Dulce de Leche French Toast Bake

Late January. The vaccine rollout has begun at the hospital — not for my team yet, but for the frontline clinical staff, the nurses and doctors and respiratory therapists who have been breathing the virus for ten months. I watched them line up in the hospital conference room, sleeves rolled, faces relieved and nervous, and I thought: this is how it ends. Not with a dramatic finale but with a needle and a line and a series of small acts of courage performed by people in scrubs who have already performed a year of large acts of courage and deserve rest.

My turn is in two weeks. The food service team is in the next wave. I told Maria and Denise and Jasmine and the others: we are getting vaccinated. Together. As a team. Because we went through this as a team and we will come out of it as a team. Maria said, Ms. D, will you go first? I said, Maria, I will go first, second, and third if they let me. I am not afraid of a needle. I am afraid of a world where my mother cannot come to my table, and the needle fixes that world, so the needle is my friend.

I made coquito this week — out of season, I know, coquito is a December drink, but I needed the comfort of it, the coconut and rum and cinnamon and condensed milk, the taste that says Christmas and family and abundance even when the calendar says January and the world says distance. Eduardo drank two glasses and fell asleep on the couch, which is the correct response to coquito and the response I was aiming for. I drank one glass and sat in the kitchen and wrote in the notebook — page seventy now, the alcapurrias recipe, the one that requires grating yuca until your arm burns and your hand cramps and the masa is smooth and the food is ready and the labor is the love.

The condensed milk was already on the counter from the coquito, and I stood there looking at it and thought: I am not putting this away yet. The coquito was for Eduardo and for January and for the feeling of Christmas kept alive a little longer — but this, the French toast bake with dulce de leche pooling gold between the bread, this was for the morning after, for the team breakfast I have been planning in my head since the day I told Maria and Denise and Jasmine that we were getting vaccinated together. When that day comes and we roll our sleeves up side by side, I want us to come home to something that tastes like we made it through.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 50 min | Total Time: 1 hr 5 min (plus overnight rest) | Servings: 8

Ingredients

1 loaf (about 1 lb) brioche or challah bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
6 large eggs
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 can (13.4 oz) dulce de leche, divided
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Powdered sugar and flaky sea salt, for serving

Instructions

Prepare the baking dish. Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with butter or nonstick spray. Spread the bread cubes in an even layer in the dish.
Make the custard. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, whole milk, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt until smooth and fully combined.
Assemble and soak. Pour the custard evenly over the bread cubes, pressing down gently so every piece absorbs the liquid. Drizzle half the dulce de leche over the top in ribbons. Dot with butter pieces. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.
Preheat and bake. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F. Remove the casserole from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for 20 minutes. Bake uncovered for 45–50 minutes, until the top is deeply golden and the custard is set in the center with no jiggle.
Finish with dulce de leche. Remove from the oven. Warm the remaining dulce de leche in a small saucepan over low heat or in the microwave in 15-second bursts until pourable. Drizzle generously over the hot casserole.
Serve. Dust with powdered sugar and a pinch of flaky sea salt. Serve warm, directly from the baking dish, with extra dulce de leche on the side.

Nutrition (per serving)

Dulce de Leche French Toast Bake — The Sweetness We Were Saving For