I have been getting a few requests for secret recipes that are my very own, so I have decided that I will revisit my dusty old blog and get them posted for you eager cooks out there. Hopefully, if life doesn’t take over again I will be able to post a new recipe for you friendly people every week, maybe a useless tip of the week- you know those facts that you always say“that is the coolest thing! I will have to remember that!” And then forget all about it. And maybe I will even get to tell you one of the many insane projects that I somehow manage to accomplish through out my week too. If your lucky enough I may even give step by step directions. I can’t give away all my secrets though, so some of them will be bragging rights only. If I gave ALL my secrets away I would have nothing to keep friends around with. My looks are going, you know.
To (re)start things off on a sweet note I present to you:
Strawberry Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast:
I loaf of Texas Toast bread
1 brick of cream cheese, softened
2 T. milk
1 t. vanilla
2 T. sugar
1 pint strawberries (or any other fruit that you want to stuff in there)
5 eggs
½ c. milk or half-and-half
2 t. cinnamon sugar blend
½ t. vanilla
Margarine or butter
First things first: buying day old Texas toast at the bread outlet store is to your advantage here. Its cheaper, its drier and its easier to fillet. And more to the point, buying day old bread at the bread outlet store is just a pretty smart thing to do anyway. It really isn’t even day old. Its more like “2-days-before-the-stamped-date-on-the-package” bread. I see no difference in it. If I could only find the Harpers Homemade Outlet I would be set for life. Until I locate that gem, I will have to pay full price for this-the best bread EVER!!
Back to the recipe:
Place bread slices flat on a cookie sheet in a single layer and bake at 350* for about 5 minutes each side- it helps with the filleting of the bread to have a little bit of a crust on it. And BTW, you can’t use the ends of the bread-they will not fillet (but you could cook them as plain French toast if you feel so inclined.) After the bread has cooled for about 10 minutes stand each piece on the end and with a serrated knife, slice a pocket in the center of the bread leaving about a ½ inch on each side. Am I making sense here?? You need to have a pocket in the bread that is going to hold all your yummy goodness that is only opened on one side, so you start your slice ½ inch from one side and finish it ½ inch from the other. The bread is going to kind of clump down to
the bottom- its fine, it will keep your goodness in there. After you have filleted all the bread leave it on the cookie sheet to continue…how do you say…sitting…and move on to the next step.
With an electric mixer, whip the cream cheese, milk, 1 t. vanilla and sugar until its smooth- set it aside. Slice your strawberries (STOP!! Rinse them off first, we don’t want to have little dirtilies in our French Toast- it would totally ruin the goodness) as thin as you can get them without slicing your fingers.
Now for the stuffing: Hold the bread in the palm of your hand to support the bottom from ripping with the side that has the pocket facing you. With a butter knife or (plug for Pampered Chef ) a Skinny Spatula spread the cream cheese mixture on the bottom of the pocket carefully trying to get as far down and into each corner as you can without ripping the bread. Push the two sides of the opening together To create a wider opening) and shove as many strawberries as you can in there without the bread bulging in the center. You will need to get the bread as flat as you can so it will cook evenly.
Once you are done stuffing all the bread (don’t attempt to stuff a few, cook a few, stuff a few more- because you will end up with burned French toast and strawberries on your floor. Trust me) set it aside to… I don’t know…be set aside, and in a shallow dish mix together the eggs, milk, ½ t. vanilla and cinnamon sugar blend. Heat a skillet over medium/medium high (as in: if you stove has a dial on it from 1-10 then you want it at about a 6.5. If you are using an electric skillet then you want it at 350*) spray the pan with non-stick spray, then melt about 1 T margarine or butter on the skillet (let me clarify: my skillet holds 6 pieces of French toast. This is the amount that I use for a skillet this size. If you have a smaller skillet adjust the amount of butter that you use) and spread it evenly on the surface- this gives the French Toast a bit of a salty taste, and combined with the sweet of the filling- its perfect. Dip the bread, one slice at a time and put onto the buttered skillet. Cook for about 2 minutes on each side. Re- butter the skillet in between cooking and repeat until you run out of bread. Or egg mixture. (It’s one of those did the chicken or the egg come first things, I guess)
My favorite way to serve it is to lightly butter it, and while it is hot top it with whipped cream, then wait a minute for the whip cream to start to melt. Its divine that way. The kids like to eat it plain and the spouse smoothers it with syrup. I am convinced that he eats food merely as a vessel for his condiments.
Little notes:
I generally do not measure when I cook unless I am making a cake or brownies or something that requires exactness, 98% of the time it turns out perfect. I'm that good.The quantaties that I have given are estimates of what I usually put it. Sorry, for my un-exactness of my secret recipes.
I am a huge Pampered Chef fan. I use their skinny spatula (a rubber spatula that is only about 1 inch wide) their sugar shakers (Holds 1 cup of whatever and has a sifter top, with a lid and a handle. I have one for flour, one for powdered sugar and one with a cinnamon sugar blend) and their shallow whisk ( a flat whisk for mixing in either cups- think chocolate milk- or a shallow dish) for this recipe. I would be lost without them and so many more brilliant kitchen devices, they make cooking so much easier. I have a BFF that sells so if your interested in getting these handy-dandy tools or any others, message me and I will give you her info. :)
Also- you may be thinking “this is an awful lot of work for breakfast” and your right. Luckily, this is a dinner worthy breakfast. At my house, breakfast is what’s for dinner every Sunday night. And I double the recipe of whatever I am making that night, then I have plenty of leftovers to serve my kids during the week so that they don’t have to go to school with a bowl of cold cereal in their tummies. Its genius!
Next week, I am thinking that I will share with you my very own recipe that I have perfected for spaghetti sauce. Tastes like you made it fresh after sitting in a mason jar for over a year. And trust me, you will run out with in the year.I am currently rotating between blogging and stirring about 2 gallons of it cooking on my stove top.
Tomatoes were on sale. And I was down to my last 3 jars.
You will never by store bought again. And if you are anything like my kids, when you go out to eat and order spaghetti, one bite of their stuff and you will spit it back on your plate and proclaim- loudly enough to get a few giggles and stares: “This tastes rotten!!!”
Its. That. Good.
I promise.
But for now, enjoy this one for Stuffed French Toast.
And I really will try to be more bloggy- and not {blah}-gy. Promise.
To (re)start things off on a sweet note I present to you:
Strawberry Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast:
I loaf of Texas Toast bread
1 brick of cream cheese, softened
2 T. milk
1 t. vanilla
2 T. sugar
1 pint strawberries (or any other fruit that you want to stuff in there)
5 eggs
½ c. milk or half-and-half
2 t. cinnamon sugar blend
½ t. vanilla
Margarine or butter
First things first: buying day old Texas toast at the bread outlet store is to your advantage here. Its cheaper, its drier and its easier to fillet. And more to the point, buying day old bread at the bread outlet store is just a pretty smart thing to do anyway. It really isn’t even day old. Its more like “2-days-before-the-stamped-date-on-the-package” bread. I see no difference in it. If I could only find the Harpers Homemade Outlet I would be set for life. Until I locate that gem, I will have to pay full price for this-the best bread EVER!!
Back to the recipe:
Place bread slices flat on a cookie sheet in a single layer and bake at 350* for about 5 minutes each side- it helps with the filleting of the bread to have a little bit of a crust on it. And BTW, you can’t use the ends of the bread-they will not fillet (but you could cook them as plain French toast if you feel so inclined.) After the bread has cooled for about 10 minutes stand each piece on the end and with a serrated knife, slice a pocket in the center of the bread leaving about a ½ inch on each side. Am I making sense here?? You need to have a pocket in the bread that is going to hold all your yummy goodness that is only opened on one side, so you start your slice ½ inch from one side and finish it ½ inch from the other. The bread is going to kind of clump down to
the bottom- its fine, it will keep your goodness in there. After you have filleted all the bread leave it on the cookie sheet to continue…how do you say…sitting…and move on to the next step.
With an electric mixer, whip the cream cheese, milk, 1 t. vanilla and sugar until its smooth- set it aside. Slice your strawberries (STOP!! Rinse them off first, we don’t want to have little dirtilies in our French Toast- it would totally ruin the goodness) as thin as you can get them without slicing your fingers.
Now for the stuffing: Hold the bread in the palm of your hand to support the bottom from ripping with the side that has the pocket facing you. With a butter knife or (plug for Pampered Chef ) a Skinny Spatula spread the cream cheese mixture on the bottom of the pocket carefully trying to get as far down and into each corner as you can without ripping the bread. Push the two sides of the opening together To create a wider opening) and shove as many strawberries as you can in there without the bread bulging in the center. You will need to get the bread as flat as you can so it will cook evenly.
Once you are done stuffing all the bread (don’t attempt to stuff a few, cook a few, stuff a few more- because you will end up with burned French toast and strawberries on your floor. Trust me) set it aside to… I don’t know…be set aside, and in a shallow dish mix together the eggs, milk, ½ t. vanilla and cinnamon sugar blend. Heat a skillet over medium/medium high (as in: if you stove has a dial on it from 1-10 then you want it at about a 6.5. If you are using an electric skillet then you want it at 350*) spray the pan with non-stick spray, then melt about 1 T margarine or butter on the skillet (let me clarify: my skillet holds 6 pieces of French toast. This is the amount that I use for a skillet this size. If you have a smaller skillet adjust the amount of butter that you use) and spread it evenly on the surface- this gives the French Toast a bit of a salty taste, and combined with the sweet of the filling- its perfect. Dip the bread, one slice at a time and put onto the buttered skillet. Cook for about 2 minutes on each side. Re- butter the skillet in between cooking and repeat until you run out of bread. Or egg mixture. (It’s one of those did the chicken or the egg come first things, I guess)
My favorite way to serve it is to lightly butter it, and while it is hot top it with whipped cream, then wait a minute for the whip cream to start to melt. Its divine that way. The kids like to eat it plain and the spouse smoothers it with syrup. I am convinced that he eats food merely as a vessel for his condiments.
Little notes:
I generally do not measure when I cook unless I am making a cake or brownies or something that requires exactness, 98% of the time it turns out perfect. I'm that good.The quantaties that I have given are estimates of what I usually put it. Sorry, for my un-exactness of my secret recipes.
I am a huge Pampered Chef fan. I use their skinny spatula (a rubber spatula that is only about 1 inch wide) their sugar shakers (Holds 1 cup of whatever and has a sifter top, with a lid and a handle. I have one for flour, one for powdered sugar and one with a cinnamon sugar blend) and their shallow whisk ( a flat whisk for mixing in either cups- think chocolate milk- or a shallow dish) for this recipe. I would be lost without them and so many more brilliant kitchen devices, they make cooking so much easier. I have a BFF that sells so if your interested in getting these handy-dandy tools or any others, message me and I will give you her info. :)
Also- you may be thinking “this is an awful lot of work for breakfast” and your right. Luckily, this is a dinner worthy breakfast. At my house, breakfast is what’s for dinner every Sunday night. And I double the recipe of whatever I am making that night, then I have plenty of leftovers to serve my kids during the week so that they don’t have to go to school with a bowl of cold cereal in their tummies. Its genius!
Next week, I am thinking that I will share with you my very own recipe that I have perfected for spaghetti sauce. Tastes like you made it fresh after sitting in a mason jar for over a year. And trust me, you will run out with in the year.I am currently rotating between blogging and stirring about 2 gallons of it cooking on my stove top.
Tomatoes were on sale. And I was down to my last 3 jars.
You will never by store bought again. And if you are anything like my kids, when you go out to eat and order spaghetti, one bite of their stuff and you will spit it back on your plate and proclaim- loudly enough to get a few giggles and stares: “This tastes rotten!!!”
Its. That. Good.
I promise.
But for now, enjoy this one for Stuffed French Toast.
And I really will try to be more bloggy- and not {blah}-gy. Promise.
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