A tasty breakfast

Brian doesn't work on Fridays, so I decided to make french toast for breakfast to usher in our weekend. I have always disliked french toast and pancakes because ususally you eat those things with maple syrup - which I really dislike. After some searching I found a good recipe for the french toast and some yummy syrup. It turned out great! There were two things, I think, that made it so great. 1 - Home made bread and 2 - the syrup. So here are the recipes for each - if you're up for some really great breakfast!

Andrea's Grandma's French Bread

* 2 and 1/2 c. warm water (between 90 and 95 degrees)
* 1/4 c. oil
* 1/3 c. sugar
* 2 t. salt
* 1 egg
* 2 packages active dry yeast (about 2 T.)
* about 7 cups of flour (I almost always use all - and I like to use 1 c. whole wheat flour and the rest white flour - it's not very tasty to use all whole wheat...)

This is easiest if you have a kitchen-aid!

Add oil, sugar, salt and egg to bowl. Then add water and yeast. Mix with flat beater until 1/2 of flour has been added. Switch to dough hook, slowly add remaining flour and run mixer for 5-10 minutes. Cover bowl with a towel and let raise (about 45 min). Remove dough and divide in half. Knead each section until you have a nice smooth ball. ( I use my counter top - sprinkled with lots of flour to keep it from sticking and use my palms to pull the dough from the outside to the middle to make the ball) Set both balls on a greased cookie sheet (air bake sheets don't work well - I use a large jelly roll pan). Let sit - covered for ten minutes. Using a rolling pin, roll each ball into a 10ish by 12ish sheet (maybe 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick). Roll sheets tightly to make the loaf. Seal and pinch the edges underneath (so it looks nicer). Put back on the baking sheet seam side down. Let raise again until the rolls of dough have doubled (or a little more).

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes

FRENCH TOAST
*4 eggs
* 2 T. milk (I used vanilla creamer)
* 1/4 t. ground cinnamon
* 1 t. vanilla
* bread slices - I used seven fairly thick slices of the bread from above recipe

Beat cinnamon and eggs together; add mil. Dp bread into mixture until coated. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan. Cook bread slices until they are golden brown.

SYRUP
* 1/2 c. packed brown sugar
* 1/2 c. white sugar
* 2 T. all purpose flour
* 1/2 t. ground cinnamon
* 1 t. vanilla extract
* 1. c water

Stir together the white sugar, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small sauce pan. Stir in vanilla extract and water. Bringto a rolling boil, stirring often. Continue to boil and stir until mixture thickens to syurp consistency. Remove from heat. Cool 10 min. before serving.

Let me know what you think. The syrup and french toast recipes I got from allrecipes.com.