Apple Baked French Toast With Maple Bacon Glaze

This recipe needs no introduction. Apple baked french toast with a maple bacon glaze. Yes, it's as good as it sounds. Make this for brunch, or your next potluck, or whenever you want to make people happy.

Apple Baked French Toast with Maple Bacon Glaze
Recipe slightly adapted from www.kitchenrunway.com

Prep:  35 mins              Inactive Prep:  8 hours            Bake time:  60 mins     Serves:  12

21 King’s Hawaiian Sweet Rolls

1 large Fuji apple, peeled, cored, quartered and sliced

1 Tbs maple syrup
8 large eggs
2 C whole milk
½ C heavy cream
3 Tbs sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of salt
Topping:
10 slices of bacon (you can use maple bacon if you can find it), cooked and crumbled
½ C powdered sugar
2 Tbs + 1 tsp maple syrup
1 tsp milk

• Quarter the rolls and place in a single layer on a baking sheet to dry out while you prepare the rest of the recipe steps. (The longer they have to dry out the better.)
• Place sliced apples in a bowl and add maple syrup and stir to combine, set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, cream, sugar, cinnamon and salt until combined.
• Grease a 9 x 13 baking dish with butter and place half of the bread in a single layer in the bottom of the dish.  Cover bread with ½ of the egg mixture.  Place remaining bread into the egg mixture and stir to coat. 
• Place sliced apples on top of the bread in a single layer.
• Gently place the remaining bread on top of the apple and bacon layer.  Pour remaining egg mixture to the baking dish.  Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.
• The next day:  preheat oven to 350º F.  Place dish on middle rack and bake for 60 minutes or until golden brown and puffy.  If the French toast is browning too quickly, tent the baking dish with foil. 
• In the meantime, you can cook the bacon for the topping on the stove top or bake until crispy. 
• In a small bowl, whisk powdered sugar, maple syrup and milk.
• Sprinkle bacon on top of baked French toast and drizzle with maple glaze.  Serve with additional maple glaze or syrup if you like.