More Break Fast: the all-time best Baked French Toast, I swear

A few years back, my friend Ilene Stern turned me on to this baked french toast recipe. It is an absolute hit—an out of the ballpark hit. It is so totally decadent and delicious. I never have a single piece left over. It is just amazingly awesome. Once you make it, you will always make it. I make it twice a year: Mother’s Day, always; and if I make break fast on Yom Kippur it is on the table. It is the most perfect brunch item I know. The only down side is that you must refrigerate this dish overnight, and you can’t cook it until you’re ready to eat it. I have travelled with it uncooked and I just cook it when I get to wherever I’m going. So thanks, Ilene, and enjoy. If anyone out there has a better recipe or any ideas, I’d love to hear them.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup packed brown sugar (I usually use light but it doesn’t matter)

1 stick unsalted butter (I know, I know)

2 tbsp. corn syrup (I use Karo Original light corn syrup)

5 eggs (I warned you about the decadence…)

1 1/2 cups milk (You can use low-fat. I use Skim Plus but honestly, does it make a difference at this point???)

1 tbsp. vanilla

Cinnamon bread (I use sliced cinnamon bread from the supermarket. Almost every supermarket carries it. I try to get the thickest possible slices. If it is the thin kind, I stack it double.)

DIRECTIONS:

Melt butter, add brown sugar and corn syrup and combine well. Spray a 9×13 baking dish (Pyrex is perfect), pour butter mixture into baking dish and arrange bread slices flat in the mixture. (If they are thin, just double them one slice on top of the other. Unless the bread is 1 inch thick, you will be doubling the standard sliced bread.) Squeeze the bread to fit—it should hold 12 slices (6 doubled stacks), 3 on each side of a 9×13 baking dish. In a blender, mix eggs, milk and vanilla and pour over bread slices, covering them completely. Cover and refrigerate overnight. The bread will absorb all the liquid by morning, so if you need to travel with it, it won’t be slopping around. Uncover and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. You can dust with powdered sugar, but it’s not necessary. Serve right from baking dish. Yum.  If you let it sit out too long before serving, the bottom may get hard like a praline candy. It never, ever, lasts long enough at my table for this to happen though.

*Serves 6-8. If you have healthy eaters, make 2 trays!

*Original recipe is from Mulberry Inn & Gardens Bed & Breakfast