This is a great Easter breakfast/brunch item.  Or dollop a scoop of vanilla ice cream on this warm bake and it makes a fabulous dessert! I like to make these bakes because it satisfies my breakfast sweet tooth and you just throw everything together and bake. So easy!

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

You will need:

• 5-6 cups bread cubes – about 2″  (I use a good sourdough round as it stands up well to the custard. You can also use french bread). You can also slice your bread about 1 1/2″ thick and lay your slices into your casserole dish.
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 cup whole milk
• 5 large eggs
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp group cloves
• 1, 20 oz can pineapple tidbits in pineapple juice (drained and juice reserved)
• 3 tbsp dark brown sugar
• 5 tbsp butter
• pinch of salt
• zest and juice of one orange

Directions:

• Cube your bread and set aside.
• Drain pineapple, set aside. Save pineapple juice for syrup.
• Put 2 tbsp butter in 10″ saute pan and melt until it just begins to brown.
• Add drained pineapple and 3 tbsp brown sugar to pan.
• Saute pineapple on medium heat until it begins to caramelize then remove from heat.
• Prepare custard mixture by beating 5 eggs in a large bowl.
• Add 1 cup coconut milk,  1 cup whole milk, vanilla, cinnamon and cloves.
• Melt remaining 3 tbsp butter. Slowly drizzle butter into mixture with whisk.
• Add zest and juice of 1 orange and pinch of salt. Whisk mixture until well blended.
• Add your bread cubes to custard mixture and stir to coat all of the bread cubes. Let sit for 5 minutes, mixing a couple of times so that bread absorbs custard. (If you have sliced your bread, lay slices into casserole dish and pour custard over them and allow custard to absorb into bread slices.)
• Pour bread and custard mixture into a deep casserole dish which has been rubbed with butter or sprayed with cooking spray.
• Put dish into oven and cook for approximately 30-45 minutes.
• Remove from oven and let stand about 5 minutes.
• Spoon into dishes and spoon pineapple maple syrup over each serving.

If serving as a dessert, place one scoop of vanilla ice cream over warm bread and drizzle pineapple maple syrup over the ice cream.

Pineapple Maple Syrup:

• While the french toast bake cooks, pour reserved pineapple juice into small sauce pan and put on medium high heat.
• Reduce pineapple juice mixture to about 1/4 of its original volume.
• When juice is reduced, remove from heat and add 1 – 1 1/2 cups maple syrup.
• Let stand while your french toast bake cooks.
• Serve over french toast bake when serving.