Mother's Day Brunch - Day Before

Tomorrow will be my first official hosting of a 'brunch' - am excited to host guests for a meal other than dinner.

menu

French Toast
Bacon
Turkey Bacon (for mom)
scrambled eggs
Orange Juice
Coffee & Tea
Fruit Tray (Courtesy of my sister Laura)
Freshly Baked croissants (also from Laura)

Tonight I did the pre-prep for the French toast. When I read this recipe I just couldn't resist - it had such great feedback and sounded so delicious!!

INGREDIENTS

1 (1 pound) loaf French bread, cut diagonally in 1 inch slices

8 eggs

2 cups milk (substituted with non-lactose milk for mom)

1 1/2 cups half-and-half cream (instead, substituted with 1 cup of non-lactose milk for mom)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 cup butter

1 1/3 cups brown sugar

3 tablespoons light corn syrup

Here's what was involved with pre-prep;

Weighed the bread – not sure how much 1lb of bread works out to be, so pulled out the scale.

Buttered a 9x13 inch baking dish (my bread must have been too big because I needed an extra 8x8 baking dish too).

Arrange the slices of bread in the bottom (my kitchen assistant suggested I try making some in the form of ‘French Toast STICKS’… so gave it a shot. The others are half-slices of the bread).

In a large bowl, beat together eggs, milk, cream, vanilla and cinnamon. Pour over bread slices, cover, and refrigerate overnight.

Tomorrow I will just need to;

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small saucepan, combine butter, brown sugar and corn syrup; heat until bubbling.

Pour over bread and egg mixture.

Bake in preheated oven, uncovered, for 40 minutes.