Stuffed French Toast

Time seems to fly. I can't believe we are in the middle of July already, before we turn around it will be Christmas and New Year again **sigh** I wish time could stay STILL for a little while. Keeping still is something I keep telling my 4 year old who bounces around the whole house to do. But just like time he keeps running away.

Speaking of running time, today starts the 3rd week of Blogging marathon and the theme I chose for the week is "Stuffed Foods". I tried 3 new stuffed dishes for this week that I've never made before and I actually surprised myself on how good they turned out (if I can say so myself).

For the first day, I have this delicious Stuffed French Toast. My husband is a big fan of IHOP's stuffed French toast that is stuffed with fruits (usually strawberries) & sweet cream filling. This definitely is a decadent breakfast, so I tried to make it (just) a little healthier but using homemade strawberry jam and cream cheese for the filling.

I used homemade Portuguese sweet bread to make the french toasts, but any sweet bread like milk, challah, brioche will work great in this recipe. The chocolate loving son, got nutella stuffed french toast.

Ingredients:

Sweet Bread - 8 slices

Eggs - 2

Milk - 1cup (I used 2% milk)

Light Brown sugar - 3tbsp (can be substituted with white sugar)

Unsalted Butter - 2tbsp melted + more for cooking

Salt - a pinch

Vanilla extract - 2tsp

Cinnamon - ½tsp

For the Filling/ Stuffing:
Cream cheese - ¼cup
Strawberries - 2 cups, hulled & chopped
Sugar - 3-4tbsp (depending on the sweetness of the fruit)

 

Method:

• Make the Strawberry Compote: Mix Strawberries and sugar in a medium sauce pan and bring the mixture to a boil and simmer until thickens, about 8-10 minutes. Remove from heat and cool. This can be made ahead of time and refrigerated until ready to use.
• To make French Toast: First make the custard: Whisk warm milk, eggs, sugar, melted butter, salt, vanilla and cinnamon in a pie plate or any other wide & deep container. 
• Prepare the Bread: Spread 4 slices of bread with cream cheese and the other 4 slices with the strawberry jam. Place the cream cheese topped slice on the strawberry topped slice and press lightly.
• Soak the sandwiched bread slices in the custard until saturated but not falling apart, about 20 seconds each side. Remove using a slotted spoon to make sure that all the extra custard drips off. Place these soaked bread on another plate or baking sheet.
• Heat a griddle/ tawa on medium-low flame and melt ½tbsp butter, cook the soaked bread until golden brown on both sides. Repeat with the rest of the bread.
• Serve hot with some maple syrup or a dusting of powdered sugar.

A little Pictorial:

Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked up today for BM# 18.