Maple & Brown Sugar French Toast

Happy New Year! For a New Year's brunch, I decided to make some French Toast. One of my Christmas gifts from my dad was two loaves of a new gluten free bread he'd made. Since homemade bread doesn't keep forever, french toast seemed like a good option to eat up the bread before it went bad.

It's been forever since I've made french toast, so I did look up a few recipes and based my toast on this recipe from the Food Network. I liked the idea of browning the toast and then putting it in the oven - that way the toast isn't soggy the way that some french toast can be! Play around with this and make it your own. Nutmeg is one of my favorite versatile spices because it can be used in so many different ways.

Maple & Brown Sugar French Toast

1 cup half & half
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons real maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
6 slices gluten-free bread
4 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons brown sugar

Whisk together the half and half, eggs, syrup, salt, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pour mixture into a pie pan.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Soak each piece of bread in the egg mixture for about 30 seconds per side. Place on a cooling rack sitting in a sheet pan. Let sit for 2 minutes or so.

Melt the butter in a skillet or griddle pan on medium high heat. Cook two pieces of bread at a time, browning for 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Do this for all 6 slices of bread, removing them and placing on a sheet pan. Sprinkle each slice with brown sugar.

Bake in the oven for 6 minutes. Serve immediately with syrup or fruit.

Enjoy!