Creme Brulee French Toast

Whoaaa two posts in a week! We're getting a little crazy here, watch out!
Thought I would put up something I made on Christmas this year, but didn't get around to posting....

The bear mug in the background made this truly complete!

A tasty creme brulee french toast!
I first had this recipe from one of my roommates: the lovely and fabulous Katie Post. She wrote down the recipe for me a few years ago but I lost it. Luckily I found a very similar (if not the same) recipe!


Enjoy our Christmas breakfast! Good for family brunch, holidays, or just when you have a hankering for something sweet and delicious!


(Adapted from Food Network)
Ingredients:

I love the tiny Chambord bottle.
The crown makes me feel fancy!

• 1/2 cup (aka 1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar (I used light brown, because the color looked nice!)
• 2 tablespoons corn syrup
• Some variety of sweet bread. In the past I have used tsoureki, a delicious Greek sweet bread. We waited too long to go shopping this year so we used about a 10-inch round of generic Shaws Supermarket sweet bread
• 5 large eggs
• 1 and 1/2 cups half and half
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon Chambord (I chose this because of the slight raspberry flavor. You can sub your flavor in of choice... the original recipe called for Grand Marnier, but I have used the Chambord twice and have not been disappointed!)
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt

Directions:
**I should preface this by saying that the bulk of the work on this french toast is done the night before!!**

1. In a small saucepan, melt the butter with the brown sugar and corn syrup over medium heat.
2. Stir until smooth and silky! 
3. Pour mixture into the bottom of a 9" x 13" baking dish
4. Cut 1 inch slices from the bread and put on top sugar mixture in the dish (try to squeeze in as many pieces as possible! Like a puzzle. Or tetris!)
5. In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, half and half, vanilla, Chambord, and salt.
6. Pour evenly over the bread until all the pieces of bread are covered.
7. At this point, cover and chill in a fridge for at least 8 hours (up to 1 day)
8. Go to sleep! (zzzzz....)
9. Wake up! (And while you're brushing your teeth to get rid of morning doodle breath, take the french toast out of the fridge and bring to room temperature)
10. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
11. Bake uncovered in the middle of the oven 35-40 minutes. The edges should be pale golden and the french toast will be puffed! (It will settle down though. Don't worry!)

Serve with maple syrup if you would like, but with the creme brulee bottom you may not need it!

Bacon creates a great salty-sweet contrast, so feel free to cook up some bacon to go with it!

Enjoy! (And happy belated Christmas!)