Holiday French Toast Recipes

Steps:

• Combine brown sugar, butter, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Add apples and raisins, toss to coat well.
• Spread apple mixture evenly over bottom of 13x9-inch pan. Arrange slices of bread on top.
• Mix eggs, milk, vanilla, and remaining cinnamon until well blended. Pour over bread, soaking bread completely.
• Cover and refrigerate 4 to 24 hours.
• Bake, covered with aluminum foil, in a preheated 375° oven for 40 minutes. Uncover and bake 5 minutes. Remove from oven; let stand 5 minutes. Serve warm.
• For an eye-catching presentation, loosen edges of baking dish and invert onto a large serving platter.

Steps:

• Whisk together the eggs and heavy cream in a large bowl and add the granulated sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and orange zest and whisk again.
• Heat some clarified butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Dip four slices of the Challah into the egg mixture until soaked through. Immediately place each slice onto the hot skillet. Fry until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes per side, and set aside. Repeat with the remaining 4 slices of bread.
• Cut each piece of French toast in half diagonally and plate four halves per serving. Top with Apple Cranberry Compote, a scoop of Pecan Compound Butter and a light drizzle of the Maple Syrup Reduction. Dust with powdered sugar and enjoy!
• Add the cranberries, orange juice, sugar, orange zest and apples to a large skillet and cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes, or until the apples are cooked as desired.
• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Place the pecans on a cookie sheet and bake for about 10 minutes, or until they become aromatic and heated through. Salt immediately while still hot. Allow the pecans cool completely.
• Once the pecans are completely cool, chop them up into small pieces and add to the butter, until incorporated. Set aside until ready to serve, or refrigerate.
• Place the maple syrup in a small saucepan and heat over low heat until reduced by one-half. Use sparingly to top off French toast.

Steps:

• Melt butter in a 9x12 glass casserole.
• Add brown sugar and cinnamon. Stir, covering bottom of pan (add more butter or sugar if necessary for a thick sauce).
• Place six slices of bread to cover bottom of pan.
• Add any 'dress up' additions you may want onto the top of each slice of bread. Some ideas may be a dollop of cream cheese, jam, banana slices, caramel covered pecans, cooked bacon or sausage, etc. Feel free to leave out the extras - I usually don't add anything.
• Top with remaining six slices of bread.
• Slice each 'sandwich' diagonally. This creates beautiful, triangular servings.
• Mix eggs, water, salt and pepper together in a bowl. You can also use milk instead of water. (At 9000ft elevation, I have found water works better when scrambling eggs. I don't know why that is.).
• Pour egg mixture over bread slices and cover dish with foil.
• Refrigerate overnight.
• In the morning, put cold pan into cold oven and turn the heat to 350. Bake about 35 minutes until eggs are set.
• To serve, loosen sides and separate each serving with spatula. Scoop each serving upside down onto plate. The brown sugar mixture becomes the top of the sandwich and runs down the sides.

Steps:

• Pour the eggnog into a pie plate.
• Sprinkle with the cinnamon and stir to blend.
• Heat a griddle over medium heat until hot.
• Add about 1/2 Table. of butter and let it melt.
• Dip one slice of bread into the eggnog mixture and place on the griddle.
• When the first side has browned, flip over and brown the second side.
• Serve with warm maple syrup.
• You can also make up a french toast batter using flavored coffee creamers.