French Toast GUARANTEED to Knock Your Socks Off!

If it's done right, then YES, French Toast can be a sublime experience.

I'm not a french toast kind of girl, but THIS french toast is BEYOND any other i've ever had. I got the recipe from my friend Kelly, AKA Martica Estuart. She's actually the renowned baker of Sugargirl Cupcakes and knows a thing or two about the art of baking.

Yummy Baked French Toast

1 (1 pound) 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
1/2-3/4 walnuts
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup butter
1 1/3 cups brown sugar

Filling:
1 bar of 1/3 fat or Fatfree cream cheese
a handful of dried cranberries (which I put in oj to plump up for about 10 min)
1/4C chopped walnuts.

DIRECTIONS
1. Prepare filling by mixing together cream cheese, cranberries and walnuts. Layer one baguette slice and top it like a sandwich with another slice of baguette.
2. Butter a 9x13 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, scatter walnuts, cover, and refrigerate overnight.


3. The next morning, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a small saucepan, combine butter, brown sugar; heat until bubbling. Pour over bread and egg mixture.
4. Bake in preheated oven, uncovered, for 40 minutes.
5. Serve with Maple Syrup, if you please.

*ok, you SO don't need maple syrup, this thing comes out of the oven PERFECT!


This recipe was so phenomenal, i decided at the last second to give it as a surprise gift to the ladies who really put out quite a spread over Christmas Eve and Christmas day: my mother in law and my mom. We prepared the french toast and only poured half of the mixture over it, wrapped it up and transported it to their homes. When the french toast was safely in their kitchen, we poured the rest of the mixture over the french toast. Since this recipe needed to be prepped the night before, it was the perfect hostess gift.

Our moms were so thrilled that we thought about making them breakfast the day after their big parties, and not just any breakfast an AMAZING one. The thank you calls came with MAJOR KUDOS for an awesome french toast!