Making One-Pan French Toast Makes Octavia Spencer Feel Like Ina Garten

Celebrities, they’re just like us—at least when it comes to cooking.

Oscar award-winning actor Octavia Spencer recently told PEOPLE magazine that while she doesn’t identify as a chef, she still likes to feel like one from time to time—particularly, culinary icon Ina Garten.

There are plenty of ways you can channel Ina Garten: Fill your home with florals, watch Barefoot Contessa on repeat, stock your kitchen with her favorite ingredients, and (of course) try out one of her many tasty recipes. But because Spencer isn't the biggest cooking aficionado, she said her favorite way to go about it is making something in one pan—namely in French toast form.

"You just put a loaf of bread in a bread pan," Spencer told PEOPLE. "I'll use it for Thanksgiving if I have a lot of people over. I don’t cook at all, so when you show me something that’s a one-pan thing, I feel like Ina Garten." 

It’s unclear which recipe Spencer is referencing exactly, but Garten herself has posted a video of her making a delicious one-pan Raspberry Baked French Toast. She starts by cutting a loaf of day-old challah bread into cubes (but notes that brioche also works), then adds them to a buttered baking dish along with fresh raspberries. To create the custard, she whisks together eggs, half and half, granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, salt, and orange zest. She pours the mixture into the pan, allowing the dry bread to soak it up overnight in the fridge. To finish it off, she sprinkles a little sugar on top so that it caramelizes while baking. All that's left is popping it in the oven.

Even if this isn't the one-pan French toast Spencer makes herself, it undeniably makes for a simple, flavorful holiday breakfast dish fit to feed a crowd.

You can find various other one-pan or one-pot recipes from Garten, like this chicken and orzo, that require limited effort (and clean up) but, as Spencer said, will make you feel like a pro. No matter how she's imitating Garten, it’s definitely an understandable form of flattery—after all, who doesn’t want to feel like the legendary chef while they're in the kitchen?