Holiday Morning French Toast

by Lynda

Ingredients

1 cup of brown sugar

1/2 cup of melted butter

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon (divided)

3 tart apples (Macintosh) ¹, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced ⁷

1/2 cup of dried cranberries or raisins²

1 loaf of Italian or French bread cut into 1-inch slices³

6 large eggs

1 1/2 cups of milk

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract⁵

Directions

1. Combine brown sugar, butter and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon

in a 13 X 9 inch baking pan. Add apples and cranberries;

toss to coat well. Spread apple mixture evenly over the

bottom of the pan. Arrange slices of bread on the top.

2. Mix eggs, milk, vanilla and the remaining 2 teaspoons of

cinnamon until well blended. Pour mixture over bread, soaking

bread completely. Cover and refrigerate 4 to 24 hours. ⁶

3. Bake, covered with aluminum foil, in a preheated 375 F oven

for 40 minutes. Uncover and bake 5 more minutes.

4. Remove from oven; let stand 5 minutes. Serve warm.

Tips

¹ Lynda: I used golden delicious apples and it tasted great!

² Lynda: I used chopped walnuts instead and it tasted great!

³ Lynda: I bet you could use all those left over rolls cut up in half!

⁴ Lynda: A little longer if you want the top to be crispier.

⁵ Yale: I reduced this from tablespoon to teaspoon.

⁶ Yale: I didn't notice this till it was too late so I just flipped

each piece of bread to soak as much as possible.

The results were great.

⁷ Yale: How thin is thinly sliced?

Quarter the apple, and then quarter the quarters.