Baked French Toast

Sisters,

It's been nasty and cold here in NYC too. This morning I woke up to sunshine, but it was 29 degrees! I headed to a brunch at my friend's apartment, and decided to make some Baked French Toast. I figured I should take advantage of the fact that it's STILL BELOW 30 at the end of March and make something heavy, buttery, and just plain not good for you. Plus I added some bacon crumbles to the top. Soon enough it will be above 50 and my diet will mainly consist of leafy greens, I might as well say goodbye to winter with a bang, right?

Remember mom's monkey bread? This tastes just like that, but takes way less prep time! The recipe is below :)

Ingredients

5 cups bread cubes
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup white sugar, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon margarine, softened
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Top Layer

5 strips of crumbled bacon

1/2 cup of maple syrup

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). 

Lightly butter an 8x8 inch baking pan.
Line bottom of pan with bread cubes. 

In a large bowl, beat together eggs, milk, 2 tablespoons sugar, salt and vanilla. pour egg mixture over bread. 

Dot with margarine; let stand for 10 minutes.
Combine remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and bacon crumbles then sprinkle over the top. 

Bake in preheated oven about 45 minutes, until top is golden.

Layer the top with the 1/2 cup of syrup and place in oven for 5 more minutes.