Paula Deen’s French Toast Casserole with Praline Topping

When most people think of Paula Deen they think of butter. Lots and lots of butter. That comes to my mind, but not first. The first thing I think of is beans. In college, my roommate and I were watching some of our beloved Paula and she was using beans in a recipe and exclaimed, “I’m Paula Deen the bean queen!” We said that to each other for many years to come, and it will still come up every so often. But my mind always thinks of the Bean Queen when I hear Paula’s name, and then I think about butter. 

Before we went and saw Breaking Dawn, we had breakfast together. My mom makes a great French toast casserole, and as I was looking online for variations I came across this recipe. I first saw the title, and thought it sounded great. Then I saw it was a Paula recipe, and that sealed the deal

It is actually a fairly simple recipe, but you do have to prep it the night before. And be warned, it takes awhile to cook. I got excited and took it out of the oven too soon. The sides were amazing, and the middle was a mush pile, but a little longer in the oven would cure that. It is a yummy, indulgent Paula recipe, complete with lots of butter and cream! On the recipe page there is a video of Paula making it, and in it she says “This is too good to be true. Pralines and bread in one dish, I can't hardly stand it!” I’d have to agree Paula.

So, here it is. Paula Deen's French Toast Casserole

Ingredients:

1 loaf French bread (13 to 16 ounces)

8 large eggs

2 cups half-and-half

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Dash salt

Praline Topping, recipe follows

Slice French bread into 20 slices, 1-inch each. Arrange slices in a generously buttered 9 by 13-inch flat baking dish in 2 rows, overlapping the slices. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, half-and-half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and beat with a whisk until blended but not too bubbly. Pour mixture over the bread slices, making sure all are covered evenly with the milk-egg mixture. Spoon some of the mixture in between the slices. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Spread Praline Topping evenly over the bread and bake for 40 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden. Serve with maple syrup.

Praline Topping:

1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and blend well. Makes enough for Baked French Toast Casserole.

I wasn’t just excited for this recipe, I was also super excited to get out and use this awesome baking dish that my mom made for me for my bridal shower! I love it and think I may need to have all of my glass dishes with etched designs. Think of which I did just get a new set of Pyrex…

Chai Spice Cookies

We are doing a cookie exchange at work tomorrow and I wanted something new and unique to make. I have been loving chai lately, and recently saw a recipe on pinterest that was a chai cookie with pumpkin Hershey kiss on top, similar to the peanut butter blossoms that are so good. Problem was that I couldn't find pumpkin kisses anywhere, I think it was just too late to be looking for them. So, I started looking for different chai cookie recipes. There was nothing out there that really grabbed me, so I took bits and pieces of a couple different recipes and created my own. Here it is! 

Chai Spice Cookies

Ingredients:

1 c butter, softened

1 c white sugar

1/3 c brown sugar

3 chai tea bags (remove contents from the bags and discard bag)

3 tps pumpkin pie spice

2 eggs

3 1/2 cups flour

1 Tbs baking powder

dash salt

Cream together butter, sugars, chai tea, pumpkin pie spice until light & fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time until well combined.

 

Combine flour, baking powder, salt.  Add to creamed mixture and blend until combined. The dough will be very thick, this is a good thing. :)

Cover & refrigerate for 1 hour

Heat oven to 350. Roll cookies into balls, and roll in sugar. Place on greased cookie sheet, flatten slightly and bake for 10 min until edges begin to brown. Cool on wire racks.

 

While I bake I always have some sing-a-long music on so I can do just that and dance around the kitchen a bit. I thought I'd share what I listened to while making my goodies. For these cookies I was in the mood for a little county love. So, off it was to Last.Fm and the modern country station. Some of the best songs while I was baking were: Lady Antebellum - Need You Now, Chuck Wicks - Stealing Cinderella, Zac Brown Band - Chicken Fried

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Orange Creamsicle Cake

This is something that I made a while back, but was just thinking about it and wanted to share. It is simple, fun, and delicious!

Here is what you need:

1 white or yellow cake mix (plus ingredients to make, minus the water)

Orange juice (to replace water in the cake mix)

1 pkg orange Jello (plus water to make)

1 pkg instant vanilla pudding

1 c milk (to make pudding)

1 small container of whip cream (or make your own whip cream)

Prepare cake mix according to directions, replacing orange juice for water. Bake according to directions.

 

Let cake cool. Once it has cooled, poke holes all over it. I used chopsticks, but anything about that size would work.

Mix jello with hot water until dissolved. Then add cold water.

Pour jello over the cake. Refrigerate to let jello set.

To make the topping, prepare pudding according to directions.Mix with whip cream

Pull the cake out of the fridge, and put the topping on! (It may look a bit like mashed potatoes, don't worry, its oh so good!)

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S'mores Biscuits

This past weekend was another birthday at the office. The birthday girl, Kelly loves anything s'mores. I had pinned S'mores Croissants on Pinterest and we decided that it was time to try them out. These were very easy and oh so good! We opted to bring all of the ingredients in and bake them at the office, and it was the perfect choice!

Fun side note: People always think of us Girl Scouts and our cookies, but you have something else to thank us for as well. The s'more! The first ever appearance for the s'more recipe was in a Girl Scout book in 1927!

We ended up getting crescent rolls and biscuits for these, and both of them were really good. I preferred the biscuit just a little since it was still a bit doughy inside, but either way you will enjoy!

Ingredients:

-Refrigerated crescent rolls or biscuits

-Mini Marshmallows

-Chocolate chips

-Graham crackers

 Roll out the crescent rolls, or flatten the biscuit. Place a few mini marshmallows and chocolate chips on the dough. Crumble a piece of graham cracker on the dough

.

 Roll the crescent roll, sealing the goodness inside. For the biscuit, pull the sides of the biscuit up around the yummy inside and seal it all in.

 

 Bake according to dough packet instructions, until golden brown.

 Enjoy!! You'll get almost melted marshmallow with warm chocolate and a hint of graham cracker.

These are easy and fun dessert! You can make a couple or a lot and you won't regret it! :)

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Baked Devils Food Cake with Angel Frosting

Another hit from the guys at Baked! These great Devil's Food Cake with Angel Frosting are from Baked Explorations, which I have sadly had to recently return to the library. I opted to make these nuggets of goodness in a cupcake form, because that is just cuter. :)

This cake is moist, chocolaty, and just a little dense. The frosting is amazing - it is marshmallow cream. I've made marshmallows plenty of times before (I'll do a post on that in the next week or so), and always wondered how they make the marshmallow cream in the jars. Now I know!

This recipe made 20 or so cupcakes, or the recipe can make a double layer 8 inch cake. The frosting recipe could easily be taken down, I had a bunch of extra frosting, which isn't all that bad since you can eat by the spoonful if needed. :)

Ingredients

For the Devil's Food Cake
1 ounce good quality dark chocolate (60-72%) broken into a few pieces
1/2 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder (like Valhrona)
2/3 cup hot coffee
1/3 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons (1 1/14 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes, softened
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the Angel Frosting
5 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla paste (or 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract)

Make the Devil's Food Cake

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line the cupcake pan with liners. If you are making a cake, butter two 8 inch round cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment paper, and butter the parchment. Dust the parchment with flour and knock out the excess flour.

Place the chocolate and cocoa powder in a medium heatproof bowl. Pour the hot coffee directly over them and whisk until combined.

In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, then add the vanilla and beat until incorporated. Scrape down the bowl and mix again for 30 seconds.

Add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with chocolate mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes (35-40 for cake) or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Make the Angel Frosting

Place the egg whites in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan over low heat, stir together 1 1/4 cups of the sugar, the corn syrup, and 1/4 cup water. Once the sugar is dissolved, increase the heat to medium high, and clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pot. Heat the mixture, without stirring, to almost soft ball stage ( about 235 degrees F) do not let it go above 235 degrees F.

While you wait for the syrup to reach soft ball stage, whip the egg whites on medium speed until soft peaks form-do not beat beyond this.

As soon as the sugar mixture reaches the soft-ball stage, remove the pan from the heat.

Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup sugar over the soft peaks of the egg whites and turn the mixer to low. Slowly stream in the hot sugar syrup. Once all the syrup has been added, increase the speed to medium high and beat the icing for about 7 minutes until it is thick and shiny. Add the vanilla and beat again for 10 seconds.

I think that this frosting would pipe very well, but it came out very well just swirling it with a knife. It is super shiny. They recommend serving in within 4 hours of making the frosting, but we actually didn't eat ours for a day and half, and the frosting was still yummy, delicious, and still had it's fluff to it.