Cinnamon French Toast with Caramelized Peaches and Creme Fraiche

Blinner is pretty big at our house and oddly enough, the breakfast foods so typically eaten in the AM taste a hundred times better late in the evening (speaking for myself). Weird? Weird.

My kids are huge pancake and french toast lovers. I decided to give the french toast some snobby bling to it and found it was good enough to serve even company. Creme fraiche helps the cause. And if you decide to buy creme fraiche from the store you are perhaps not aware that it's so ridiculously easy to make at home from scratch and lasts a lot longer. Roasted peaches, with warm and sweet juices extracting from their flesh, combined with the creamy homemade cheese, all on top of cinnamon-dusted french toast.... um, good. Really good.

This here link is the recipe I always use for homemade creme fraiche. Just plan a few days ahead of time and make sure to make it about two days before you need to serve it. I like to allow it to chill in the fridge for about 12-24 hours before serving. It's a mental thing, I suppose, but it tastes better if it's had some fridge TLC time.

Oh, and really, let's talk about the bread. You should use thicker bread if possible. My mistake was found in using some cheapola generic sandwich bread which was just flat enough to really be vexed by it. Go thick, be happy. Words for breakfast life.

Cinnamon French Toast with Caramelized Peaches and Crème Fraiche

{Curtis Stone}

For the Caramelized Peaches:

1/2 cup sugar

3 tablespoons butter

2 peaches, pitted, each cut into 8 wedges

For the French Toast:

6 large eggs

Four 1/2-inch slices brioche bread, or other thick bread

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/3 cup crème fraîche

To prepare the caramelized peaches:

Place a large sauté pan over medium heat. Sprinkle the sugar evenly over the pan and cook without stirring for about 5 minutes or until the sugar melts and slowly begins to caramelize (Kate note: this did not really work me. I simply added butter to the pan, allowed it to heat up, added the peaches and sugar, and allowed them to cook slowly until they were covered in nice, rich, sugary goodness). Add the peaches and butter and sauté for 2 to 5 minutes depending on the ripeness of the peaches or until the caramel melts and the peaches are just heated through and tender.

To prepare the French toast:

Using a fork, beat the eggs in a 13x9-inch baking dish to blend. Place the slices of brioche in the eggs. Let stand for 5 minutes or until the eggs are absorbed, turning the brioche slices once.

Melt the butter on a heavy large griddle pan over medium heat. Add the brioche slices to the hot pan and cook for about 2 minutes per side or until golden brown on the outside and heated through.

Meanwhile, stir the sugar and cinnamon on a large plate or pie dish. Transfer the French toast to a cutting board and cut the French toast diagonally in half. Immediately place the hot French toast in the cinnamon-sugar and turn to coat completely.

Divide the French toast among 4 serving plates. Spoon the peaches over the French toast, and drizzle the caramel sauce from the pan over the peaches and around the French toast. Spoon a dollop of crème fraîche atop each and serve immediately.