Oven French Toast

This is a delicious brunch dish to make, especially for the morning of Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Day or any holiday when you don't want to fuss around the minute you open your eyes. It's already prepared and just needs to be popped into the oven and baked!

Spray a 9x13" pan with nonstick spray.
Thinly slice up a loaf of French/Italian bread into 1/4" slices- there should be approx. 24 thin slices.
Have ready: 6-8 cups frozen (separated, not clumped together) berries - sprinkled & gently tossed with 1 Tblsp. cornstarch.

In a mixing bowl, measure and mix together:
2 cups milk (2% or whole)
1 cup half & half
1 cup dairy eggnog OR heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
6 extra large beaten eggs
1 teasp. vanilla

Pour 1/3 of the milk mixture on the bottom of the pan. Lay half the bread slices on top of the milk, overlapping the slices. Place half the berries evenly over the top of the bread. (To make this dish richer and creamier - at this point you may add an 8 oz block of cream cheese, cut into teeny pcs and placed evenly onto the bread/berries.- it's fine to omit this.)

Pour 1/3 of the milk mixture over the berries/bread. On top of that, lay the other half of the bread slices, overlapping as needed. Place the other half of the berries evenly over the bread.

Pour the remaining 1/3 of the milk mixture over the bread & berries. Cover with foil & refrigerate for 6 hours, or preferably, overnight.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the berry toast for 45 minutes, or until the middle is set and the top is golden. Serve with heavy cream or syrup, dusted with powdered sugar or topped with additional berries.