Super French Toast

Be prepared to get your griddle or your skillet just a little bit messy. This take on French Toast may leave quite a bit of sugary glaze on the bottom, but trust me when I tell you this: you'll never think of plain old French Toast the same way again. The amount of ingredients listed is for about 10 slices of bread ... good enough for a small family's breakfast.

The picture above sort of belies the fact that the exterior of the toast turns out crunchy and sweet, much like the top of a creme brulee.

Ingredients:

• 8-10 slices of regular bread, stale
  
• 3 large eggs
  
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
  
• 1/8 Tsp. Cinnamon
  
• 1/8 Tsp. Ground Caradamom
  
• 1/2 Tsp. vanilla extract
  
• 1/2 cup sugar plus more for sprinkling
  
• About 1/4 cup melted butter

In a shallow dish, mix together the eggs, sugar, cream, cinnamon, cardamom, and vanilla. Fire up your griddle to about 325 surface temperature.

Dip each slice of bread into the egg mixture and make sure each side is coated. Let excess drain off, then recover to a cooling rack to let set up. (If you were to put the bread right on the griddle, you'd have some nice scrambled eggs coating the exterior. yuck.)

After a few minutes, brush some melted butter on your griddle then immediately place a few slices of the toast on. While the bottom is browning, sprinkle a little bit of sugar on the top of each slice. When the bottom has browned, flip over and repeat the sprinkling procedure. Flip again and brown for about one minute more.

Remove from heat and serve. There should be no need for syrup or anything like that.