I am fighting a painfully frustrating war with my two year old son when it comes to eating breakfast. I feel like I have tried everything under the sun with virtually no successes. I win the occasional battle and think to myself, “okay, now we are finally on to something”, only to have to next morning filled with the despair of another failed food attempt. I am sure that I am not alone in the parenting world when it comes to a toddler not wanting to eat, but unfortunately that does not ease my frustration. I made this French Toast Bread one Saturday hoping against all odds that Sunday’s French toast was going to be a winner for my son. I wish I could say that this particular Sunday was one of my victories, but alas, the war has not been won. Parker turned his mouth away in absolute disgust! My husband and I, however, did enjoy my efforts and had a wonderful breakfast of rich and cinnamony French toast.
This recipe is based off of my favorite challah bread recipe and it will make one really huge loaf, or two smaller loaves. I immediately sliced them up once they were completely cool and placed the slices in freezer bags that then went in the freezer for the next time I attempt to feed my little guy French toast. This bread also is delicious sliced while still a bit warm and slathered in a fresh butter.
Ingredients:
- 5 tsp instant or active dry yeast (2 pkgs)
- 1 cup (8 oz, 267 g) warm water
- ½ cup (4 oz, 113 g) sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 4 ½ – 5 cups (22 ½ – 25 oz, 638 – 708 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup (2 oz, 57 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
Procedure
- If you are using active dry yeast then you need to dissolve the yeast in the warm water and let stand until foamy. If you are using instant yeast this is an unnecessary step, you can just add the yeast to the flour. Using a wooden spoon stir in the sugar, eggs, 4 ½ cups of flour to start, salt, and the butter. Mix together until a rough dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, working in only as much flour as needed, resist the urge to add more flour because it will result in a dry, tough bread. Knead the dough for about 7-10 minutes or until the dough becomes smooth and elastic.
- Form the dough into a ball and transfer to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm spot until it doubles in bulk, about 1 ½-2 hours.
- Shape bread into one large loaf or two smaller loaves and place them in well greased loaf pans. Then cover the loaves with lightly oiled plastic wrap and let them rise in a warm spot for 45-60 minutes or until they roughly double in size and crest over the edge of the pan by about 1 inch.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees about 45 minutes before baking. Bake the loaves until they are a deep golden brown and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. This will vary depending on whether you made one large loaf or two small loaves. Let the loaves cool almost completely.
This recipe was submitted to yeastspotting.
Does your son not like breakfast foods or does he just not eat?
I had one that would never eat. Ever. And then he would get cranky. But the good thing is, they never die of starvation. Eventually, they do eat.
My son just doesn’t eat any food really. They put an NG tube in so that he could at least get some nutrition. He refused to eat for so long he started to lose weight. Two year olds are a challenge to feed in the first place, but Parker isn’t able to quickly digest his food. It kind of just makes it worse. Thanks for asking!
Same thing happened to my Grandson at 18 months. He had a very narrow pylori valve that made him feel full much of the time. His Gastroenterologist finally went in and stretched it. Helped quite a bit. The other thing we found was that he was attracted to strong flavors with a high fat content like Sardines in EVOO and avocados, he loves eggs over easy where the yolks are still runny tucked into an English muffin, sharp cheddar cheese shredded and a slice or 2 of shaved ham or turkey. Another favorite is Mac and cheese with 3 kinds of cheese, muenster, sharp cheddar and mozzarella for it’s melt factor with home made chicken nuggets made from thigh meat. Hope one of these suggestions may be a winner. They weren’t always a hit either but we just kept retrying things that he had shown any interest in. He is 6 now and still a challenge to feed, but doing so much better.
Oh, I’m sorry. I know my youngest NEVER ate…he still doesn’t eat that much and he’s 21 now (I tell him he’s manoarexic). And it was a challenge to get him to eat so I would have to trick him into eating. Sometimes it’s textural thing, too. I thought you weren’t able to get him to eat breakfast foods, which when that was the case for us, I would just let him eat whatever. He’s eaten more PB&Js than anyone I know (though your husband may have him beat on that). 🙂
Is this dough supposed to be so very sticky!? Just curious. Making sure I didn’t do something wrong.
Do you mind telling me what the average bake time is for the large loaf? Just so I have a benchmark to go by.
Question: Does the cinnamon go into the batter or on top?
Hi Sharon,
The cinnamon goes into the batter/dough. A sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar would also be nice on the top!
Happy Baking!