Pound Cake French Toast with Chestnut Syrup

I love a good group brunch. In my family, that’s how we celebrate Christmas morning. All 40 of us get together and enjoy quiche, muffins, cookies, and of course, mimosas. I’m now 26 and I look forward to this simple brunch every Christmas, but this year, I want to jazz it up a bit. We usually have everything pre-made and assembled the morning of, and I wanted to create a recipe that can also be easily made on Christmas morning! But, I think this pound cake French toast with chestnut syrup has a little more flare than blueberry muffins 🙂

Why pound cake? Well, the holidays are all about indulgence, plus, you can buy a really great pre-made pound cake at the grocery store, which is a major time saver. I also love a good buttery vanilla poundcake. I was originally just going to pair this French toast with a raspberry jam, but then I stumbled upon chestnut purée at the grocery store, and I knew I had to bring the “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” vibes to this dish. It’s winter and holiday season after all! So, I decided to use the store-bought chestnut purée and combine it with sugar, butter, water and vanilla to create a delicious, creamy syrup to drizzle on top. I then paired it with berries and pomegranate seeds for that final touch, and of course let it snow powdered sugar on top of the French toast.

I love this because it’s creative, it’s easy, and it’s great for groups. It doesn’t hurt that its also beautiful! I do want to note that I used vanilla pound cake because I love it, but you can use gingerbread poundcake, or olive oil cake, or any other kind of cake-bread. Just make sure it’s firm enough to French toast-ify.