Thursday, May 13, 2010

Overnight Raspberry French Toast

Okay this is one of those times where I know the photo doesn't look that great but the recipe was really good! I could just not provide a photo but I think any photo is better than no photo, so here it is. A few weeks ago my family did breakfast for dinner, which was awesome. I love breakfast food but I rarely want to take the time in the morning to make something more complicated than a smoothie or a bowl of cereal (or sometimes waffles). I found this recipe in one of my favourite cookbooks, or rather favourite series, Bravo! Best of Bridge Cookbook. I've mention the Best of Bridge books before - they're the kind of cookbooks that you can open to any page, and trust the recipe will be delicious. And the ingredients required are things you can easily find. It's unfortunate that these books don't seem to be more popular outside of Canada - on Amazon.com they aren't even available except as used copies.


Anyway! So this overnight raspberry french toast - it has raspberries, almonds, cream cheese, cinnamon and the regular french toast stuff. It was really yummy though I used chopped almonds this time (instead of sliced) and I think it's kind of scary to have something crunchy in an eggy dish (people might think it's egg shells). We did breakfast/brunch for dinner for mother's day too, so keep an eye out for more brunchy things soon! What are your favourite things to eat for brunch?

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Gingerbread Waffles
Cinnamon Raisin Bread
Carrot Cake Oatmeal
Squash & Aged White Cheddar Tart with Sage and Roasted Garlic Custard

Overnight Raspberry French Toast
Adapted from Bravo! Best of Bridge Cookbook

Serves 6

The recipe suggests reserving 1/4 cup of the sugar to sprinkle on top but next time I'd just mix it in so that's what I wrote in the recipe. I also found the cinnamon to kind of clump up with the eggs, so make sure you whisk them well.

8 slices whole wheat bread, torn into small pieces
8 oz (250 g) cream cheese, cut into small pieces
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries (don't thaw if using frozen)
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted (don't use chopped like me)
6 eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar (you could easily reduce this amount)
1 cup milk
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Grease an 8 inch (2L) square glass baking dish. Scatter half the bread pieces in dish. Arrange cream cheese, raspberries and almonds on top. Finish with the remaining bread pieces. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, milk and cinnamon. Pour over bread. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 350F. Bake french toast, covered with foil, for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 30 minutes or until puffy and golden brown.

12 comments:

Steph said...

Our family never does breakfast for dinner, probably beccause our breakfast foods aren't as good as yours!

fresh365 said...

This is so great! And I love how you can make it the night before. I never end up making breakfast since I am too tired & hungry to cook in the am!

The Duo Dishes said...

Loving that cream cheese layer. That's decadent.

Jenna said...

I really enjoy reading your blog and can't wait to follow it!
I would love it if you could come check out my blog and follow :)
Jenna

Kristin (Book Sniffers Anonymous) said...

Cream cheese and raspberries... I am in. Not to mention that french toast is my favorite breakfast dish. I have bookmarked this recipe because I think I just might have to make it for breakfast this weekend.

Joanne said...

This is one of those times where you know the messy picture actually translates to heaven. I have a sixth sense about that kind of thing.

Seriously amazing. I have a feeling I would wake up in the middle of the night just to get to it first!

grace said...

i don't think there's a brunch food that i DON'T like, but this is up there with the favorites. i love the overnight aspect as well as the beautiful berries and obvious creaminess of the whole thing. excellent. :)

Johanna GGG said...

messy picture but the flavours sound delicious - although a lot of eggs for me - but I think this is more like what we call a bread and butter pudding - strangely enough I love bread and butter pudding but don't like french toast - when I see how close they are here it makes me wonder why I don't like french toast - I think raspberries might be the way to learn to love it

CookiePie said...

Yum yum YUM!!! Love an overnight french toast, and the raspberry addition makes it extra-delicious. I will be making this and your choc beet cake (genius!!!) very soon.

saveur said...

This looks delicious!

I love cookbooks that you can really trust like that. I feel that way with anything from America's Test Kitchens - never a dud!

Lot-O-Choc said...

Oooh wow i love raspberries at the minute this type of french toast sounds so good!

Unknown said...

French toast.. Raspberries.. And the ease of making them overnight! What could be better?