French Toast Casserole

We are a hot breakfast family. And we could eat breakfast any time of the day. Pancakes, oatmeal, muffins, steel cut oats are all part of our regular rotation. This will be a good addition. You can assemble it the night before and just put it in the oven in the morning.

1 loaf of hearty firm bread (I used some multigrain rolls I had in the freezer)
chopped pecans or walnuts (i used 1/4 cup, you can use more or less to your liking)
1/2 cup coconut sugar (you could use brown)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
8 large eggs (farm fresh!)
1 1/2 cups milk (I used some fresh cream from the dairy down the road)
2 tsp vanilla

In one bowl, chop up the bread in bite size pieces.
In another bowl, mix together the cinnamon, sugar, and nuts.
In a 3rd bowl, whisk the eggs and milk together.
(cooking is so much fun when there are little people around!)
Grease/butter a 9 x 13 pan put bread pieces in it, sprinkle sugar mixture on top then pour over egg mixture. At this point you can cover it and cook it in the morning, just leave it in the frige over night. Or you can bake it. 350 for 20 minutes covered. Remove cover and cook for additional 25 minutes. Serve with syrup.