Cinnamon Apple Baked French Toast

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If you have been following along with us at Tuck & Tate, you know we love a good brunch situation. Our easy, go-to brunch menu includes a savory egg dish, a sweet dish, and either a fruit salad or a vegetable salad. When it comes to the sweet section, we love a good baked french toast. We have made this Cinnamon Apple Baked French toast a few times now, and the dish is always a crowd pleaser. Thick slices of challah, a sweet and cinnamony batter, all topped with a thick layer of baked apples. A winter dream dish! While tasting decadent, we have modified the ingredients from a traditional baked french toast with some healthy substitutes. We like serving dishes that taste sweet but won’t leave us in a sugar coma after eating. It has the perfect balance of flavors that will have everyone asking for seconds.

Cinnamon Apple Baked French Toast

  • Servings: 8-10
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A decadent brunch dish that will satisfy any sweet tooth.

French Toast Ingredients

  • 1- 1lb challah, crust removed and sliced, left out on a counter to dry out
  • 5 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups oat milk or milk of choice
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • pinch of salt

Baked Apple Ingredients

  • 3 tbs butter
  • 3 large apples, peeled and sliced
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together the all of the ingredients for the french toast batter with the exception of the challah (eggs – salt). Whisk well to combine. Set aside.
  3. Make the apples. Heat a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the butter to the pan and get it nice and melted. Add the apples and remaining apple ingredients (through vanilla extract). Toss well and let the apples cook until they are softened but not flimsy, about 4 minutes. We like them to have a little bit of texture after they are baked. Turn the apples off the heat and set aside.
  4. Spray a 9 x 11 baking dish with cooking spray. Dip the pieces of challah into the french toast batter covering both sides of the slice. Layer the challah slices into the baking dish. You want to have a mostly uniform layer and be sure the bottom of the baking dish is fully covered. Pour any extra batter over the top of the challah.
  5. Add the apples on top of the challah in an even layer. Cover the baking dish with a sheet of foil and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes. Serve with maple syrup, our Bourbon Salted Caramel, or cinnamon whipped cream, if desired.

Caramel Apple Mimosas

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We always like to have a cocktail for Thanksgiving to help get in the spirit for our favorite holiday. There is something about a signature cocktail that sets a nice tone for the evening and is always a mood booster. Even though we aren’t having guests for Thanksgiving this year, feeling “in the spirit” is more important than ever. What better way to kick off a holiday with a bang than a morning Caramel Apple Mimosa? We’ve combined our love of bubbly champagne, our fall favorite apple cider, and a dash of caramel vodka for a sweet, decadent mimosa. It’s a great beverage to jumpstart Thanksgiving morning and makes a great dessert night cap for later at night.

Caramel Apple Mimosas

  • Servings: 4
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A sweet & bubbly treat for Thanksgiving morning!

Ingredients

  • 8 oz apple cider
  • 3 oz Smirnoff caramel vodka
  • 12 oz chilled, dry champagne
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • caramel for drizzling on the glasses, optional

Directions

  1. If you are dipping the champagne flutes in caramel, put a few tablespoons of caramel onto a plate or a flat bowl and dip each glass rim into the caramel. Let it set for a minute before adding the cocktail.
  2. In a pitcher, combine the apple cider, vodka, and lemon juice. Give it a good stir before dividing evenly amongst the champagne flutes.
  3. Fill the rest of each champagne flute with champagne. Serve immediately.

Deep Dish Apple Pie

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Oh my, apple pie. While people can be hit and miss about their love of pumpkin desserts, we haven’t found anyone yet that dislikes apple pie. We always have some sort of apple dessert on the table at Thanksgiving, and this year we wanted to really take things up a notch and made a deep dish apple pie. To achieve this feat, we used a 10 inch springform pan and made a double batch of homemade crust to keep walls of our pie standing up tall. While the length of this recipe might seem overwhelming, you can make this recipe over the course of a few days and even buy pre-made crust to save you some time in the kitchen.

Deep Dish Apple Pie

  • Servings: 8-10
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Our spin on classic apple pie, made mile high for your Thanksgiving celebrations.

Ingredients For The Crust


– 2 1/2 cups (315g) all purpose flour
– 1 tsp salt
– 1 cup cold, unsalted butter
– 1/2 cup ice water, plus more as needed

Ingredients For The Apple Filling


– 10 granny smith apples, peeled, stem removed, and thinly sliced
– 3/4 cup brown sugar
– 1/3 cup all purpose flour
– juice of 1 large lemon
– 2 tsp cinnamon
– 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
– pinch of salt

Ingredients For The Crumble Topping


– 2/3 cup oats
– 1/3 cup all purpose flour
– 2/3 cup brown sugar
– 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
– 1 tsp cinnamon
– pinch of salt

Directions

  1. Make the pie crust. Cut the butter into pea-sized cubes. Put the butter on a small cookie sheet or into a bowl and put it in the freezer for 5-10 minutes. You want that butter cold!
  2. Combine the flour, salt, and butter in a large bowl. Use your hands or a pie cutter to break the butter cubes into the flour; by hand you do this by squishing the butter cubes into flat discs, letting the butter absorb any flour along the way. Add the ice cold water to the flour and mix until the dough is just combined. The dough should stick together and be clumpy; you might need to add another 1 tbs of water to get to the right consistency.
  3. Transfer the dough to a floured surface and knead the dough until it forms into a ball. Flatten the ball into a disc and wrap the ball in saran wrap. Put the dough into the refrigerator and chill for at least an hour, up to overnight.
  4. While the dough is in the refrigerator, make the apple filling. Combine all of the filling ingredients (sliced apples – salt) in a large mixing bowl; toss everything well to combine. Let the apples sit for 30-40 minutes. After they have sat, drain most of the liquid from the bottom of the bowl. Taste an apple after draining and add any additional cinnamon or brown sugar to your taste. Set the apples aside.
  5. Finally, make the crumble topping. Combine the crumble ingredients (oats – salt) in a medium sized mixing bowl. Stir well to combine so that the butter is coating all of the crumble ingredients. Set aside.
  6. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
  7. Roll out the pie dough. Lightly flour a large surface to roll out the dough. The diameter of the dough will depend on how large your springform pan is. For a 10 inch pan, you will want to roll a circle that is approximately 18 inches in diameter; 10 inches to cover the bottom and 4 inches on all sides for the deep dish look.
  8. Gently roll the dough onto your rolling pin and transfer it into the springform pan. Press the dough into the rounded corners of the pan so that you have a clear bottom of the pie with tall edges around the springform. You want the dough to go up the sides of the pan but not over the top, as it will be hard to remove the springform later to serve. You will have some extra dough. You can use the extra bits to fill in any gaps or patches if you get holes in the dough during the transfer into the pan.
  9. Once the dough is in the pan and secure on all of the sides, add the apple filling. As gently as you can, pour the apples into the pan and use a spatula to ensure there are apples in even layers starting by the bottom of the crust. You can give the pan a little shake to help settle the apples.
  10. Top the apples with the crumble topping, creating an even layer of topping all over the top of the pie. Bake the pie for 55-65 minutes- the crust will be brown and any juices from the apples will be bubbling.
  11. Remove the pie from the oven and let it rest for 30 minutes before slicing and serving. You can cover the springform in foil to keep it warm while it rests, and serve with ice cream, if desired.

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Apple Mascarpone Tart

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Our dessert for our Golden Globes 2020 menu honors Christina Applegate, nominated for her role in Dead to Me. This was one of our favorite shows this summer and we were thrilled to make a dessert in her honor! Being that it is the first week of January, we tried to keep this dessert relatively light so that no one has to feel like they spoiled their resolutions week 1 of the new year. We love this Apple Mascarpone Tart recipe. It is sweet, just a hint of savory, and tastes ultra-decadent. It comes together very quickly and makes for a great, handheld treat as the Golden Globes are finishing at the end of the night! 

Apple Tart With Mascarpone & Thyme 
Makes: 6 servings 
Prep Time: 15 minutes    Baking Time: 30 minutes    Total Time: 60 minutes 

Ingredients: 

  • 1/2 lb  cold pie dough (we used Trader Joe’s brand)
  • 2 tbs flour- for rolling out the dough 
  • 2 large honeycrisp apples 
  • juice of 1/2 lemon 
  • 4 tbs honey, separated 
  • 1 tbs hot water
  • 2/3 cup mascarpone cheese 
  • 3 sprigs fresh thyme leaves 

Directions: 

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. 
  2. Sprinkle the flour onto an even surface. Roll the pie dough into a large rectangle- approximately 10 inches by 16 inches. The dough should still be at least 1/4 inch think, so use your best judgement if you use a different brand of pie dough. Use the rolling pin to help lift your pie dough from your counter top onto a baking sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray. 
  3. Cut the apples away from their core and slice into 1/2 inch thick slices. Sprinkle with the lemon juice so that they do not brown. 
  4. Use a whisk the mix the mascarpone cheese and 2 tbs of the honey in a small mixing bowl. Use a soft spatula to gently spread the mascarpone mix evenly onto the pie crust, leaving a two inch border on all sides of the dough. Be careful not to spread the mascarpone too hastily so as to rip the dough. 
  5. Layer the apples in two rows over top the mascarpone, making sure to leave the two inch border on all sides of the dough.
  6. Mix the remaining 2 tbs honey and thyme leaves with 1 tbs hot water. Use a pastry brush to brush all of the apples with the honey mixture. 
  7. Gently fold the dough border around the apples, creating a crust on all sides of the apples. Gently pinch the overlapping edges together to form a seal. Refrigerate the tart for 5 minutes to help it set before baking. 
  8. Bake the tart for 20 – 25 minutes, or until the crust is light golden brown. Let the tart sit, out of the oven, for at least 10 minutes before slicing or the crust will tend to fall apart.