Creme Brulee French Toast

A couple weekends ago, while Kent was bowling (I know - bowling!), I took Ben to the library.

I love my local library and frequent it often, and now that I have the little man, I have an excuse to go enjoy the adorable kids area with the toadstool seats scattered under trees that reach the ceiling. Unfortunately, Ben doesn't have much patience for books right now, so we flipped through a few pages of A Very Hungry Caterpillar, and then he went off to play with blocks. And then add his fingerprints to the glass of the fish tank.  And then pull some books off the shelf as I hurried up behind him to replace them.

I love being 'that mom' in public with my rambunctious child. 

I stole a few minutes to browse the shelves myself, keeping him entertained with a Bob the Builder book long enough to grab two titles: a work-out book (Tracy Anderson's 30-Day Method) and a cookbook (Melissa Clark's In The Kitchen With A Good Appetite).  Now that I've had a chance to flip through them, I realize I couldn't have found two more polar opposites.

I like mixing up my workout now and then, so trainer-to-the-stars Tracy Anderson's 30-Day "boot camp" of rigorous workouts appealed for about three seconds...and then I remembered oh yeah, I have a life.  Then I hit the chapter with her comically insane diet plan.  It was an absolute starvation diet.  Lunch one day was a baked sweet potato.  That's it.  A snack may be kale juice or a serving of cucumber-mint relish.  I like veggies, but bleh, I'd last 6 hours, tops, then dive head first into a bowl of mac and cheese. 

I tossed Tracy's book aside and plunged into In The Kitchen With A Good Appetite and immediately felt at ease.  A food writer for the NY Times, Melissa Clark isn't afraid to wax poetic about sopping up escargot butter with thick slides of French bread, the nuances of a truly good grilled cheese sandwich, and why breakfast for dinner is one of life's most basic pleasures.

Now this woman I can relate to.

This was the first recipe out of her cookbook that I whipped up, and not to be my last.  The crispy burnt sugar creme brulee top to the French toast was an amazing contrast to the custardy center, plus it was great to have breakfast baking in the oven so it was all done at the same time, rather than my usual method of cooking French toast a few pieces at a time on my electric skillet.

Now I have my eye on a few other recipes from the book, including the blood orange olive oil cake and this granola too.  I may not have a Hollywood boot camp bod, but dang it, life's short.  I'm here to enjoy it

Creme Brulee French Toast
When you pull the French toast out of the oven, remove it from the pan immediately and soak the pan in water.  That burnt sugar left in the pan will harden into lovely little sugar chips, but you'll need a chisel to get them out. 

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
A baguette, sliced 1" thick, or slices of white Texas toast-style bread
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

In a medium glass or ceramic bowl, melt butter in the microwave, then whisk in brown sugar until sugar dissolves. Pour butter into a large rimmed baking dish or jelly roll pan (I used an 11x17" jelly roll pan).  


In a large shallow dish, combine eggs, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt.  Coat both sides of bread with egg mixture, filling the dish with bread and letting it soak in the custard for a few minutes. Arrange bread slices in one layer in baking dish over the brown sugar mixture. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the tops of the bread are golden brown and the sugar is bubbling. 

Serve hot French toast immediately with the crunchy brown sugar side up, spooning more of the pan syrup over the tops.