Baked French Toast with a kiss of Cinnamon & Maple Syrup!

I made this on Christmas Eve so it would be ready to bake Christmas morning while we opened gifts. The heavenly smell of cinnamon and brown sugar was a perfect start to a blessed Christmas day! Merry Christmas!!

1 loaf of french bread ( I used a whole grain wheat french loaf. My attempt at adding something healthful)

 8 eggs

 2 cups milk

 1/2 cup heavy cream

 3/4 cup sugar

 2 tbsp. vanilla

 Crumb topping

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

 1 heaping tsp. ground cinnamon

 1/4 tsp. salt

 1 stick cold butter; cut into pieces

Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish with butter or non stick spray. Tear bread into bite size pieces and place evenly in pan. Beat together, eggs, milk, heavy cream, sugar, & vanilla. Pour evenly over bread. (With the backside of a spoon squish the bread down into the egg mixture) Cover with plastic wrap. Store in fridge overnight. (12 hrs) In a medium bowl mix together all the crumb topping ingredients except butter. With a pastry blender or fork cut cold butter into the mix until you've got pea size crumbles. Store in a zip lock bag in fridge. When ready to bake evenly sprinkle crumb mixture over top of bread. Bake @ 350 degrees 45-55 minutes. Serve with warm maple syrup. This is very much the same as a bread pudding and would be fabulous served with a hot caramel sauce and ice cream!! Yield: 12 large servings