Creme Brule French Toast

Jen's Version

(Acworth, GA)

Breakfast for dinner. My husband's favorite dinner. I'm not a huge "breakfast" fan BUT I am a fan of it being completely appropriate to have beer with breakfast.

I started thinking about Valentine's day this year and what special thing I was gonna make. My husband and I prefer to eat in for many reasons. We splurge a little bit and do steaks or lobsters, so this year I wanted to find an amazing dessert we both would enjoy. I started looking into Creme Brulee since we both love it but have no clue how to make it. I went to my trusted source, Pinterest. First search landed on Creme Brulee French Toast. I immediately sent the link to Val and we had inspiration for our weekly dinner.

The Pinterest recipe linked to an original recipe, which gave us a few different ideas. I personally wanted to try the Challah bread version. 1. I've never tried it. 2. I really like saying Chhhhhaaaalah.

Our family is a really big fan of bread. 

And look how gorgeous Challah bread is...

This recipe is a pretty basic french toast recipe. Lots of eggs, cream, milk, vanilla, etc. I chose to do egg yolks so it would be more like a custard.

You pour the mixture over the Challah bread and let soak overnight. Since we did this for dinner, I soaked over-day. I'm, as you know, a fan of any meal I can prep and leave. 

Oh I forgot about this picture - look at my fun egg white separator. For some reason, I really enjoyed doing this.

After it sits all day, you bake for an hour. Easy, peasey. I baked it in a larger pan with water so it would set like a custard. I'm not sure I noticed it do that or not. It will be interesting to see what happens to my actual Creme Brulee. 

We also tried to "toast" the top. It really just burned the quadrant we tested. Turned out I missed the crucial step of adding sugar...

Um, yummmmmmmmmm...

Val's Version 

(Denver, CO)

I mean honestly … who doesn't just love breakfast for dinner? Our family tends to indulge in some sort of breakfast dish for supper every other week. It's just so easy. And when I'm not feeling up to trying to pull a recipe out of a hat with what we currently have stocked in the pantry or fridge, this is the route I take. Jen came up with an extra special dish this week. Kinda seemed like it should be a dessert, but once I made it and dove in, I really see how this is just a fancy version of French Toast. It came out quite tasty and was just as good the following morning ;)

Lucas (my 21 month old son) is constantly wanting to help me in the kitchen. It does not matter if it's dishes, cooking or cleaning. He tends to always be right on my heels, mimicking whatever I'm doing. So, to make him less of a tripping hazard, I usually plop him on top of the counter and assist when the time is right. Not just for his safety, but also for the life of our food being prepared. 

Get your ingredients pulled out and melt your butter. 

Mix together all of the specified ingredients for the custard and then slicing your bread into cubes. If you'd prefer a French bread instead of Challah, it still goes through the same process.

Place cubes into a greased baking dish and toss in cinnamon and sugar. And if you have a wild hair, add a secret ingredient. I happen to LOVE blueberries and thought a little fruit would go quite swell with this dish.

Then toss with the custard mixture and press down so the bread can soak. If you have time, refrigerate - I let mine sit for 3 hours.

At this point, you have some down time. When I could've been cleaning my house or napping while the babies slept, I decided to work on my side dish; SAUSAGE BALLS!!!! These are an easy to make treat that don't last long in anyones home. We've even done these as an appetizer for football game. 

Mix together 1lb of breakfast sausage with a cup of shredded cheese and 2 cups of Bisquick. Any type of sausage or cheese will do. Roll into quarter size balls and place onto a greased cookie sheet. Preheat oven to 350* and cook for about 20-25 minutes or until sizzling golden brown. Let them cool for 5 minutes and viola! Super easy and a great pairing for any breakfast dish or occasion.

After your casserole has had time to soak, you pop it into a preheated oven at 325* and bake for 40-50 minutes. Mine was closer to an hour, but we are cooking in a much higher altitude so things tend to take a little longer to set. Once it's browned and no longer has a jiggling (well known cooking term) center, sprinkle the top with remaining sugar and put into broiler for just a couple minutes - until top coating has caramelized. DO NOT WALK AWAY! I made the mistake of getting our travel dishes ready since we were going to be eating at Girl Scouts and took my eye off of it for too long. It may have gotten a little too toasty. But, it still tasted fabulous and was another family hit :)

Adapted recipe from Homemade By Holeman

Creme Brule French Toast
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 40-50 minutes
Total Time: 45-55 minutes

Ingredients: 

1 large loaf of Challah bread8 large eggs1 pack of fresh blueberries2 1/4 cups milk1 cup plus 4-5 T sugar1/4 tsp salt2 T vanilla extract1/4 cup grapefruit juice2 tsp cinnamon2 T unsalted butter

Instructions:

Combine eggs, milk, 1 cup sugar, salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, vanilla, grapefruit juice, and 2 T melted butter in a large bowl.  Whisk together until well incorporated.  Coat a 9x13 baking pan with cooking spray.  Slice bread into 1/2" thick slices and then cut slices into cubes.  Combine remaining cinnamon and 1 T sugar.  Add bread cubes to pan and toss with cinnamon sugar mixture.  Top bread crumbs with fresh blueberries. Pour custard mixture over bread cubes and blueberries, pressing cubes down with a spoon to thoroughly soak bread.  Cover with foil and refrigerate at least one hour or overnight (I refrigerated for 3 hours).  Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Bake approximately 40-50 minutes until golden brown and set.  Remove from the oven and sprinkle remaining 3-4 T of sugar over the top of the casserole in an even, heavy layer.  Set broiler on high and return to oven or use a kitchen torch to caramelize the sugar.  The sugar will turn brown and liquefy and then harden as it cools.  Serve warm with maple syrup and powdered sugar, if desired.