Apple and Sausage Stuffed Baked French Toast

                                                                       


Oh the wonderfulness of French Toast ! So thick & custardy with sausage and apples in a warm cinnamon, brown sugar sauce tucked in the middle of each mouthwatering piece.Each piece is crispy top & bottom too! Oh so good on cold mornings or like I am having, in the evening for dinner. This rustic, hearty, comfort food is so good for holiday breakfasts or brunches too! You could mix this up the night before and pop it in the oven in the morning to have ready for your hungry family.

                               The warm savory sweet apple and sausage filling!                                         

1 Lb Sausage ( I used Darrenkamps Apple Sausage Link ) but any mild breakfast sausage will do.
3 Baking Apples
8 Eggs
1 Cup Milk
2 TSP Vanilla
3 Dashes of Salt
1 TSP. Cinnamon
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar Divided
3 TBS Butter
8 Slices of nice thick bread. I use home made bread but Texas Toast white bread or your favorite bread is fine!

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees.
Slice sausage into 1 inch slices OR remove casing & crumble . Start to fry sausage to brown. Peel & core the apples. Slice like you would for pie in nice thin slices. Add to sausage & brown. If you have a lot of grease off your sausage remove all but a couple of tablespoons. Once sausage is no longer pink & apples are slightly soft add 1/4 cup of brown sugar and 1 TSP cinnamon. Stir together until sugar melts and you have a nice thick syrup. Turn off heat.

Now whisk eggs & slowly whisk in milk, vanilla & salt. In a large black iron skillet melt 2 TBS butter & cover the bottom & sides with the melted butter. Take off heat. If you do not have a big skillet use a deep glass baking pan & coat the sides & bottom with the melted butter. Now dip four slices of the bread coating both sides and smooshing them down into the batter. Lay the four slices into the cast iron skillet or your baking pan. Spoon about 1/4 cup of apple sausage filling into the center of each piece of bread. Scoop up any of the syrup & drizzle it over the filling. Now dip the other four pieces the same way you did the first four, don't forget to SMOOSH & lay them over the first pieces laying in the pan. Any egg mixture left pour over the center of each piece of bread dividing it equally between the four servings. Now cut up 1 TBS. of butter & dot the top of the bread with the pieces giving each piece at least 3 dots of butter. Sprinkle the remaining brown sugar over each piece of bread & sprinkle the top with more cinnamon. Bake one hour . Slice & serve hot with maple syrup or your favorite pancake syrup! This makes HUGE servings & if you have fruit & other side dishes this will easily serve 8 people. But if you have HEARTY eaters or serving this by itself then allow 1 piece person but I bet you can't finish one piece by yourself !

                                                                           
                  This is half of one piece of the toast so you can see how STUFFED it is!