"What's Mom Cooking?"

It's Sunday and time for another family favorite recipe! This week the recipe is baked french toast. Very rich, sweet and delicious. It also brings many happy memories to mind as we usually make this for breakfast on holidays and special occasions. It's super simple to make and can be made ahead of time as well. If your schedule is busy you can pop it in the refrigerator the night before or the freezer a few days ahead and it will be ready to pop in the oven for baking on the day you want to serve it.

Our favorite way is to make it the night before and let it sit in the refrigerator over night. For the last ten years my son has been helping me with preparing the french toast. As I'm making the egg and cream mixture he gets the pan ready with the brown sugar mixture. We then cut the bread, dip in the egg mixture. place on the brown sugar glaze and then my son sprinkles the cinnamon on top. I enjoy moments like this, cooking and sharing with my son. I know one day he will be making it with his kids.

My recipe card was simple and quick to make. My son drew the shape of a piece of bread for me. I printed the recipe directly on to it and inked the edges before applying it to the designer paper which is by DCWV.

Below is the recipe for easy copying and printing:

Baked French Toast

Ingredients:

· 2 cups light brown sugar

· 1 stick butter or margarine

· 4 tablespoons flavoring of choice: vanilla, hazelnut or almond

· 4 eggs

· 1 ¾ cups Half & Half or milk

· 1 loaf Italian or French bread cut into 1 inch thick slices

· Cinnamon

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375. Place brown sugar into 13x8 inch baking dish. Melt butter or margarine in microwave. Blend brown sugar, melted butter and 2 tablespoons flavoring until it makes a glaze in the bottom of the baking dish.

Whisk eggs, milk and remaining flavoring in a bowl until well blended. Dip each bread slice into egg mixture, soaking both sides.Set bread slices on top of brown sugar mixture in baking dish. Sprinkle evenly with cinnamon to taste. (at this point you can refrigerate or freeze till ready to bake). Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Flip each slice of bread over so glazed side is up. Serve hot. Serves 6.

We usually enjoy the french toast with some warm maple syrup drizzled on top. One year though I had my entire family over for Christmas brunch and I made a couple big trays of baked french toast to pop in the oven when my family arrived. While it was baking we got some bacon, sausage, eggs and hash browns going. When all was ready to serve I had warm maple syrup, warm apple, blueberries and cherry fruit compote as choices to have on top of the french toast. The cherries and apples were a big hit with all the kids!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will give my recipe a try. I will be back next Sunday with another family favorite!