I hope you embraced my out-of-season cozy attack earlier this week, because today I have an excellent way to use up any leftover cinnamon swirl bread, should you have any (this is a great excuse to make the full, double-loaf recipe).

If you’ve got, say, half a loaf left out, and getting stale and unloved, I HIGHLY suggest repurposing it into a baked french toast. The tops get golden and crisp and the custardy inside bakes up plush and pillowy. The cinnamon swirl comes back to life and the dried fruit plumps up into jammy pockets.

You can of course slice it up and make a delicious stove-top french toast with it too, but here’s why I recommend the baked approach:

• It’s summer! If you want to stand over a hot stove and fry up each slice individually, be my guest, but I think an oven is a better option. Even if it heats up the kitchen, you can leave the room and cool yourself off while your french toast bakes up.

• It’s gloriously lazy! Just arrange the slices in a baking dish the night before, pour on the custard mixture, and let soak overnight. In the morning, wake up, make some coffee, heat the oven, pop in your dish, and go about your morning as you want. You can fry up some bacon in the meantime or even go back to bed until it’s done.

• It’s pretty! You didn’t spend all that time crafting a beautifully swirled loaf for nothing! Show it off a bit!

• It’s got wow factor for your family or imaginary guests. I miss entertaining my friends so much right now! It’s been a small consolation testing my way through party-friendly recipes in the meantime. When I’m allowed to throw a brunch again, this will definitely be on the menu.

Whatever reason speaks to you, I really think you can’t go wrong here. Just add maple syrup and a shower of powdered sugar and enjoy your morning!

Baked Cinnamon Swirl French Toast

This recipe works well with the cinnamon swirl bread from my last post, which retains a nice chew when baked (you will want to scrape off the glaze, if you took that step, as it won’t bake up well in the oven). Feel free to sub with your favorite french toast bread, but know you might need to adjust the liquid amounts accordingly. As written, this recipe feeds 4-6, depending on whether it’s the main even or part of a larger breakfast spread, but this recipe can also be easily doubled to feed more.

• 1/2 loaf cinnamon swirl bread, or 6 slices, 1/2-3/4 inch thick.

• 1 tbs butter, for greasing the pan

• 3 eggs

• 1 1/4 cup milk

• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)

• good pinch kosher salt

1. Generously butter a small baking dish and shingle the bread slices in the pan. I like to keep them whole if possible to really show off the cinnamon swirl but arrange as you like, or as needed to fit the pan. You want the slices to have as much contact with the bottom of the pan as possible to ensure all the liquid can be soaked up. Tuck any leftover butter pieces in between the slices of bread.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients and pour over the bread. Press down to fully coat the slices and make sure you have even coverage. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. If you are making this morning of, give the bread at least an hour to really soak up the custard mixture.

3. When ready to bake, heat oven to 350 degrees. Remove the plastic, and bake for 1 hour until puffed and golden brown (you will probably need to tent with foil about halfway through). Let sit for 10 minutes, then serve as desired. I like a generous snowfall of powdered sugar and maple syrup!