I debated over joining Shawnda and Ashley in Project Pastry Queen solely because of this recipe.  I hemmed. And hawed.  And hemmed some more.   See, recipes like this one aren’t really Weight Watchers-friendly.  And that makes it difficult to stick with the plan…especially when recipes like this one call for 4 cups of heavy cream. Yikes!

And it took a little tweaking to make this recipe one that I could really enjoy in more than a 1/4 cup serving.  You’ll see the changes I made below but you can check out Josie’s blog for the original recipe.  But overall, we were really so pleased with how the dish turned out.  This was truly such a treat to have for breakfast and we’re both thrilled that there are 3 more servings left over!  I had some trouble caramelizing the sugar since I don’t have a kitchen torch and didn’t want to risk the broiler.  We do have this little torch that we use to light the grill and I’m not sure if it’s meant to be used as a kitchen torch but I used it anyway.  And it didn’t work so well.  But this breakfast was great regardless and my lack of torch skills seemed to only have a minimal effect on the taste overall.

Crème Brûlée French Toast
source: Rebecca Rather, The Pastry Queen

3/4 large loaf of challah bread
7 large egg yolks
1 cup half-and-half
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cups skim milk
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup vanilla extract
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Grease a 2 1/2-quart casserole dish.  Slice the challah into 1/2-inch slices, then into cubes.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, cream, 3/4 cup sugar, salt, vanilla, cinnamon, and butter.

Scatter about 1/4 of the bread cubes in the bottom of the dish, then pour 1/4 of the custard over them, pressing the bread cubes down to be sure they are soaked.  Repeat once more, pressing the mixture down between the layers.  Cover the casserole dish with foil and refrigerate at least 1 hour, or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Place the casserole inside a larger baking dish, and fill the larger baking dish halfway with boiling water.  Bake 1 1/2 hours, or until the top is light brown and set.

Sprinkle the top with the remaining sugar, and place under the broiler or use a kitchen torch to melt the sugar and brown the top.  The sugar will harden as it cools in about 3-5 minutes.  Serve warm or at room temperature.