Baked Orange French Toast with Orange Syrup

I love french toast and I especially love baked kinds - you can make more at once.  Plus the clean up is usually faster.  I played around with this and made up my own version.  It's nice and crunchy - just an FYI.

3 eggs
1 1/2 c milk
2 tsp honey or sucanat
2 tsp vanilla
1 c plain bread crumbs (I used panko)
orange zest from one orange
1/2 tsp cinnamon or nutmeg
8 slices thick country bread or texas toast
1 stick butter, melted in a wide mouth dish

Orange Syrup:
1/2 c honey
1/2 c whipping cream
1/2 c brown rice syrup
Juice from one orange
orange zest
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Line a lipped baking sheet with parchment paper.  Beat the eggs and milk together in a dish wide enough to dip the bread easily.  On a strip of wax paper (easy clean up) mix cinnamon and nutmeg, orange zest and bread crumbs.  Dip the bread in the egg mixture then coat the bread with the crumb mixture.  Don't coat the crust - fyi. Dip the coated pieces in the melted butter on both sides, then lay in the prepped baking sheet.  Once all are ready, bake in the oven for 10 mins, flip and bake for 10 more minutes.

While the toast is cooking, in a medium size sauce pan combine the syrup ingredients on medium heat.  Stir regularly as it starts to bubble.  Cook until it thickens some.  If you have extra syrup, you can freeze it for next time.

When the toast is golden brown on both sides, remove from the oven and serve with syrup.  Enjoy!