I don’t make french toast often but when I do, they are such a treat!
You can make this with Brioche bread, French Bread or Challah Bread.
This is a good make ahead recipe since the french toast need to soak up the liquid up to 4 hours or overnight.
These are berry sweet! hee hee!
Some salty bacon or sausage on the side would add just about the right amount of savory flavor to this dish.
I’ve listed the recipe and ingredients in the order you should make these. Syrup first, then cream cheese then toast.
If you don’t like cream cheese you can skip the cream cheese and put just fruit in between the layers.
Enjoy!
Berry Syrup
1 to 1-1/2 cup of fresh berries. I used blue berry, black berry, raspberry and strawberry.
½ cup of baker’s sugar
2 splashes of brandy or water
Zest of 1 orange
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp all spice
In a medium saucepan over medium heat add berries, zest, cinnamon, all spice, and sugar. Stir for about 4 minutes.
Add Brandy and simmer for about 3-5 minutes.
Grab a bowl and a sieve.
Spoon berry mixture on to sieve and using a spoon push through as much of the berry syrup as possible. Work in batches.
Berry Cream Cheese Filling
8 oz Philadelphia cream cheese at room temperature
Berry syrup ( save some to drizzle over french toast)
In a bowl mix cream cheese until softened. Add berry syrup to cream cheese a few spoonful’s at a time. It’s up to you how sweet you want to make it. I think I used about 5 or 6 tablespoons.
For the French Toast
1 loaf challah bread
4 eggs
1 tbl spoon vanilla extract
½ cup of milk
Whisk ingredients together
Spray a baking dish with nonstick spray
Grab your bread and smear berry cream cheese filling on 2 pieces of bread make a sandwich and place in baking dish.
Repeat until you have used all bread and filled dish. You might have to cut a few pieces of bread to make them fit in the dish.
Pour the egg and milk mix over the entire dish, cover and refrigerate over night or for at least 4 hours.
Preheat oven to 350
Cook uncovered for about 35 minutes until center is set and the top is slightly browned.
Serve with fresh berries on top and a little bit of berry syrup. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if you would like.
