Easter breakfast

Easter and eggs seem to be almost synonymous. Eggs have always been the mark of spring. Well, then I came across one of my favorite grandmas...Paula Deen! Her French toast casserole sounded perfect for breakfast. But ofcourse you know me, I cant stick to a recipe. Maybe that's why I was so bad at Chemistry or baking bread as a matter of fact. So here's a pumped up version of her breakfast goodie. And it was really yummy, if I may say so myself. The orange liqueur does a great job with the raisins and cranberries. Paula's idea of praline topping is phenomenal. Only, I didn't have ingredients so I had to make my own version.


Toast with a twist!
10-12 slices of bread (slice bread an inch or so thick)
4 large eggs
1 cups half-and-half and 1/2 cup milk or 1/2 cup cream and 1-1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons (tblspn) sugar
1 teaspoon (tspn) vanilla extract
1/4 tspn ground cinnamon
1/4 tspn ground nutmeg
Pinch of salt
Raisins and cranberries
Orange liqueur
Praline Topping, recipe follows
Maple syrup
Add raisins and cranberries to a small bowl and pour orange liqueur until it barely covers the dry fruit. Soak for an hour. Generously butter a flat baking dish.  In a large bowl, combine the eggs, half-and-half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Arrange a layer of bread slices overlapping the slices a bit. Layer the soaked raisins and cranberries. Arrange the remaining bread on top. Pour the egg-milk mixture over the bread slices. Cover with foil and refrigerate for a few hours, overnight if you like.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the maple-almond praline topping evenly over the bread and bake for ~ 40 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden. A plumped up version of the ever comforting bread pudding!

Maple almond praline topping:
1 tblspn butter
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup chopped roasted almonds
1 tblspn maple syrup
1/4 tspn cinnamon pwdr
1/4 tspn nutmeg pwdr
Combine all ingredients in a bowl.