Food Thursday: Crock Pot French Toast Part II

Okay, I’ve posted a Crock Pot French Toast recipe before. And it’s decent but hard to clean up after and could definitely use some tweaking. I’ve been playing around with it in my head and looking through other cook books for ideas. I came across this version from my Rival Crock Pot cookbook (and if you have a crock pot, I recommend this book highly).

I made this for Easter. It was so soft and cinnamony (yes I just made up a word) that we didn’t even need syrup. So, so good. So easy and no sticky clean-up mess. I’m tossing that other recipe and making this one more often. It was like a warm donut exploded on my plate. So, so yummy.

French Toast Bread Pudding
2 TB packed brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 loaf of Texas-toast style or sandwich style bread
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups half-and-half
2 tsp vanilla
4 egg yolks
1 1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 tsp nutmeg

1. Coat your crock pot with nonstick cooking spray. Combine brown sugar & cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside.

2. Cut bread slices in half diagonally. Arrange them in a single layer in the bottom of the crock pot, keeping them as flat as possible. Sprinkle on a tablespoon of the cinnamon mixture. Repeat layers of bread & cinnamon mixture until you use all the bread – tucking bread into vertical spaces if needed to keep fairly even layers. Make sure you have about a tablespoon of the cinnamon mixture leftover to use at the very end.

3. In a large saucepan, over medium heat, cook the cream, half-and-half, vanilla and a dash of salt. Bring to a slow boil and reduce heat to low.

4. While that is warming up, whisk egg yolks and the white sugar together. While stirring this mixture, slowly add 1/4 cup of the cream mixture (this keeps the eggs from scrambling when you add them to the hot liquid). Add that egg mixture to the sauce pan, turn the heat to medium high and cook about five minutes longer – until it starts to thicken but don’t let it boil.

5. Turn off the heat. Stir in the dash of nutmeg. Pour over the bread in your crock pot and push the bread down to make sure it is all in the liquid. Sprinkle the rest of your cinnamon mixture on top. Cover and cook on low 3-4 hours (or on high for 2 hours). Turn off crock pot, uncover and let it rest/cool for 10 minutes before serving.