Birthday French Toast!

Today is My Husband The Wonderful’s birthday! Here he is on a daddy-daughter date at the American Museum of Natural History (the “die-sawer bones moosem”) with The Munchkin a couple weeks ago, getting chewed on by a T-Rex:

He’s such a wonderful husband, father, & best friend that I wanted to do something extra special for him this morning, so I started looking up Creme Brulee French Toast recipes in my Google Reader. I came across a recipe on my friend Mandy’s blog that looked delicious! Plus, I even had the cookbook it came from!

That cookbook is The Essential Mormon Cookbook, & I’ve found that pretty much every recipe in there is designed to feed the hungry masses, so I always halve the recipes & end up with plenty left over. But I’m giving you the full recipe in case you’re planning to feed your teenage son’s entire lacrosse team or something.

 Overnight Creme Brulee French Toast

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp. corn syrup
• 1 loaf Texas toast or your favorite bakery bread, sliced at least an inch thick (My Husband The Birthday Boy chose cinnamon-raisin bread from our local bakery that I sliced about an inch-&-a-half thick, & it was AMAZING — it tasted a lot like Kneaders French toast!)
• 5 eggs (when I halved it, I used 3)
• 1 1/2 cups half & half
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 recipe Syrup Butter (see below)

1. Melt butter, sugar, & corn syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat until smooth, stirring occasionally. (I let it boil a little to make it extra caramel-y!)
2. Pour onto a large, greased jelly roll pan (for halved recipes, a 9×13 baking dish is fine) & spread to coat the bottom.
3. Place 12 slices (or whatever fits) of your bread in the pan in a single layer. Squeezing to fit is okay.
4. Whisk together eggs, half & half, salt, & vanilla until well blended.
5. Spoon or pour mixture over each slice of bread, covering evenly.
6. Cover with plastic wrap & refrigerate overnight. (Mandy served this for “brinner” & said 4-5 hours of fridge time worked great.)
7. Bake uncovered at 350 for 30 minutes or until golden on top.
8. Remove from the oven & immediately flip the slices to allow some of the sugary, caramel-y deliciousness to get on both sides. It also keeps them from sticking to the pan, which is a nice perk.
9. Serve with Syrup Butter (below).

Syrup Butter

Melt together 1 part butter & 2 parts maple syrup (it doesn’t need to be pure; regular old Log Cabin works great too) in a Pyrex measuring cup in the microwave. Swirl in the cup & pour over French toast. Yum!

Happy birthday, My Husband The Greatest! I love you!

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