fall french toast

Since the beginning of October I have been searching out canned pumpkin puree in the Montreal markets - I have yet to be successful.  So far I've come across canned pumpkin pie mix, but I will never (NEVER) resort to that, hopefully.  I have an assortment of pumpkin recipes on my Pinterest board that I have yet to use this year and it really makes me sad.  Breakfast recipes such as pumpkin french toast or pumpkin pancakes always sounds like the perfect weekend morning, but so far, no luck.  So, rather than sulk and deprive myself of breakfast, I decided to make french toast, 100% from scratch.

To start, I made a light, brioche-styled loaf called Sally Lunn bread.  This can be found on Smitten Kitchen.  I do not normally make bread, as I have a husband that has managed to become quite an expert in bread baking.  However, this recipe seemed easy enough and I prayed that the rising would come through. It did!  The bread baked beautifully and it made FANTASTIC french toast. Hopefully soon I will make the accompanying honeyed brown butter spread.  If you want some lightly sweet bread for either toast or bread pudding, I highly recommend this bread.

P.S. Do you like my maple syrup pot?  You should. It's made by Montreal artist Marianne Chenard. Normally her maple syrup pots have really beautiful illustrations on the ceramics, but this past Puce Pop Craft Fair she had made limited run white ceramic pots with woodgrain like grooves which I couldn't resist.  I love it!  Plus it holds exactly 1 can of Quebec maple syrup, so storage is made easy.

To make French toast a little more "fall festive" I like to add cinnamon and nutmeg to the egg/milk mixture.  Enjoy!  And make sure to take advantage of all the pumpkin cuisine out there while you still can!