Family Recipes: Baked French Toast and Making Your Own Brown Sugar

The morning after Thanksgiving I stood in my kitchen,

 looking for something to feed a houseful of people.

I decided on Baked French Toast, even though 

I should have started it the night before and let it sit in the fridge over night.

I started with a bag of leftover rolls, about a dozen.

I broke them into pieces and put them in a greased baking dish.

Then I beat 10 eggs with 2 teaspoons of vanilla, about a cup of whipping cream, a quarter cup of sugar and some cinnamon, and poured the mixture over the rolls. Milk would work as well, I just had some whipping cream left that I wanted to use up. I covered it and put it in the fridge for a couple hours.

While the rolls were soaking up all the egg mixture, I set out to make the topping: brown sugar, butter and flour, but discovered I was out of brown sugar. I hate to go to the store for only one item, so I usually can find something to substitute.

 I thought I remembered something from years ago, about how to make brown sugar; It seemed like it was just white sugar and molasses or dark corn syrup. I was pretty sure I didn't have any molasses or dark corn syrup, but I checked the pantry anyway, and found a bottle of corn syrup!

I didn't have the exact amounts, and wasn't exactly sure I had the correct ingredients, but I thought it was worth a try.

I put about a cup of sugar in a bowl, added all the corn syrup, about half a cup,

 and began mixing with a fork.

As I mixed, it began to look like brown sugar!

It even tasted like brown sugar!

So, I mixed this with some flour and soft butter until it was a crumble-top mixture,

 spread it over the bread and egg, and baked at 350 for an hour.

 

It was delicious!

Family Recipes: Cinnamon Roll Lamb

I have been making this cinnamon roll lamb for Easter brunch for over 20 years. This year, I also made it for my 5th grade Sunday School.

Ingredients:   (any cinnamon roll recipe can be substituted)

         frozen white bread dough, thawed

         1/4 cup melted butter

         1/4 cup cinnamon sugar

Let the dough rise for an hour or so, then roll it out on a floured board ( save some dough for the head, legs and tail). Spread the melted butter over the dough, then sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over the top.

Roll it up the long way, cover and let rise some more, about 2 hours.

Using a serrated knife, cut into slices about an inch thick.

 Now you are ready to design your lamb.

Using a large baking sheet, cover it with foil (this will make it easy to remove).  Lay out the lamb like the picture below.

Top row: 4 rolls    2nd & 3rd rows: 5 rolls     last row: 4 rolls

Using the saved dough, shape the head and put it in place. Shape a little tail, ears and eye and put into place.

Shape the legs and cut out a little triangle to form the hooves.

Cover and let rise about another hour or two.

 

Brush on an egg or milk wash, bake at 350 for about 1/2 hour.

Cool, then brush on the glaze.

Glaze:  Mix 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1 tsp milk, 1/2 tsp vanilla. 

 

http://www.commonground-do.com/2014/04/be-inspired-183.html