I chose a French toast bake to pair with “The Family Stone” because there is a pivotal scene in the movie involving a breakfast bake and a kitchen disaster.

This recipe is vegan and gluten-free, making approximately 6 “servings.”

Ingredients
1 8-ounce tub vegan cream cheese, softened
1 cup maple syrup
1 cup raw pecan halves
1 8-ounce bag dried cranberries
1 loaf vegan, gluten-free bread (approx. 12 wide slices)
2 tablespoons powdered sugar (optional)
additional maple syrup (optional)

Instructions
Soften your cream cheese for an hour or two.

Preheat your oven to 350°F and grease a 9×13 oven-safe baking dish.

Whisk the softened cream cheese and maple syrup together. I wound up using both regular maple syrup and bourbon-infused maple syrup for our glaze.

Stir in the pecans and cranberries until they are coated in the glaze.

Put a third of the bread in your baking dish and top it with a third of the cranberry pecan mixture.

Continue with the alternating layers of bread and topping, making sure every inch of bread has some of the maple cream cheese liquid on it. This prevents your bread from getting too toasty in the oven. (Side note: I know this bread in the pictures is very thin for French toast, but when you are eating vegan and gluten-free, you use what bread you can find.)

Bake for 30 minutes at 350°F.

Put a couple of tablespoons of powdered sugar into a small bowl for people to sprinkle on top of their French toast.

You can serve this bake two ways. Either cut squares like a lasagna or pull pieces of the French toast out individually. We opted for the individual pieces.

Either way, don’t forget to sprinkle the powdered sugar on top for a classic French toast flavor. Having extra maple syrup is also an option for anyone who likes a saucier French toast.

Eat and enjoy with “The Family Stone!”

The Easy Route
I imagine there might be a premade glaze similar to this that exists in the world, but it might be hard to find one that is both vegan and gluten-free.

You might be able to find a vegan, gluten-free French toast at a dining establishment for delivery or takeout, but again, finding this specific combination of flavors in a vegan and gluten-free French toast might be impossible.

If you happen to know of something that would work for either of these easy route options, please share it in the comments.

The Pairing
“The Family Stone” has slowly become one of the Christmas movies I watch nearly every holiday season.

You get drawn in by the all-star cast: Sarah Jessica Parker, Diane Keaton, Luke Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Dermot Mulroney, Claire Danes and Craig T. Nelson, for starters.

But you stay for how the movie blends the classic family Christmas movie with a complicated modern romcom and a dash of tearjerker. Honestly, those are three of my favorite genres, so it’s probably not too surprising how much I like this, especially when you factor in that I’m a big fan of Keaton, Wilson and McAdams.

The plot revolves around Meredith (Parker) meeting her boyfriend Everett’s (Mulroney) family for the holidays. With Keaton and Nelson as the parents, Sybil and Kelly, McAdams as the opinionated sister, Amy, and Wilson as the witty slacker brother, Ben, it can be easy to see how she would feel very intimidated walking into their holiday celebrations.

For moral support, Meredith invites her sister, Julie (Danes), to join them as well. A very complicated love quadrangle and other various subplots, including some characters I haven’t even mentioned yet, follow.

While the big names might get a lot of the attention in the movie, one of my favorite performances is from Elizabeth Reaser as Susannah, Everett’s other sister. I really clicked with her in a scene where she’s shown watching “Meet Me in St. Louis,” one of my other favorite holiday movies.

All of the performers in the movie hit all the right notes in their scenes, making “The Family Stone” a very successful holiday ensemble film.

If you decide to make this French toast bake and/or watch “The Family Stone,” let us know! Tag us in your Instagram posts & stories, threads, tweets or TikTok videos: @veg_out_recipes