Baked French Toast With Pecans - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup (the real stuff)
1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
8 eggs
1 1/2 cups light cream (or half and half)
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 loaf challah (1 inch thick) or 1 loaf egg bread, sliced (1 inch thick)
maple syrup, warmed, for serving

Preparation

Stir butter, brown sugar and maple syrup in heavy saucepan over medium heat until melted and smooth. Pour into 9\" X 13\" glass baking dish. Sprinkle pecans over butter mixture.
Whisk eggs, cream, cinnamon and vanilla in large bowl to blend. Dip bread slices into egg mixture and arrange in single layer in prepared dish.
Pour remaining egg mixture over bread slices in dish. Cover with plastic wrap and refridgerate overnight.
Preheat oven to 350F/180\u00b0C Bake French toast uncovered until golden brown and puffed and knife inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes.
Cut into six pieces. Serve pecan-side up with additional warm maple syrup.