Recipe: French Toast w/ Pear Caramel Sauce

I always say that I prefer french toast to pancakes because the method is less complicated and fewer dishes get used. In theory, it is a much simpler dish in that it doesn't require measuring things, I suppose. But in all reality, the skill required for either is comparable. So I guess what I've been saying this whole time is that I'm a french toast kind of girl before I'm a pancake kind of girl. But the way that I do things is decidedly not easier at all because I have a tendency to just throw in one extra step to make it just a smidge more special. "Oh, it's just one more dirty dish! What's the big deal?"
And that's why my kitchen looks the way that it does, right now. My kitchen also looks the way that it does, right now because instead of cleaning it, I write about it on the interwebs.

This morning, my thought process followed this train:
I'm hungry. > There's a loaf of bread in the fridge. > I can't have just toast. > French toast! > Do I have eggs? > open the fridge > I have eggs! > This pear needs to be eaten. > I'll slice it up and eat it with my french toast. > I'll slice it up and put it on my french toast. > I'll slice it up and saute it with the teensiest bit of butter and sugar and then put that on my french toast! > I'll add an itty bitty bit of milk at the end and let it get caramelly and put that on my french toast!

And that's how I made breakfast.
 I am excellent at planning ahead.

And here we have, French Toast w/ Pear Caramel Sauce

For the sauce:
1 T. butter
1 bosc pear (thinly sliced)
1 T. brown sugar
a splash of that homemade vanilla extract that your friend Angie gave you for Christmas
a sprinkle of that Vietnamese cinnamon that you bought at The Spice Merchant and it made such an impression on you that you'll never go back to the generic stuff at Walmart ever again.
a splash of soy milk
(If you don't have these exact ingredients, you can probably make do with some relatively similar ingredients--I know for a fact that Angie only made a very small batch of that vanilla.)

Melt the butter in a small skillet. Toss in the pears and brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla and cook on high for a minute or so. Turn it down to med-low and let simmer and bubble. Stir it around and let the pears get all caramelized. Keep stirring, occasionally, to make sure that the sugar isn't burning. After you decide it's good enough (it's your food, after all), stir in a splash of milk (I used about 2 T., probably) and turn off the heat but let it sit there on the warm stove.

Meanwhile, make your french toast the way that you always do.
For the toast:
2 slices whole grain bread (mine was delicious and full of tons of seeds and nuts)
1 whole egg + 1 egg white
1 splash of vanilla
1 sprinkle of cinnamon
a splash of soy milk

Whisk up the eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, milk in a bowl. Soak your bread and then cook in a non-stick skillet on medium or high heat until the bread puffs up and you can flip it. I like to cook my toast on medium heat because it allows it to cook through the inside without making the outside too brown and crispy. It also gets fluffier. Serve it with the pear sauce and a cup of coffee and then watch your sugar intake for the rest of the day because this little treat is sweet.

Clearly, this serves one but I think the sauce made enough to serve over four slices of toast, so if you and your honey want a yummy breakfast or brinner, you need only expand the ingredients list for the toast.

Go forth and eat breakfast.

Are you a pancake person or a french toast person? How do you top your breakfast of choice?
XOXO
Libby