Overnight Caramel French Toast

Holly over at Homebody posted this recipe back in December and I have just been waiting for a good time to use it.

Overnight Caramel French Toast adapted from Homebody

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter
2 Tbsp light corn syrup
12 slices bread
6 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

Directions:  Combine sugar, butter, and corn syrup in a small saucepan; cook over medium heat until thickened, stirring constantly. Pour into a greased 9x13 baking dish. Place 6 slices of bread over syrup. Top with remaining 6 slices. Combine eggs, milk, vanilla and salt. Pour evenly over bread; cover and chill 8 hours.

Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes, or until lightly browned and eggs are set. Serve immediately.

Here's what you'll need:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.



Combine brown sugar, corn syrup (or maple syrup), and butter in a saucepan.  Stir constantly until a small simmer.

While the butter is melting in the saucepan, crack your eggs and whisk.

Add the milk and vanilla to the whisked eggs.

Once the sugar mixture just starts to bubble, pull it off the stove and pour into a 9x13 baking dish.  Don't let it continue to boil.

Lay out enough bread to cover the pan.  Stack another layer of bread directly on top of the first layer.

Pour the eggs evenly over all of the bread. 

Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Here's what you'll end up with:

Our Thoughts:

This was the perfect dish for weekend guests.  It took me about 10 minutes to put together on Saturday night and then we just popped it in the oven on Sunday morning.  I actually made 2 9x13 dishes and we had plenty of leftovers.  We had 6 adults and 3 kids eating it and still had 1/2 of a baking dish.  Of course, we also had bacon but I think the 2 slices of bread along with the cooked eggs made it a really filling dish.  Everyone loved it!

Hope you enjoy it!

April

Mom's Southern Cornbread

I love cornbread.  Yes, I know that it isn't good for you but I love it.  In our house, though, there is a battle between sweet cornbread.  Scott doesn't like it unless it is sweet and I say it isn't cornbread unless it is like my mom's.  Her's is just a plain corn meal mix and flour cornbread.  Now, I have heard of some Southerners adding in a can of cream style corn or even some jalapenos or onions but, for me, I just like it plain.

Mom's Southern Corn Bread
2 cups corn meal mix
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 package of sweetern or 1/2 tsp sugar
1 egg
Milk
Crisco

Directions:  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix the corn meal, flour and egg.  Add milk until it is pancake consistency.  Take your wrought iron skillet and put it on the stovetop.  Put about 1 1/2 Tbsp of Crisco in the pan and swirl it around.  Let the grease get hot and then add it to the corn meal mix.  (It should crackle when added).  Pour the mixture into your wrought iron skillet.  Bake until the top is lightly brown.

*You really need to make this in a wrought iron skillet.
**As with all home-style recipes, these ingredients are not definite.  If you add a little more or less of one or the other, it is ok. 

Here's what you'll need:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Put the Crisco in your skillet and let it melt.

Mix the corn meal, flour, sweetener, and egg together.

Add milk to the bowl until is is pancake consistency.

Swirl the grease all around your skillet to coat and then pour it into the cornmeal.

Pour the cornmeal into the skillet.  It will probably crackle a bit.

Into the oven until the top is light brown, probably about 25-30 minutes.

Flip the cornbread out of the skillet onto a plate and here is what you get:

Our Thoughts:

I really don't know what else to say about this cornbread.  It has been a staple in my life and I think it is the best I've ever tasted.  The wrought iron skillet will make the top (bottom when you pour it in) nice and crispy when you flip it out.  Inside, the bread is moist. 

My dad used to always take the leftovers and crumble them up in a glass with some cold milk.  I still keep the leftovers and heat up and smear butter all over it. 

I will definitely make this for the rest of my life!

Hope you enjoy!

April

I posted this recipe on Say Hi Sunday Blog Party:

Rum and Eggnog French Toast

A couple of weeks ago I found a blog, Three Jewels in My Crown.  Crystal had posted a recipe for Rum and Egg Nog French Toast. The title of this recipe just screamed Christmas to me and I knew that I wanted to try it.  As it happens, though, I had never even tasted egg nog before but when we had our PJ, Cookies and Craft night my friend, JoAnna, brought and left some at my house so I had all of the ingredients.

Rum and Egg Nog French Toast

2 eggs
1/2 C. store bought egg nog
2 T. spiced rum (optional)
1/4 t. pumpkin pie spice (or 1/8 t. cinnamon plus 1/8 t. nutmeg)
6 slices bread (I used thick french bread)

Directions:  Whisk together eggs, egg nog, rum and spices. Heat a griddle. Dredge bread in egg mixture.{I say that like I know what I'm talking about. For non-culinary peeps like me, "Dredge" simply means to dunk or soak something} Butter the hot griddle and place soaked bread on the griddle. Cook on each side until golden brown. Serve with butter and powdered sugar or syrup.

~The rum is optional. If you leave it out (like I did because it was just me and the kids tonight) then try adding 1/2 t. vanilla in it’s place.

Here's what you will need:



Here are a couple of REALLY crappy pictures but it is 1/2 cup egg nog and 2 Tbsps of Captain Morgan's. 

Next comes 2 eggs and a good dash of cinnamon.  I didn't have nutmeg so I just added a bit more cinnamon and whisked it altogether.

 I was using my griddle to fry up some turkey bacon so I just used a regular old skillet and threw some butter in there.

I dipped both sides of the bread into the egg mixture and then put it in the skillet until it was brown on one side and then flipped to brown the other.

When both sides were browned, I pulled it off the skillet and put sprinkled powdered sugar all over with a side of turkey bacon.

I had to take one more picture.  A little story . . . when my husband was growing up and his mom made French toast they never used syrup or powdered sugar.  They used 100% granulated sugar out of the sugar bowl.  They would sprinkle the entire thing with nothing but sugar.  I have always laughed about this because there is no way I would put just pure sugar all over my kids' French toast but that's what they did and that's how he likes it.  This morning I asked him if he wanted me to get out the sugar and he said that he would try it with powdered sugar.  I had to take a picture and the amount of sugar he put all over it with NO SYRUP!  Notice the huge clumped balls of powdered sugar.

Our Thoughts:

I was so excited to get up on Christmas Eve morning and make breakfast for the family.  I hope that I will make this a yearly tradition.

I have never cooked French toast before and this was really, really easy.  I was a little apprehensive about the rum and egg nog but, honestly, we really couldn't taste either one of them.  I think the egg nog just help to coat the bread more than just straight eggs.

The taste that everyone loved was the cinnamon.  Scott kept saying that there was a really good after taste.  When he figured out that it was the cinnamon, he told me to always make it that way.  Big success!

Hope you enjoy!
April

Cheddar Bay Biscuits

Cheddar Bay Biscuits (Red Lobster Biscuits) from Telly's Tasty Tidbits
2 cups Bisquick mix
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar
2/3 cup milk
2 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon garlic salt

Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine Bisquick, garlic powder and cheese in a medium bowl. Stir in milk until just combined. Using a cookie scoop place drops of dough onto cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt the butter. Stir in parsley and garlic salt. When the timer goes off after 10 minutes, brush the butter mixture onto the biscuits. Bake for an additional 5 minutes, or until golden brown.

Optional: Before serving, brush biscuits with additional butter mixture.

Source: Pennies on a Platter

Here's what I started with:

Here's how I did it:

#1 I preheated the oven to 400 degrees.

#2 I measured out 2 cups of Bisquick.

#3 I added 1/2 tsp of garlic powder and 1 1/2 cups of cheddar cheese.

#4 I mixed it together and then added 2/3 cups of milk and combined it together.

#5 I then spooned it out with an ice cream scoop onto a baking sheet.

#6 Into the oven for 10 minutes.

#7 While the biscuits were baking, I melted 2T of butter then added parlsey and garlic salt.

#8 At exactly 10 minutes, I spread the melted butter all over the biscuits and then put them back in the oven for another 5 minutes.

The Finished Product:

Review:

OMG!  These are Amazing!!  If you like the Red Lobster biscuits then I suggest you don't even make these because you are going to want to eat the entire batch.

Cheesy, salty, buttery, soft on the inside and crusty on the outside.  If I closed my eyes and added a fishy smell, I would swear that I was eating at a Red Lobster.  They are outstandin.

The ONLY thing I would change is instead of adding 1 full teaspoon of garlic salt to the melted butter I think I would only add 1/2 teaspoon.  They were a little salty.  Also, I made HUGE biscuits and probably should have made them a little smaller (but the flavor was not affected at all).  If you were to use a cookie dough scooper then you probably could get a good 12-16 biscuits out of this mix.

We will absolutely have these again!  I served these with Mom's Stew.

Hope you enjoy!

April

Holly's "Whatever You Have" Kind of Banana Bread

A couple of weeks ago my friend, Holly, posted this recipe for banana bread and it looked amazing. On the day she posted it, though, I had just thrown out a couple of bananas. So, I was kind of excited when the kids didn't eat the last couple of bananas of this bunch so I could try out her recipe.

Holly's "Whatever You Have" Kind of Banana Bread Recipe:

1 1/2 c of flour
1c of butter semi melted (pop it in the microwave for 20 seconds)
1c of sugar
1 egg
2 smashed bananas
1/2 c of sour cream
1T of vanilla
Few dashes of cinnamon
A dash of salt

Optional:
1/2 c of juice
1/4 cup of vegetable oil

Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside. Next, mix the rest of the ingredients in a different bowl. When liquid mixture is blended well, slowly add the dry ingredients until everything is smooth. Make sure to coat your pan with Pam and flour really well because it tends to fall apart when you cool it afterwards. The bread takes between 40 and 50 minutes to bake.

Modifications:

-I added a small packet of pecans.
-Holly says that you can also add some juice to it.

Here's what I started with:


Here's how I did it:
#1 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.


#2 In a bowl, I put 1 1/2 cups of flour and 1 cup of sugar and mixed it together.


#3 In a separate bowl, I put an egg, 1 cup of softened butter, 1T of vanilla extract, 1/2 cup of sour cream and mixed it together.








#4 Before I added the dry and wet ingredients, I sprinkled some cinnamon into the flour/sugar.


#5 I put the 2 over-wripe bananas in with the wet mixture and started smashing them and stirring them in.




#6 I added in 1/4 cup of vegetable oil.



#7 Finally, I mixed in 1 small package of pecans.


#8 I sprayed down a pan with Pam and then floured it.



The Finished Product:



Review:

One word describes this banana bread-MOIST! I don't know if it is the vegetable oil or the sour cream but it was so moist and yummy!

Give it a try!

April