Stuffed French Toast ~ by Victoria

Our family has enjoyed a similar recipe (Overnight Stuffed French Toast) for years. We recently found this new recipe on a sweet family's blog that made it for the mom for Mother's Day! This recipe suggests adding fresh fruit to the filling, and they are grilled in the morning instead of soaked overnight and then baked in the morning. Everything else is just about the same. So, we tried making the new version today.  Though we enjoyed the addition of the fresh fruit in the filling, we couldn't decide if there was much of a difference in the way it tasted otherwise. Except that Daddy did say he LOVED the strong cinnamon taste in this new recipe! The overnight version is definitely a lot easier to just stick in the oven in the morning! Although, we weren't sure if we added fresh fruit in the overnight recipe if it would get soggy with soaking overnight and then getting baked? And most often, we enjoy making a fresh fruit topping to use instead of maple syrup.

 

In any case, either version is absolutely delicious! We decided to add both recipes since we couldn't decide which one we liked better. (Maybe the Overnight Stuffed French Toast does has an extra advantage with being more convenient in the morning.  ;-) 

 

(For our large family, we used three French loaves, and quadrupled the filling! ;-)

Ingredients

• 1 loaf French Bread
• 3 Tablespoons Any Flavor Fruit Spread (you can also use jelly, jam, and/or fresh fruit)
• ½ packages Cream Cheese (4 oz), at room temperature
• 2 whole Eggs
• 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
• ½ cups Skim Milk
• 2 Tablespoons Butter

Preparation Instructions

Heat skillet or electric griddle to 325 to 350 degrees.

Cut french bread into 2-3 inch wide slices. Then, with a paring knife, go back and cut halfway into each slice, in the center, creating a ‘pocket’ that your fruit mixture can be stuffed into.

In a bowl, place the room temperature cream cheese and three tablespoons of fruit spread of your choice. Combine well. (Once these two things were combined, we also added our fruit here.) 

In a separate bowl, break 2 eggs; add cinnamon and milk and combine well.
Now, take fruit mixture and stuff into the ‘pockets’ of your french bread slices. Place on a baking sheet.

When done stuffing each piece of bread, completely coat each piece in egg mixture. Make sure all sides are covered. Do all pieces before starting to fry.

Put 2 tbsp of butter into a hot skillet and melt completely. Add all of the bread to the skillet and cook roughly about 3-6 minutes on each side, until it reaches a nice golden brown. You want to make sure the cream cheese mixture heats through.

When done cooking, serve immediately with butter and syrup.

Source:  http://tastykitchen.com/blog/2010/05/a-tasty-recipe-stuffed-french-toast/


OVERNIGHT STUFFED FRENCH TOAST

2 3-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons orange marmalade or apricot preserves (we use whatever jam we have on hand ;-)
1 teaspoon finely chopped crystallized ginger (hmmm . . . sounds nice, but we don't have this on hand, therefore don't use ;-)
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg (We would now add lots of cinnamon too, to satisfy Daddy's liking!)
1/4 cup chopped almonds (we omit these, too, as we aren't big nut fans ;-)
6 1 1/2 inch slices French bread
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Generously grease a 3-quart rectangular baking dish; set aside.  In a small bowl beat together cream cheese, marmalade, ginger, and nutmeg.  Stir in the almonds.   Cut a pocket in the top crust of each bread slice.  Divide cream cheese mixture evenly among pockets.  Place bread slices in prepared baking dish.

In a small bowl beat together the eggs, milk, and vanilla;  slowly pour the egg mixture over bread slices, covering all the tops.  Cover and chill overnight.

Bake, uncovered, in a 350 degree oven 30 to 35 minutes or until golden. 

Source:  12th Edition New Better Homes and Garden Cookbook, 2002.