Oven French Toast

I haven't made French Toast in a long time. And I've never made it baked in the oven before. I'd always pan fried it. I really didn't want the hassle of making pancakes this week and we hadn't been eating up the bread like we usually do, so I thought French Toast. My husband says he didn't notice a difference between this and the pan fried, but I think that's because he got the first batch which I didn't bake as long. Mine came out of the second batch, which baked a little longer and I found crunchier and better than pan frying.

8 slices bread (I know some people who wouldn't use whole wheat for this, but I love whole wheat, so that's what I did)
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla (I actually messed this up and put in a tbsp and it was so yummy vanilla-y that I may just always put that much in in the future)
1 tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter or margarine

Pre-heat oven to 500*. Whisk eggs, milk, vanilla, sugar and salt together, set aside. Using a 9x 12 or 13 baking dish (like a cake or lasagna pan) add half of the butter (just the butter) and put in oven to heat and melt. Take pan out of the oven and give the melted butter a good swoosh around. Dip each piece of bread completely in the egg mixture (allow excess to go back into the bowl) and place on baking pan (I was able to do 4 pieces of bread at a time). Bake for 3-4 minutes, flip over and bake for another 3-4 minutes. Melt remaining butter in pan in between re-loading up the pan. Serve with butter and syrup. It tastes good and your house will smell great with that vanilla - yummy!