"baked french toast" news and stories

• A treasure trove of cookie ideas for Christmas, including Double Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, Pistachio Torrone, Orange Cardamom Cookies, Meringue Stars, and Cinnamon Palmiers.
• How to make 3-D cookie ornaments for your tree.
• A Hannukkah menu, featuring finger foods.
• Some comforting dishes for winter, including Baked French Toast, Rosemary Pork Chops, and Winter Herb Pasta.
• You can use cinnamon is so many recipes.
• More recipes: Crab Bisque, Wilted Spinach with Nutmeg Butter, Wild Mushroom Bread Pudding, and Gin Rickeys.
• Also in the December issue: Christmas in Tpoztlan, a guide to making great cupcakes, the story of Kobe beef, winning over a fussy French watier, and Marge, the cutting edge cow.

For brunch on Sunday, I made this wonderful baked french toast from Allrecipes.com. It was luscious. The bread had a candied, crunchy-crisp top—almost like it had been bruléed— while underneath it had a creamy, pudding-like quality.

I made some slight changes to the original recipe. I used a crusty Italian loaf instead of baguette, rice syrup instead of corn syrup (which I normally do in recipes calling for corn syrup), and I added a little orange zest to the milk mixture and let it soak overnight.  Next time I will also add some Grand Marnier to the glaze on the suggestion of a friend.

Make sure to serve it hot from the oven when it is puffed.  You have a about two minutes before it collapses like a soufflé.

[photo: Stefania Pomponi Butler]