I know you’re planning your holiday menus by now, and that almost certainly means at least one breakfast/brunch if not more. As many of you know, the traditional Christmas brunch at my house is Grillades and Grits, which I continue to heartily recommend. But what if you have to make Boxing Day breakfast, too? Or New Years’? Or you have picky children to plan for? Or vegetarians?????
This Strawberry Cream Cheese Baked French Toast is just what you need. In fact, I’ve had more than one request recently for the recipe. We used to make it at the shop for Mother’s Day, Christmas, christening brunches, etc., and it’s always popular.
This French toast is a make-ahead affair–it will happily rest in the refrigerator overnight before baking, but even over two nights is fine. If for some reason you need to make it to use right away, you can do that, too. Just let is sit for a few minutes so the bread can soak up all the custard before baking. It’s not overwhelmingly sweet. It can be a breakfast main dish or a brunch side. As a main, it plays very nicely with bacon, sausage, ham, eggs, fruit, and/or cheese. And no one will know how easy it is to make unless you tell them.
For this recipe I look for that nondescript loaf labeled French or Italian bread at the grocery store. You know the kind I mean: not baguettes or artisan bread, just those plain fat ovals in the regular cellophane packages. Stale is great–check the day-old section if your store has one. For these photos, I had to be content with Cartozzo’s which is fine, but a tad delicate, so I opened it and let it sit out for several hours.
At our house syrup isn’t generally needed thanks to all that brown sugar on both the top and bottom, but your mileage may vary. I do usually put more strawberry preserves on the table, but not everyone uses them.
Essentially, I cut the bread in a little thinner than 1″ slices, spread cream cheese on one side and preserves on the other, then put them together like a sandwich. I dip each sandwich in the egg mixture to saturate, and arrange them in the prepared baking dish. I put the sandwiches in the dish at about a 45-degree angle, making sure to overlap them somewhat. That ensures maximum crunchy edges. You can see what I mean in the photos.
Happy Holidays!
Strawberry Cream Cheese French Toast
Ingredients
- 3 T. butter
- 4 T. brown sugar, divided
- 1 large loaf soft French bread
- 1 8 oz. package cream cheese
- 1 ½ cups strawberry preserves
- 6 eggs, beaten
- 2 cups milk
- 2 t. vanilla
Instructions
- Turn oven to 350° Put the butter in an oblong casserole dish, and stick in the warming oven to melt. When it's melted, sprinkle half the brown sugar over the hot butter.
- Cut the bread into ¾-inch slices. Spread half the slices with cream cheese and the other half with strawberry preserves. Make sandwiches from the slices. You will likely have about 10 sandwiches.
- Beat together the eggs, milk, and vanilla. Dip each sandwich into the egg mixture, and arrange the sandwiches overlapping in two rows in the casserole dish. When all the sandwiches are in the dish, pour the rest of the egg mixture over the bread. Sprinkle the top with the remaining brown sugar.
- If baking right away, let the French toast sit at room temperature for 5 or 10 minutes to sbsorb all of the egg mixture. Otherwise, cover tightly with foil and refrigerate until ready to bake--up to 48 hours later. Bake at 350° for 30 to 45 minutes until the custard is cooked and the tops of the Frech toast is getting a little crisp.
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