It's time for some fun and fancy breakfast food!
When berries are in season, I just can’t resist them (especially blueberries), and recently on a vacation to Florida, where we strolled the sunny white sand shores of the Gulf of Mexico, we ate at a little local eatery which served a unique type of stuffed French toast. It was a long round bread cone stuffed with a blueberry mixture, that was the first time I’d ever had such a breakfast! So, if you are ever in Indian Rocks Beach, stop by Sandy’s Restaurant for a similar great breakfast, as it is one of their specialties!
After eating such a delight for breakfast, I came home and
searched some recipe sites for stuffed French toast recipes. I found one for a strawberry-cream
cheese stuffed version and just had to try it. My original plan was to make it
for hubby for Father’s Day, but I found I did not have all the proper
ingredients on hand, so I made it the next weekend and boy oh boy! What a treat!
You can’t eat breakfast like this all the time, it’s way too rich, but for an
occasional weekend breakfast treat, its right on the money. After indulging, I
realized that the recipe in a way, reminded me of the cream cheese blintzes that
my mother used to make sometimes when we were growing up. When she grew frail,
she would ask us to take her to the IHOP and she’d order the strawberry cream
cheese blintzes they had there on the menu. So, for nostalgia for my Mom, and
for being fully approved by discerning taste buds everywhere, here is a recipe
from Paula Deen for Strawberry-Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast, with a few
notes of how I needed to tweak it for our family’s use…
The Recipe is below, with my starred notes included: makes 6 stuffed French toast sandwiches.
Strawberry-Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast
· 2 eggs (*To ultimately finish making all 6 sandwiches, I had to add one more egg, ¼ cup more milk and an additional ½ tsp of sugar to get all the bread coated with batter.*)
· ½ cup milk
· 1 cup plus ½ tsp granulated sugar
· 8 oz, cream cheese
· 12 slices white bread
· 4 cups strawberries, divided- 1 cup, plus 3 cups set aside (*Thinly sliced fresh strawberries work best.*)
· Butter, maple syrup, confectioner’s sugar for serving (*Our family did not need the maple syrup and the confectioner’s sugar as it seemed like overkill and way too sweet!! All we served with this French toast was a little butter and the strawberry syrup you made with this recipe. A sprinkling with confectioner’s before serving would add a nice professional touch though. *)
· 1 zested and juiced lemon (*I have found when baking that there is no substitute for the juice and zest of a fresh lemon in recipes that call for it, it adds a wonderful pop to the recipe and for me, the dish is not as tasty if I try to substitute with anything else, such as bottled lemon juice or, horror of horrors, dried lemon peel sold in the spice section, just don’t do it!!!!*)
· (*Some of the recipes that I found for stuffed French toast added cinnamon to the egg mixture. This particular one did not, but if you desire, try adding a bit of cinnamon for variety when making your own stuffed French toast.)
Directions:
In a shallow bowl or pie tin, whisk together eggs, milk, and ½ tsp of granulated sugar.
Spread the cream cheese on half of the bread slices (6) and then top them with the remaining 6 bread slices and press around the edge to seal. (*Using a big cutting board I have, I put a thin coating of cream cheese on all the bread slices (12), added sliced strawberries to half (6) of them and topped them with the remaining 6 slices.)
Melt butter on a griddle over medium-low heat. Dip the sandwiches in the egg mixture for a few seconds on each side. Transfer after dipping directly to the griddle and cook until golden brown.
May serve with maple syrup, confectioner’s sugar and the strawberry syrup made with this recipe.
For Strawberry syrup:
· In medium saucepan, combine the 3 cups of set aside strawberries, 1 cup sugar, lemon juice and zest, and bring to boil. Lower the heat and simmer 10- 20 min until thickened and reduced a bit in volume.
· Remove from heat, cool slightly, and serve over the stuffed French toast.
