Slow and Easy Sunday Stuffed French Toast

You’ll End Up Wanting The Whole Plate For Yourself

I don’t care; take me to the Recipe!

When we at ARS think of Sunday, it's a time for family, having fun, and spending the day cooking. This Sunday we wanted to whip up something a little different and try our hand at Stuffed French Toast. In theory, a very easy recipe. In practice? Well. It’s still easy to do, but experimenting makes it far more fun. 

This is a VERY subjective and experimental recipe. There are a couple different reasons for this. How firm you want your bread to be is going to affect how much egg it can soak up without distorting and turning into goo. However, it’s also going to affect the final taste and texture. The ratio of fruit to cream cheese is going to vary wildly based on which brand of fruit jam you buy and how much liquid still exists in that. So, if you want a hard and fast “here is the amounts you need, here is what you’ll get” recipe, we suggest checking out one of the others that we’ve linked in our additional reading section at the bottom. It’s ok if that’s what you’re in the mood for! This isn’t a recipe for when you need breakfast on the table 20 minutes ago. It’s more for when you want to spend Sunday experimenting with your family and having fun in the kitchen and if there ends up being several versions of food at the end, you win! 

On to the recipe! 

Ingredients

Bread - We suggest either Challa or a huge loaf of Italian. It’s the size that matters as much as anything. 

Cream Cheese

Slivered almonds - to taste - we suggest at least ¼ per two slices of bread, but it’s up to you on how much texture/crunch you want in your mix 

Sour Jelly or Preserves - We chose sour cherry 

Milk or heavy cream, or a mix if you want- only about 2 TBSPs though. 

Eggs - you want roughly 2 eggs per slice of bread

Cinnamon

1 Tbsp packed light brown sugar

Tools

-Cast iron griddle or a skillet

- mixer 

-Pie pan or other large shallow dish 

-Bread knife 

-Paring knife

Our bread really is 2 inches wide, it’s so large though it doesn’t look like it.

To start with, a note on breads.

 Although we suggest using either Challa or Italian, you can do this recipe with a loaf of brioche bread. The important thing is that this is a high and thick loaf of bread. You want something that is at least 3- 4 inches wide, and at least two inches high. Yes, this is going to give you really large slices of bread, but that’s the intent here. 

Now, grab your loaf of bread and start by slicing it into 2 inch thick slices. So, ideally, your slice should be 2 inches wide, 2 inches thick, and however long. 

At this point, you can leave your slices out overnight to firm up, or move on to the next step. 

Whatever you decide, when that time has passed, flip over a slice, grab a paring knife and cut a slice that’s roughly 2-3 inches long. You’re looking to form a deep pocket inside of the bread.  Do that to all of your slices, and set them to the side for a moment. 

Grab your cream cheese and preserves and measure them out in a 2 to one, cream to fruit ratio. You want this to be stiff enough to fill it into the slices, but with enough fruit that you get the taste. Either use a food processor or a fork and mix the two together, adjusting the ratio as needed. 

This is roughly how thick ours ended up being after we adjusted the ratio several times. You also definitely need additional help when trying to fill the slices with your filling.

Now is when you’ll need to get a second set of hands. We had a few willing participants who were able to help us, in exchange for future delicious food. Have your partner hold open a slice of bread with two forks, while you use a third fork to fill the bread with your cream cheese mix. 

Yum Delicious eggy mix! The base to any good French toast.

Once all of your bread is filled, mix together your eggs, dairy, cinnamon, and sugar into a pie pan, or some other shallow dish.  

With how thick the bread is, the additional soaking time is very important to allow it to really seep into the bread. It’s also why we said that you might want to let your bread sit over night so that it can hold up to that extra time.

Lay your bread into the dish and let it soak on one side for 2 minutes. Flip it over and do it for another 2 minutes.

While your bread is soaking, turn your stove on to medium-low, toss in  1 Tbsp of butter and allow it to melt. 

And we begin the cooking process! At this point it smells so sweet and eggy, but that shifts as the egg cooks and the surface of the toast browns.

Place one to two slices of bread in your pan at a time, and let them become golden brown, roughly 5 minutes on a side. Flip, add more butter if you need, and allow it to cook for another 5 minutes, or until golden brown. 

And here you have two super thick slices of French toast so good you’ll be wanting to keep all of it for yourself.

Plate your delicious Stuffed French Toast and serve with either butter or genuine maple syrup. We tried it with just butter, and it was truly delicious. 

So what did you think? Will you be trying this one? Let us know over on our Facebook page and don’t hesitate to share photos! We’d love to see how the recipe turned out for you! 

If you ended up here because your stove isn’t maintaining heat evenly though, we can still help! Even with sharing delicious recipes like this, in our work time, we want to keep your home running smoothly. If you’re noticing trouble with any of your major appliances, reach out! We can help you set up an appointment that works for your schedule and figure out what the trouble is. 

Give us a call at ((214) 599-0055) or check out our appointment page to get things started. 

Additional Reading

Whether you want a more exact recipe, or just more delicious food. 

Brown Sugar - Cinnamon Oat Bars

A Sweet-Tart Cake To Beat All The Pies

Broccoli & Cauliflower Soup

The ‘post-Thanksgiving’ Meal Guide

Try Eggs Creole for Sunday Brunch

Welcome back everyone! With summer just around the corner, we wanted foods that make us think of lazy summer mornings. We went digging through our family recipe books and found this week’s recipe for Eggs Creole. 

Ingredients

3 ¾ cups water

¾ cups  regular grits, uncooked

1 cup diced smoked sausage - ¼ inch pieces

¼ cup shredded Cheddar cheese

2 Tbsp butter

¼ tsp salt

¼ cup all-purpose flour

1 large egg, beaten

1 Tbsp milk

¾ cup Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs

Vegetable oil

Poached Eggs

Creole Sauce

Instructions

-Bring your  water to a boil in a large saucepan; then gradually stir in grits and return to a boil. 

-Cover, reduce heat, and simmer, stirring occasionally, 10 minutes or until done. (Where done here means: the grits are soft and tender, and ‘feel’ different when you stir a spoon through them. ) 

-Remove the pot from the heat; stir in sausage, Cheddar, butter and salt. Spoon into a lightly greased 13 x 9 x 2 inch pan, pressing firmly and smoothing the surface. Cover and chill for 24 hours. 

-Turn grits out onto wax paper. Cut out 12 (2 ½ inch) rounds with a biscuit cutter, reserving remaining grits for other uses. 

-Sprinkle the rounds with flour, a light dusting, not a thick coat. 

-Combine egg and milk; dip rounds into egg mixture and dredge in breadcrumbs. 

-Pour oil to a depth of 1 inch into a large, heavy skillet. Fry the grits rounds in hot oil over medium-high heat 1-2 minutes on each side or until lightly browned. Drain on paper towels. -Place 2 rounds on each plate; top each with a poached egg and Creole sauce. Serve immediately. 

Poached eggs 

Not sure how to poach an egg? Here’s how the process works. 

-Start by checking how fresh your eggs are. The fresher they are, the better they will hold together. You can see how to do this over at The Kitchn. 

-Next up, grab a pot with tall straight sides, and fill it with 3 inches of water. 

-Set your water to boil and add a mild vinegar to the water, for example rice wine. It won’t flavor the egg, but it does help it to stick together. 

-Wait until you see tiny bubbles at the bottom of your pot,but not a full roiling boil. Now reduce the heat low enough that you’ll keep that simmer going. 

-Now crack your egg into a bowl or a ladle and slip it gently into the water. 

-Leave it in the water for 2 minutes if you want the yolk to be still runny, or 3 minutes for a firmer yolk. Timing is crucial, so a timer on your phone or stove would be helpful. 

-Using a slotted spoon remove the egg from the water and set it to the side. 

-Repeat the process with the remaining eggs. 

Creole Sauce

1 medium onion, cut into thin strips

1 medium green pepper, cut into thin strips

2 stalks celery, cut into thin strips

2 cloves garlic minced

1 bay leaf

2 Tbsp butter 

2 tsp paprika 

2 medium tomatoes, diced

1 cup tomato juice

1 ½ tsp Worcestershire sauce

1- 1 ½ Tbsp hot sauce

1 ½ Tbsp cornstarch

½ cup water

Cook the onion, pepper, celery, garlic and the bay leaf in butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until vegetables are tender-crisp. Stir in paprika, tomatoes, tomato juice, Worcestershire, and the hot sauce; simmer for 5 minutes or until moisture is reduced by one-fourth. 

Combine the cornstarch and water, whisking rapidly. Stir into sauce and return to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Remove and discard bay leaf. Serve warm. 

Notes 

If you don’t have any Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs on hand, you can make your own. 

This video from Alton Brown over at the Food Network is our favorite way of doing it. (And not just because he’s amusing to watch!) 

What do you think about this week’s recipe? Let us know over at our Facebook page, we’re eager to know what you think. Or if you have any suggestions for themes or recipes you want us to check out, let us know in the comments! We’re always interested in hearing from you. 

Don’t forget, if you have any problems with your appliances, you can always give us a call ((214) 599-0055) or set up an appointment with one of our technicians.  We care about our clients in Garland and the surrounding areas, and if you need assistance with your appliances, we want to help.