Recipe Hunting 101 - Baked French Toast & Praline Crunch Casserole

Today is cold and blustery.  The wind is whipping around, rattling the grill on our back deck and swirling snow around in the air like a shakened snow globe.  After hearing the weather forcast last night, I decided I would be staying inside my cozy, toasty warm home for the entire day today and that I needed to make something warm and comforting for our breakfast this morning.  When you are looking for some comfort food, I think you can't go wrong with something from Paula Deen's recipe stash! 

This dish is a make the night before kind of dish, so plan ahead if your going to make it.  Trust me, it will be well worth the wait!  It is also another calorie laden dish.  Maybe, I should make my next year's resolution to make a new healthy dish once a week?  Hmmm...well, maybe every other week at least, I don't want to get too crazy.  :^)

Baked French Toast & Praline Crunch Casserole - recipe modified from Paula Deen 

Ingredients:
1 loaf french bread (cut into 1 inch slices)
8 eggs
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
dast of salt

Praline topping:
2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
2 tbsp light corn syrup
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Directions:
1.  Butter a 9x13 baking dish.  Place the pieces of bread in the dish so they are overlapping. 
2.  Mix the eggs, heavy cream, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl, until well mixed.  Pour over the bread, making sure you get it in between each slice of bread too. 
3.  Cover with foil and allow to sit in the fridge overnight.
4.  The next day, beat all the ingredients for the praline topping in a large mixing bowl unitl creamy.
5.  Pour off the leftover egg mixture from the bread, or else the bottoms will be really soggy.
6.  Spread the praline mixture, generously, over the tops of the bread slices.
7.  Bake at 350F for 40-45 minutes, until the bread is puffed and golden.