Cinnamon Roll French Toast

Cinnamon roll bread

French toast is one of my favorite breakfast foods. (Hell, let's be honest. It's one of my favorite foods, period.)

As I posted a couple of days ago, cinnamon rolls rank right up there in that same rarified stratosphere of favorite foods for me.

It seemed natural to put the two together - hence, "Cinnamon Roll French Toast".

We had French toast fairly regularly when I was growing up, but we just made it with regular, sandwich cut, white bread. I still love it that way and had it that way for most of my life. A

French toast, ready to eat!

couple of years ago I decided to make it with "Texas toast" (which is really just much thicker cut white bread). It came out horrible (and I had my in-laws over for a big breakfast - I was seriously
embarrassed). I had made it exactly the same way I did with thin slices of bread (which really meant just dipping it in the egg mixture and throwing it on the griddle).  The problem was that it was simply too dry. I learned from that and changed my technique considerably when I'm using thicker bread. That is reflected in this recipe since I use much thicker slices of bread.

This recipe would work with ANY kind of bread you'd like to use - but you really want to use a thick cut slice (unless you simply dip it and cook with no soaking - in that case, feel free to use thin bread). I've made this with day old Italian bread, French bread, etc.  They all work well!

Ingredients

• 1 loaf cinnamon roll bread, sliced about one inch thick (8 - 10 slices, recipe here) or any thickly sliced bread.  Best if slightly stale.



Sliced bread, soaking in egg mixture

• 4 eggs
• ½ cup milk
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp of cinnamon
• Butter
• Maple syrup

Optional

• 1 ½ tsp orange extract
• 2 tsp freshly grated orange zest
• pinch of nutmeg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon together. If using, add orange extract, orange zest and/or orange extract until well blended. 



French toast, after being cooked on the griddle.  It's ready
to go into the oven and bake for an additional ten minutes.

3. Put your slices of bread in a flat, shallow dish (a casserole dish works well).
4. Pour the egg mixture over the bread and allow to sit for at least ten minutes, turning over a couple of times (the majority of the mixture will get absorbed into the bread).
5. Melt some butter over a skillet or griddle on medium high heat.
6. Add as many slices as will fit at a time, and cook until brown.
7. Flip the slices and repeat on the second side.
8. Repeat until all the slices have been cooked.
9. Put the cooked slices of bread on a cookie sheet and place in preheated oven.
10. Bake the bread for about ten minutes (this will cook the egg mixture that was absorbed into the bread so it's not "mushy" in the middle).
11. Serve hot with butter and real maple syrup.
12. Enjoy!

Breakfast, ready to go!  French toast, eggs,
home fries and bacon.  I'm hungry again!