Do you love French toast? Looking for a different twist on this breakfast classic? Then give this baked French toast casserole recipe a try. It's a great brunch dish that you prepare the night before and bake in the morning.

The baked French toast dish has three distinct layers. The top layer is a crunchy, caramely praline topping. The middle layer tastes like traditional French toast and the bottom layer reminds me of bread pudding. All together, it's a fantastic and decadent dish for breakfast or brunch.

We made the casserole last Friday while visiting our NYC friends, Jeff and Aimee. It was Aimee's turn to bring breakfast in for her co-workers. Typically, her co-workers bring in bagels or donuts, but Jeff raised the bar and made delicious fritattas the last time it was Aimee's turn. To keep the bar high, I suggested making a baked French toast casserole. Jeff, Hungry Bear and I made three casseroles — a large one for Aimee's co-workers and two smaller ones for us to enjoy.

The French toast casserole recipe is by Paula Deen, so of course, there's a lot of butter, half-and-half and sugar. The praline topping is made with two sticks of butter and a cup of brown sugar. I would recommend not using the entire amount of praline topping, or the casserole may be too sweet and buttery. We used the topping quantity in the recipe across three casseroles. The sweetness was perfect and didn't require any maple syrup. One last tip is to allow the butter to soften before making the praline topping.

The baked French toast casserole was a big hit with Aimee's co-workers. It's a great dish that's easy to make. Serve it with some fresh fruit and your friends and family will be raving about it for a long time.

On our last visit to the Scharffen Berger factory, we picked up a cookbook by the founders of Scharffen Berger, The Essence of Chocolate - Recipes for Baking and Cooking with Fine Chocolate. The recipes in the book are arranged by chocolate intensity and are contributed by the founders and chefs including Michael Chiarello, Elizabeth Falkner, Thomas Keller and Jacques Pepin.

In addition to sweet and savory recipes, there's also a brief history of Scharffen Berger and the chocolate making process. A few recipes that immediately caught my eye were chocolate pudding cakes, chocolate chocolate cupcakes, cakey brownies, chocolate chunk cheesecake and chili-marinated flank steak (with cocoa powder).

The first dessert I made from the cookbook was baked hot chocolate contributed by Heidi Friedlander, which she developed for Moxie, a popular Cleveland restaurant. I chose this recipe because it was simple to make with only four ingredients and the description in the book made me crave it.

"Baked hot chocolate is almost like having three desserts in one -- the top layer has just a hint of crispness, the center has the texture of warm chocolate pudding, and the bottom layer is just a shade thicker than the thickest hot chocolate you can imagine."