BREAD BASE:

1-1 1/2 loaves French or Italian bread
8 lg. eggs or more if smaller eggs
2 c. milk
2 c. half & half
2 tbsp. vanilla
2 tbsp. cinnamon

TOPPING:

3/4 c. real butter
1 1/3 c. brown sugar
3 tbsp. real maple syrup
1 1/3 c. pecans

Heavily butter a 9 x 13 x 2 inch baking pan. Fit bread tightly into the baking pan in a single layer. Set aside. Mix eggs, milk, half & half, vanilla and cinnamon. Pour over bread slices. Refrigerate, covered, overnight.

To make topping, cream together butter and sugar until the color lightens quite a bit. Add maple syrup, continue creaming. Add nuts and mix. Set aside until time to bake toast; before baking, spread the topping evenly over the bread.

Bake at 300 degrees for roughly 1 hour and 15 minutes. It should be puffy when finished. (The original recipe calls for baking at 350 degrees for 50 minutes, but in my oven that produced a dry crust and under-cooked middle.)