French Kissed

French Toast is my very favorite breakfast food. Well, maybe it's even with pancakes. But I consider French Toast to be much more of a treat than pancakes. Maybe it's because my mom used to serve it to me with clear syrup, and I thought that was the coolest thing when I was seven years old. Or maybe it's because I had a love/hate relationship with it when I was younger. I used to love the soggy bread but hate the egg bits on the sides. The older I've gotten (I'm quite old), the more I love the egg, though.



I was in charge of all the meals on Christmas this year, so I picked Baked French Toast for breakfast. First of all, I should mention that I cut the bread in the recipe but didn't think to cut the egg concoction, so our end result was much more eggy and soggy than a normal batch would have produced. It was pretty great, though; sort of like a scrambled egg/bread pudding combination. With syrup on top.



Baked French Toast
Makes about 10 servings
1 loaf French bread, cut diagonally in 1 inch slices
8 eggs
2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups half-and-half cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup butter
1 1/3 cups brown sugar
3 tablespoons light corn syrup

Butter a 13x9 inch baking dish. Arrange the slices of bread in the bottom. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, milk, cream, vanilla and cinnamon. Pour over bread slices, cover, and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning, preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small saucepan, combine butter, brown sugar and corn syrup; heat until bubbling. Pour over bread and egg mixture. Bake in preheated oven, uncovered, for 40 minutes.