Bethie'S Baked French Toast - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 loaf challah
vegetable cooking spray
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup shredded coconut
10 large eggs
2 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup cream
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 -2 tablespoon sugar (or vanilla sugar!)
1 pinch salt
TOPPING
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup sliced almonds
OTHER
maple syrup

Preparation

The night before, thickly slice the bread & lay out on a cooling rack.
Preheat oven to 350\u00b0F.
Spray a 9x13 pan well. Tear up the dried bread slices into bite sized pieces into the pan. Sprinkle with raisins & coconut.
In an 8c measuring bowl, whisk eggs. Add milk & cream (you can use whatever combination of dairy you want. I have skim milk in the fridge so I added some cream. If I had whole milk, I would have used that & skipped the cream). Add sugar, vanilla, cinnamon & whisk thoroughly. Carefully pour over the bread. With a spatula or your (clean) hands, carefully push down to make sure it's all wet. Let sit 15 minutes or so.
For the topping:
In a small bowl, combine butter, brown sugar & cinnamon. I mushied it all up thoroughly with my hands. Spread on top of the french toast mixture. It doesn't spread very easily; I used my hands. Sprinkle almonds on top. I sprinkled almonds on only 1/2 because dd doesn't care for nuts. ;).
You may want to consider putting a cookie sheet under the baking dish in case there are any spills. Bake in preheated oven 50 minutes or until toasty on top & set. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving. Pour just a little warmed pure maple syrup on top.
Enjoy. :).