Upside-Down Apple French Toast

The beautiful Mrs. Tas wanted french toast for Sunday breakfast a couple of weekends ago, so I made this, loosely following a more-elaborate recipe from Tyler Florence of the Food Network.

It's a little more work than "regular" French toast, but I figured it would be worth it to step it up a little and try something new with the familiar concept. This has all the flavours of French toast, with a nice autumn-addition of apples and caramel. It's definitely a good way to take a normal breakfast up a simple notch and will make an exciting treat for the family.

The original recipe called for a few differences, but due to availability of ingredients etc., I made a few changes and it seemed to work out very well. I'll add the link below for comparison.

Here's my version:

Upside-Down Apple French Toast

4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
6 to 10 slices of loaf bread (depending on size), cut about 1 inch thick
1/2 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar, plus more for sprinkling
2 or 3 apples
1/2 to 3/4 cup cream cheese (about half of a "block")

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.

In a wide, flat dish (I used my paellera), crack eggs and add milk, vanilla extract and cinnamon. Whisk until well combined then lay bread slices in the mixture to coat and soak it all up, turning occasionally.

Set a 10- to 12-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add the butter and 1 cup brown sugar and cook, stirring constantly, until the sugar has melted and caramelized, about 8 minutes. While the sugar is melting, peel apples, core and cut into eighths. Remove from heat and whisk in the cream cheese until it melts and works its way into the caramel. Add the apple slices, then lay the soaked slices of bread in one or two layers over the top, so the caramel and apples are completely covered and there are no gaps. Sprinkle the top with some more brown sugar and place into the preheated oven. Bake in the middle of the oven for 40 to 45 minutes until the top is golden and puffy.

When done, allow to cool for 2 to 3 minutes, then run a butter knife around the rim of the skillet and invert onto a large plate. Dust with powdered sugar, if desired, and serve.

Here's how it turned out:



Yes, as a matter of fact, it DID smell as good as it looks!



Too bad smell-o-vision is simply not a viable option, because this would knock the socks off of anyone who enjoys such things.

It sure looked great on top - but how was it underneath?

Let's take a look:



Not too bad, but I noticed a couple of things right away that could have been better. First, I could have taken a little more time arranging the apple slices in a more attractive pattern. Also, I could have used the smaller ends and pieces of bread to fill in the spaces between the apple slices. I used inch-thick slices from 3 home-made, day-old sourdough "mini-loaves" that were about 6 inches long by 4 inches wide; perhaps cutting into large cubes (over 1-inch) might have worked better than slices. I will look into this next time.



The caramel "topping" was a little thinner than i expected, but that might have been due to the fact that I used cream cheese rather than the heavy cream called for. This is also an area where I can improve in the future, perhaps using cream rather than cream cheese, or maybe reducing the caramel a little more (even though it seemed thick enough when I was preparing it).

Other than that, I definitely rate this as a success; we served it rather simply, with just some thick-sliced bacon:



I don't normally "create" new things on a first try, prefering to closely follow an established recipe, and then improvise according to preferences as I get familiar with it and make it again; however, in this case, i was forced to do so by circumstance, and i have to say that all things considered, this turned out very well.



It was certainly a delicous breakfast that the whole family enjoyed, and we'll be making it again!

Here's a link to the original recipe, if anyone wants to make a comparison:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/rec...ns-recipe/index.html