SOOO FANCY: crème brûlée french toast :)

i normally [try] to get up early, with bud, as he gets ready for work. it's good for me, to get up and look for substitute teaching jobs. however, it's saturday, and while my body still wanted to get up at 5:30, there aren't any schools open today for me to teach in.

what's a girl to do? :)

well, with a loaf of fresh Challah on my kitchen counter (that i just bought at a farmer's market a couple days ago!), what ELSE could a super-ravenous girl do but make crème brûlée french toast?

if you've never seen a loaf of this specialty Jewish bread, check out this braid of majesty:

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with a little inspiration from Deb's recipe at Smitten Kitchen, i crafted a truly delightful breakfast for myself.

you can follow her recipe if you want [i bet it's amazing!], but I didn't for a few reasons: 
***Deb's recipe calls for a lot of lovely (and ah-hem, expensive) ingredients that i just don't ever have. i just can't afford to buy and scrape real vanilla beans at this point in life.
 ***her recipe called for full flavor ingredients that are also, unfortunately, full fat! i wanted to try to re-create a recipe that had the goodness of crème brûlée flavor, with less fat and calories.  for example, i figured that fat-free half & half could totally sub in for the heavy cream and whole milk. [and i already had FF half & half in my fridge anyway... whereas i never buy whole milk & try to keep my heavy-cream purchasing to a minimum ;) ]
***and obviously, i needed a recipe for 1, not 6, servings. ;)
 

ella's crème brûlée french toast for one :)

2 slices Challah bread
1 egg
fat-free half & half (I probably used 1/2 cup? maybe 2/3 cup? hard to tell. def. not more than 2/3 cup though.)
pinch of salt
sprinkling of granulated sugar (probably 1-2 Tablespoons)
a little splash of vanilla (probably 1/2-1 teaspoon)
*more granulated sugar for the tops (probably 1/4 cup)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Get out a small baking sheet and line it with a piece of parchment paper.


Whisk all ingredients, except the bread, together in a shallow bowl (one that your bread slices will easily fit in, for dipping!).. i actually just used a fork. (a little nugget about me: i love stirring/whisking/anything with a fork. forks are one of my favorite kitchen tools. :)

1 piece at a time, dip the Challah slices in, letting each piece really soak in the little pool of custardy goodness (let 'em soak well, on each side!).  transfer pieces to lined baking sheet.  pop in oven and bake till done all the way through the middle----- about 15-20 minutes(?)  (ahhh, i was on the phone and not doing the best job of paying attention to the clock..... sorry. so just check 'em when you do it). :)

**IMPORTANT [and this is the best part!!!]: When the bread slices are almost done (maybe with 5 mins to go!) get a small, dry, heavy-bottomed sauce pot on the stove and get your 1/4 cup sugar.  dump the sugar in the pot and melt it, by stirring it over medium heat until it is the color of honey.  it'll look like this:

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according to deb, this was her best way to get the crunchy, yummy, signature creme brûlée top. (you can TOTALLY sprinkle your sugar right on the bread slices and use your broiler if you want, but i have never used mine, and knew the melted sugar way would work----- and i was much, much too nervous to torch my heavenly Challah slices I'd worked so hard on).  SO, if you melt your sugar on the stove top, just stir it, let it turn to honey, then work quickly and pour/spoon a little bit (just a little!) over each slice of bread. spread it thin and you'll have the signature crunch! (but not too much crunch) :)

mine kind of looked like this at the end (sorry for the lack of pictures; still need to fix my stinking camera!!!!  or just get a new one.  or maybe get one for Christmas. [hint, hint]) :)

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happy saturday to me. :)  

AND happy saturday to YOU, if you RUN to your kitchen and make yourself the fanciest french toast you've ever had!!!!!!!!! ;)        <3 ella :)