Cinnamon Bread French Toast

For this recipe you can make home-made cinnamon bread or buy cinnamon bread at the store.  Be sure the cinnamon bread is a whole loaf and not cut into slices.  My daughter Emily made this fun treat for her son's third birthday breakfast celebration.  YUM!!!

Cinnamon Bread

3 cups warm water

2 tbsp. Yeast
1/3 cup honey
3 tbsp. dough enhancer (optional)
5 cups bread flour
3 tbsp. butter, melted
1/3 cup honey
1 tbsp. salt
3 ½ cups bread flour
2 tbsp. butter, melted
3/4 cups butter, softened (1 1/2 sticks butter)
Cinnamon
Brown Sugar

In a large bread bowl, sprinkle yeast over warm water. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon sugar over yeast.  Add 1/3 cup honey, and 5 cups of flour and mix until blended. Cover with a dish towel and let sit until big and bubbly for about 30 minutes.

Add dough enhancer, melted butter, salt and flour one cup at a time. Add flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Knead for 10 minutes. Transfer dough to a buttered bowl. Butter dough so that it does not dry out. Cover dough and let rise until double in bulk in a warm place.

Punch dough down and divide into 3 balls. Roll each ball into a rectangle shape.  Spread dough with softened butter (1/2 stick of butter for each ball.) Generoulsy  sprinkle cinnamon and then brown sugar on top of the buttered rectangle. Roll dough starting from the long end of rectangle.  Pinch dough together at seam and place in  greased 9x5 inch loaf pans seam down. Cover pans with a cloth and let rise in a warm place until 1” above pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not over bake. Brush the tops of the bread with butter, remove from pans and let cool.

Try not to eat the bread before it is made into French Toast.  It is better to use day old bread (or longer) to make the French Toast so make the bread a day before.

French Toast Mixture
8 eggs
2 1/2 cups milk
1 tbsp. brown sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. vanilla
2 tbsp. butter

Cut the day old bread into 8-9 slices.  Mix all ingredients except for the butter.  Butter a 9x13 glass baking dish generously with butter.  Place the bread flat in the baking dish.  Pour the egg mixture over the bread.  Cut the butter into pieces and dot over the top.  Refrigerate for one hour.  (Can be made the night before.)  Bake 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees.  Serves 8

Heavenly Carmel Syrup
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup corn syrup

Mix all ingredients together and heat on stove until the sugar is smooth and dissolved.  Serve warm.

This syrup is also great on any dessert.  In fact just eat the syrup and skip everything else.  YUM!