Baked Toffee Apple French Toast

The flavors of this dish were so unique!  Who knew that apples, cream cheese, vanilla, chocolate, and toffee would all taste so delicious together??  I found this recipe at Betterrecipes.com, but I modified it a little to make it better (candy bar used, type of milk, type of apples, and bread cube size).  I was really skeptical before making it because there were no reviews and I had no idea if I was going to like apples and cream cheese and chocolate mixed together, but I definitely did!  The flavors blend perfectly together, and there's just the right amount of each ingredient.  The richness of the cream cheese and vanilla, combined with the slight tartness of the apples, with a slight burst of chocolate toffee was so amazing...and smells heavenly while baking.  The inside is super moist and comforting, and the very top is wonderfully crunchy.  The only change I may make next time I make it is to add a cinnamon brown sugar topping because some of the bread cubes sticking up at the top would have been really tasty with a sweet, crunchy, topping.  But it totally isn't necessary.  I would also love to try this with white chocolate chips instead of the heath bar..or just adding white chocolate chips to the heath bar.  I highly recommend serving this warm with whipped cream, and it's also very tasty chilled after sitting in the refrigerator.


Ingredients:

8 cups	Cubed or torn French Bread, about 1" cubes
2	Medium apples, peeled and chopped
1 pkg	(8 Ounces) Cream Cheese, softened
¾ cup	Packed Brown Sugar
¼ cup	White Sugar
1¾ cups	Whole Milk
2 tsp	Vanilla Extract, divided
½ cup	English Toffee Bits (such as Heath Bar)
5	Eggs

DIRECTIONS:

Place half of the bread cubes in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish; top with apples. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugars, 1/4 cup milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla until smooth; stir in toffee bits. Spread over apples. Top with remaining bread cubes.

In another bowl, beat the eggs and remaining milk and vanilla until blended; pour over bread. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Bake, uncovered, at 350F for 35-45 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.