Between Holidays - French Toast Muffins with Clementine Maple Icing

I always really like the week between Christmas and New Years. Don't you?  I love the way things slow down and everyone's okay with it. The Christmas lights and decorations are still up, but the grand hoo-ha is mostly over.  A new fresh year is on the horizon with lots of plans, but not quite here yet, so just relax and wait till it arrives. It's a good week.

On Christmas day I made a late brunch for the mister and me.  At the last minute I had a brainstorm to make a new dish that I kind of made up right then.  It turned out great and I wanted to share it with you.

I'm calling them French Toast Muffins, but they might be more of a Bread Pudding. I don't really know. Basically I took some of the delicious gluten-free Challah Rolls that I got at the local Gluten Free Bakery here in town called New Cascadia Traditional. In case you don't know, Challah bread is a traditional Jewish egg bread. I've always wanted to make great french toast with it, but I didn't think I could because they only had the rolls. But, this recipe made it work.

So, back to the recipe. I took the rolls and broke them up in pieces and put them in the muffin tin (previously sprayed with Coconut Oil). Then I beat a few eggs with some half and half, vanilla, cinnamon and a little maple sugar (the granulated kind, I got mine here). I poured this mixture over the bread, sometimes smashing the bread a bit so it absorbed it all.  I then baked for about 30 minutes on 350°. See, how scientific I am? It's all abouts and kind-ofs. But, what do you expect for a last minute made-up recipe.

Then - and this is the best part - I juiced 2 clementines and mixed the juice up with a lot of powdered sugar and a smidge and a splash of more granulated maple sugar until it looked like I wanted it to look.  Once the muffins were cooled down a bit I drizzled it all over.  You could also skip the icing and just put syrup over them.

These were delicious hot or cold, They were great that day and just as good two days later. The icing even seemed to get a stronger taste of clementine as it got older and thickened. Having only juice and sugar in them, I just left the icing out. These were super easy and there are so many variations you could do. They'd be great for a potluck or picnic breakfast. 

I hope you enjoy this quiet week and have a great New Year. Thanks for keeping up with me.