Creme Brûlée French Toast with Pepper Steak cut Bacon

This is one that always pleases at breakfast time and the ease of making it, is helped that all the prep work is done the night before.  This dish merges french toast with the flavors of dessert.  It even comes with its own carmel sauce so no maple syrup is needed.

It’s even versatile enough that if you get bored that you can start playing with the favors a bit and get even more creative with this dish.  It’s rich flavors allow for other variations to be introduced.

That all being said, this is an incredibly rich dish, and something that you shouldn’t have every day or even every weekend if you want to keep your waistline in check.

Ingredients

• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons lite corn syrup
  
• 3/4 of an italian loaf (cut into 1-1.5 inch pieces, crust cut off)
• 5 eggs
• 1.5 cups half and half
• dash of vanilla
• dash of vanilla Grand Marnier (or other flavors… see below)
• large pinch of salt

Directions

1. Take bread pieces and make sure they fit snuggly into a 13×9 glass pan.  It should take about 3/4 of an Italian loaf cut into 1 – 1.5 inch pieces to accomplish this.  Other bread works well too, especially denser breads.  It also helps if you cut the bread pieces ahead of time and let them get a bit dry and stale, as this helps the absorption of the liquid parts later.  You can also cut them thicker, but you don’t want the bread to be taller than the pan is deep. Remove bread from pan for later use.
2. In a small sauce pan combine butter, brown sugar and corn syrup.  Mix over medium heat until everything is completely combined.
3. Pour into a greased pan (PAM works fine) and make sure it covers the bottom completely.  Place the bread back into the pan.
4. Mix together eggs, half and half, vanilla, Grand Marnier (or other flavors), and salt in a bowl.  Make sure it’s well combined, and then pour over the bread.
5. Cover and place in refrigerator overnight.
6. The next morning preheat the over to 350 degrees.  While oven is heating up take the pan out of the oven to warm up.  The closer to room temperature the better.
7. Bake for 40 minutes or until the bread is puffed up and is golden brown in color.  If you insert a toothpick in the middle, it should come out clean.
8. Remove from oven.  When serving make sure the carmel side is on top.  Makes about 6 servings.