Recipe: French Toast Sunday

My French toast craving was triggered by an episode of Bobby Flay's throwdown. I tried to search for the recipe but was unlucky not to find it in foodnetwork.com. Instead, I found the recipe by Rachael Ray and it didn't taste like second best at all.

Crunchy Vanilla-Almond French Toast with Fancy Fruit Toppings, Sweet-n-Smoky Bacon

Instead of using separate corn flakes and almonds, I used Honey Bunches with Almonds and that worked fine (you might want to add sugar to the flakes if you want it a little sweeter or just add syrup later on). I used white bread instead of challah bread because our bakery wasn't selling challah last night - that worked out great as well. Everything in this recipe just worked so well. The bacon is awesome, the bread melts in your mouth and the fruits make the dish brighter. I am definitely making this dish again.

(Recipe follows - altered to make just two servings and updated with available ingredients)

Ingredients

Bacon:

6 slices smoked bacon

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

Toast:

4 large eggs

1/2 cup half-and-half

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 pinch salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, ground

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 cups corn flakes, lightly crushed (I used Honey Bunches)

2 tablespoons butter

4 slices of white bread

Medium or dark amber maple syrup to pass at table

Mint sprigs and edible flowers, suggested plate garnish

Fancy Fruit Topping:

6 large strawberries, sliced

1/4 pint blueberries

1/4 pint raspberries

1 tablespoon sugar

1/8 cup orange liqueur (I used triple sec)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Arrange bacon on slotted broiler pan. Sprinkle with brown sugar and place in oven to bake until crisp, 20 to 22 minutes.

Preheat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.

In a shallow dish, beat together with a wire whisk: eggs, half-and-half, vanilla, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon. In a second shallow dish combine flakes and nuts. Add 2 tablespoons butter to warm skillet. Place a cookie sheet lined with foil (for easy clean-up) near the stove. Coat 4 to 6 slices of bread in egg, depending on the size of your skillet, then coat bread in cornflakes and nuts. Cook slices 2 minutes on each side and transfer toast to cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining slices and transfer toast to oven. Bake 10 minutes, with already cooking bacon.

While bacon and toast are in oven, combine fruit, sugar and liqueur in a serving bowl and reserve.

Remove toast and bacon from oven. Warm syrup in a small pitcher in microwave 15 seconds on high. Serve toast and bacon on plates with optional garnish of mint and edible flowers.

Pass syrup and topping at the table.

Original recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/crunchy-vanilla-almond-french-toast-with-fancy-fruit-topping-sweet-n-smoky-bacon-recipe/index.html