If you have house guest (or some other excuse to whip up a nice breakfast - like, it's the weekend!), you should definitely consider an overnight french toast casserole. This recipe, as it turns out, was more the consistency of bread pudding (hence the title) - but in my books that's even better!
You can find the original recipe and all of the reviews HERE.
Overnight Breakfast Cinnamon Bread Pudding
(modified from Baked French Toast by Antlala on Allrecipes)
1 loaf of French bread
6 eggs
1-1/4 cups milk
1-1/2 cups half-and-half cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup butter
1 1/3 cups brown sugar
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
1-1/4 cups milk
1-1/2 cups half-and-half cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup butter
1 1/3 cups brown sugar
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
(1) Butter a 9x13 inch baking dish. Arrange the slices of bread in the bottom. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, milk, cream, vanilla and cinnamon. Pour over bread slices, cover, and refrigerate (covered) overnight.
(2) In the morning, preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small saucepan, combine butter, brown sugar and corn syrup; heat until bubbling. Pour over bread and egg mixture.
(3) Bake in preheated oven, uncovered, for 40-45 minutes.
I found that you won't even need a topping or syrup, but fresh fruit is lovely! If you want to mix it up a bit, some candied nuts would also add a nice texture on top.
And as you can see below, it went over well with our visitors...
