Brown Sugar and Banana Baked French Toast

Any fans out there of the Food Network show, Worst Cooks in America? My husband and I enjoy watching the show and following the progress of the contestants. This past season, chef Tyler Florence replaced Bobby Flay as one of the mentors. At first we were disappointed, we really like Bobby Flay! We've tried many of his recipes (ancho chile fries, burgers, and bourbon ancho chile pork chops) and even been to a couple restaurants (Mesa Grill and Bobby's Burger Palace). Tyler Florence did a great job mentoring, though, and we ended up with a couple recipes we wanted to try out that he demoed on the show. For those of you who don't watch the show, each week the mentors teach the contestants a different skill and recipe. We've picked up some great tips, tricks, and recipes from the show.

The recipe that caught our eye this past season was Tyler Florence's french toast roast. I love french toast, but we have never actually made it. As I mentioned in my lemon blueberry pancake post last week, we don't typically cook much for breakfast in the mornings. My routine usually consists of some instant oatmeal. But, a couple weekends ago we decided to make the french toast recipe for a Saturday morning breakfast.

We LOVED the french toast roast! It takes a while to complete all the steps and make it, but it is well worth the wait and work. The roast is covered with a deliciously sweet brown sugar sauce and bananas. The original recipe calls for the bananas to be cooked with the french toast...I wasn't a fan of the cooked bananas. The same thing happened when I made our favorite bananas foster sauce (which would also be good on the french toast). I prefer fresh banana slices, so I've changed up the recipe some to indicate that. If you prefer them cooked, then place them in the sauce before cooking the french toast. We also left out the pecans, because my husband is not a fan. You could add a couple cups of chopped pecans or walnuts to add a crunch to the french toast.

Brown Sugar and Banana Baked French Toast ingredients:

French toast:

• 10 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 loaf brioche bread (best if a day old)

Brown Sugar Sauce

• 1/2 stick butter, melted
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Also needed:

• 2 tbs butter
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 large bananas
• Powdered sugar

Brown Sugar and Banana Baked French Toast instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 F
• Break all eggs and whisk together in a bowl
• Add the sugar, cream, milk, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg to create the custard
• Whisk the custard ingredients together until sugar is fully dissolved
• Trim the crust from the brioche loaf and cut down until you have a cylinder (approximately 4x6)
• Place the brioche in a dish and cover with the custard (this is NOT the dish you will be baking in)
• Let the custard soak into the bread for at least 15 mins, turn the bread occasionally so it is soaked in evenly
• While soaking, mix together melted butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon for the sauce
• Pour the sauce into a roasting pan - this will be what you bake the french toast in
• After done soaking, melt 2 tbs of butter in a 10-inch non-stick pan over medium-high heat. 
• Sprinkle the brioche with sugar and place it (sugar side down) in the pan
• Sprinkle the top with sugar and leave in pan 1-2 minutes
• Continue sprinkling each side with sugar and searing for 1-2 mins until all sides are golden brown
• Carefully place bread over brown sugar mixture in the roasting pan
• Bake for 15 mins, or until bread is caramelized
• Dust with sugar and serve

French toast was on my recipe bucket list, so another one is checked off! Check out my list to see what all I've finished, and what is still to come.