I went with a few fellow food blogger BFFs (Averie and Holly) to Santa Monica. We ate at a trendy Mexican restaurant the first night and ordered tres leches for dessert. I liked the cake, but we all agreed that there was not even close to enough sauce on top. I loved the flavors however and added the cake to my mental list of things to make in the future.

But, you know me. I can never just make tres leches cake. I had to turn it into something even better: breakfast. Instead of cake, I made tres leches FRENCH TOAST CASSEROLE.

Oh, yes I did.

Now, tres leches is traditionally made of sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy cream. I decided to change it up a little and use sweetened condensed milk, regular milk, and International Delight French Vanilla Coffee Creamer. Why? Because I could, obviously, and because I could live on coffee creamer. It’s already in my fridge, so why not??

…THEN I added vanilla bean paste to the mix…and it made the sweetest most vanilla elixir of the tres leches gods you’ll ever taste.

I went with making a french toast casserole because I like baking it better than I like frying it. It’s easier and takes less active time. I mixed up the milks and then divided the mixture so I could use some to soak the bread in and some to pour over the top of the casserole after baking, like you do with a traditional tres leches cake.

While we’re at it, let’s talk about bread. I used challah bread because it’s oh-so-good. You can use any bread you like, but just make sure it’s a little stale. Using freshly baked bread will make this soggy.

You dip the bread slices and then bake the casserole…and then you drench it in more tres leches sauce.

In other words, you create heaven.

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