Stuffed French Toast with Blueberry Sauce -- Random Recipe #9

Time for another Random Recipe from my cookbook collection.  This week I let me oldest son (who is 6) pick the book and flip to a recipe, he was excited to help :) He picked Taste of Home 1999 Annual Recipes from the bottom bookshelf. The bottom bookshelf is where I keep most of my annual recipes books, mainly Taste of Home, Southern Living, and Sunset.

I love Taste of Home and have enjoyed reading through the homey recipes for years. The annual recipe books are great because they are supposed to have every recipe from the past years magazines in one compact book. There were a bunch of recipes on the page my son flipped to so I had him close his eyes and point to one, lots of fun for a 6 year old, as I'm sure you can imagine. This is the recipe he landed on, Stuffed French Toast with Berry Sauce. My other two will be taking turns picking our Random Recipes as well in the future :)

French Toast is the least served of the breakfast carb trifecta (French toast, waffles, and pancakes) in our house.  We all love waffles, which are picky husband's favorite, so I make those often. Pancakes are so easy that they are a close second choice.  French toast always sounds good but the recipes are often hit or miss and I don't have a tried and true favorite.  Last month I made this White Milk Bread and ended up making French toast with it that turned out perfectly! I think a lot of it had to do with the dense bread, it doesn't sop up too much liquid and get mushy, and I have since decided this is my definite French Toast Bread recipe and whenever the need for French toast arises in the future, I will be baking this loaf.

Stuffed French Toast with Berry Sauce

adapted from Taste of Home 1999 Annual Recipes

*I followed the recipe when I made this but found out I needed to double the mixture to dip the bread in and also the blueberry topping. I am writing the ingredients as written so you may also need to double the milk/egg/vanilla and the Blueberry Sauce ingredients. Feel free to halve the recipe for four servings since one slice is plenty filling. The original recipes says 4-6 servings but I think it's more like 8.

Filling:

1 package 8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon grated orange peel

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

French toast:

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

8 slices French bread (1 inch thick) I made a loaf this White Milk Bread and it was just enough 

Syrup:

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup maple syrup

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 and 1/2 cups frozen blueberries

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, orange peel and cinnamon until smooth; set aside.

In a shallow bowl, combine eggs, milk, and vanilla. Cut a pocket in the crust of each slice of bread. Stuff each pocket with 1 - 2 tablespoons filling.  (This is a little tricky.)

Dip both sides of bread in egg mixture and pat down briefly sopping up some of the egg/milk/vanilla mixture. Fry on a greased (I did not grease mine since it's nonstick) hot griddle (I set my temperature to about 345) for 3-4 minutes on each side, or until golden brown.

For syrup (not sure why they are calling it syrup here when in the title it is Berry Sauce...), combine water, maple syrup, sugar, and cornstarch in a sauce pan. (I would make sure to use a little of the water to make a cornstarch slurry before adding it all together so it doesn't get lumpy). Bring to a boil; boil for 2 minutes or until thickened. Reduce heat; add blueberries. Simmer for 5-7 minutes or until berries are tender. Serve over French toast.

~~~

I dusted the French Toasts with powdered sugar, isn't that a must?

Here you can see the cream cheese middle.  Now personally I liked the cream cheese / orange combo but my youngest was not liking it much and I think that was because he was expecting the filling to be sweeter, but it really is more a basic cream cheese flavor and you get your sweetness from the blueberry sauce.  You could add some extra sugar to the filling, which I would probably do if making this for kids again.

The kids mostly enjoyed this, except my youngest not liking the filling. I loved it, especially the lovely blueberry maple sauce. Picky husband does not like blueberries or cream cheese so he did not have any, don't worry, I made him something different.  This was a fun recipe to try that I probably would not have made had it not been our Random Recipe for the week.  There are no photos of this recipe in the book so it kind of gets lost with the other recipes, some of which have photos.  The only little problem I had was the the French toast dipping mixture and the blueberry sauce definitely need to be doubled for this to work.  Now that I've found the perfect French Toast bread I am looking forward to making FT more often :)



Orange Berry Muffins

This is another Tuesdays with Dorie rewind recipe from the early days of TWD. I decided that starting this week I would start back at the beginning of the book and try to work my way through the recipes that I missed in the order they appear in the book. I'm planning on doing this on the "off Tuesdays" since next week we will start the new TWD group with the book, Baking With Julia (so excited!) and only post every other Tuesday.

The first recipe in the book is Orange Berry Muffins, these sounded so delicious and I was happy to give them a try. I love oranges and blueberries, and the recipe calls for buttermilk, which I love using in baked goods for that extra moist crumb.

Orange Berry Muffins

Dorie Greenspan

Grated zest and juice of 1 orange

About 3/4 cup buttermilk

2 large eggs

3 Tablespoons honey

1 stick (8 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1/3 cup sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup blueberries - fresh, preferably, or frozen (not thawed) -- I used frozen

Decorating sugar, for topping (optional) -- I skipped this, but kind of wish I wouldn't have

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. -- I had my oven temperature at 350, I like my oven temp a little lower when I'm using silicone bakeware, just personal preference -- Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups. Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan, which needs neither greasing nor paper cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

Pour the orange juice into a large glass measuring cup or a bowl and pour in enough buttermilk to make 1 cup. Whisk in the eggs, honey and melted butter.

In a large bowl, rub the sugar and orange zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of orange is strong. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don't worry about being thorough - the batter will be lumpy and bubbly, and that's just the way it should be. Just a note, don't leave any clumps of dry flour. Stir in the blueberries. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. I had enough for two pans of heart muffins and a small pan of mini muffins.

Bake for 22 to 25 minutes. If you want to top the muffins with decorating sugar, sprinkle on the sugar after the muffins have baked for 10 minutes. When fully baked, the tops of the muffins will be golden and springy to the touch and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins will come out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.

~~~

I made these as an after school snack for my kids and they loved them warm from the oven. I thought they were delicious too, not too sweet, and can be eaten plain or served with butter and honey. Using frozen berries worked out fine but I bet they'd be even better with fresh. As much of a hit as these were fresh from the oven, the next morning the kids weren't liking them as much, I thought they were just fine, but their texture did change a bit, so I'd plan to serve these fresh. It was so fun to finally try the first recipe from Baking From My Home To Yours :)

Blueberry Brown Sugar Plain Cake

Another Tuesday eve and another Tuesdays with Dorie treat that I missed posting but baked along with the group on -- Blueberry Brown Sugar Plain Cake. This was our pick back in June 2011, and was hosted by Cindy at Everyday Insanity, thank you, Cindy! You can find the recipe for this simple and delicious cake here at Cindy's site if you do not have Dorie's book, Baking From My Home To Yours.


I remember being excited to make this cake since I love blueberries and "plain" / "no frosting required" cakes. This was a super simple recipe and the cake was so yummy. My kids loved it and I remember baking a second one of these shortly after the first one was gone because the kids requested it again. I only got a few pictures of this cake before it was finished off by my crew. This was a great recipe for sure, I loved the blueberries huddled together at the bottom, I think I'll be making this one again here very soon :)

Jamie Oliver's Blueberry Breakfast Pancakes

Our theme of the week over at I Heart Cooking Clubs is Happy Days with Jamie and what could be happier than a big stack of blueberry pancakes for breakfast? Also this is the easiest pancake recipe I've ever tried, and pancake recipes are usually pretty easy to begin with.

Note from Jamie preceding the recipe : These are the fluffiest, loveliest American-style pancakes ever. My girls ask me for them all the time and I get big brownie points whenever I make them. The recipe couldn’t be easier to remember and what’s brilliant about it is that it works like a charm every single time. You can have fun with it by switching up the fruit; strawberries, apples, blackberries, blueberries and bananas are all delicious in these pancakes so feel free to swap out the pears for any of those. The batter will keep as good as gold in the fridge for a day or two if you have any leftover.

I doubled this recipe, and went with blueberries as my fruit since we had some in the fridge to use up, can't wait to give these a go with other fruits. Also I think that this would be a wonderful recipe for a young chef to help you with (or possibly do all on their own!)

Blueberry Breakfast Pancakes

from Jamie Oliver's website recipe here

• 1 cup self rising flour (not something I usually have on hand, but I had wanted to try some biscuits with White Lily flour and now have four 5 lb bags to use up)


• 1 cup of milk


• 1 egg, preferably free-range or organic


• a pinch of sea salt


• 1 pear or other fruit (I used about 2 cups of blueberries for a double recipe, so 1 cup for a single)


• a few knobs of butter


• natural yoghurt, to serve


• runny honey, to serve (I love pancakes with honey, but the kids wanted maple syrup)


• I added a tablespoon of sugar per batch, since we like sweeter pancakes

Put the flour, milk, egg and salt in a mixing bowl and whisk until smooth. Once combined, grate in the pear, core and all then stir it through with a spoon. (Or add in the blueberries)

Put a large pan on a medium heat and add a knob of butter. Once that melts, add the batter, a spoonful at a time to the hot pan. You’ll need to cook them in batches, cooking them for a few minutes until golden on the bottom then flipping over and cooking for a few minutes more until they’re done. (I cooked these on my electric griddle)

When they are golden and fluffy serve them right away with a dollop of natural yoghurt and some runny honey drizzled all over the top.

~~~end of recipe~~~

These were quick, easy, and delicious, what more could you ask for? Picky husband was sleeping in, which worked out well because he doesn't like blueberries and won't eat blueberry pancakes, crazy, yes, I know. The kids and I loved these and the leftovers held up well in the fridge for a couple of days and we able to be microwaved and still tasted great. Happy Days food for sure :)

ETA: Sorry the post is so spread out, I am having trouble with blogger and typing up a post with proper spacing...I think it looks awful and have tried everything to fix it -- it's really bugging me...

Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Pie

Time for Sweet Melissa Sundays again! This week our selection is Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Pie, picked for us to try by Melissa of Lulu the Baker, thank you Melissa! You can find the recipe here at Melissa's site. I had never made, let alone tasted a buttermilk pie, but being a fan of buttermilk and also lemon and blueberries, had to give this one a try.

I also just got a little tripod for my camera, and was excited to try it out and see if it improved my often unsharp photos that I used to attribute to shaky hands. What do you think?

Above is before baking, notice I used a tart pan instead of a pie pan, once again I have misplaced my pie plate! And I don't just have one, I should have at least two plus my new deep dish one. Oh-well. I used a new pie crust recipe I found on all recipes that uses oil instead of butter or shortening, it turned out nicely, but a bit underdone I think, probably should have prebaked the crust longer than the 10 minutes I let it prebake for.

The pie looked done at 30 minutes, I took it out and started making the blueberry topping. Which I changed up a bit...

The recipe calls for fresh blueberries but I could not find any at the store and settled for frozen, also the recipe calls for apricot preserves (that should be strained to remove the apricot chunks)and I used grape jelly to reduce the fussiness level (no straining needed). I also cooked it all on the stove for a couple of minutes, added a little sugar, and also a slurry of water and cornstarch to thicken the blueberry sauce. It turned out lovely.

I knew my kids would love this dessert and they did, I thought it was delicious as well, and guess what...even picky husband liked this one! I thought I would get lucky enough for him to try a bite but he ate a whole piece, even though he is not a blueberry fan. He said it was pretty good, and asked if I was proud of him for trying something new, yes honey, I am :)

Jumbleberry Crumbles -- I Heart Cooking Clubs

Time for another edition of I Heart Cooking Clubs, this week the theme is "A Little Romance..." and I picked Nigella's Jumbleberry Crumbles. Aren't these cute? And what's more romantic that sharing a special little dessert made for two? These are equally fun to share with your children (which is what I did), and they are even good for a treat all by yourself to help with portion control, what do you know, a multi-tasking dessert :)

Jumbleberry Crumble

Nigella Lawson

For the Crumble Topping

(I doubled this and used it all on the 7 flower pot cups)

2/3 cup flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoons (½ stick) cold butter, cut into small cubes
3 tablespoons Demerara sugar

To Make One Crumble-In-A-Cup (approx. l¼-cup capacity):
*I made 5 times this amount to use up the fruits I had in my freezer, and had enough for 7 small ramekins*

¾ cup frozen summer fruits -- I used blueberries and tart cherries from my freezer
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons vanilla sugar or granulated sugar and a drop of vanilla
½ cup frozen crumble topping

To Make the Crumble in a Ramekin:
generous ¼ cup frozen summer fruits
½ teaspoon cornstarch
1½ teaspoons vanilla sugar or granulated sugar and a drop of vanilla
3 tablespoons frozen crumble topping

Put the flour and baking powder into a bowl and rub in the cubes of butter with your fingers until you have a mixture like coarse sand. This is such a small amount, it’s not really worth getting out the heavy machinery.

Stir in the sugar and then put into a freezer bag to freeze.

This mixture would make 4 jumbleberry crumbles in the cups, and about 8 ramekins.

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Put the summer fruits in either a cup or a ramekin and sprinkle over the cornstarch and sugar. Stir around a little.

Sprinkle over the frozen crumble topping and bake the cup for 20 minutes and the ramekin for 15 minutes.

I sprinkled some Maple Sugar on top before baking...

Ready to taste! These were delicious little crumbles and everyone who tried them loved them. The tart cherries made this not too sweet and the simple crumble topping was wonderful, I did add quite a bit of topping, probably double what the recipe recommends because I love crumble and crisp toppings. I would make these again for sure, and look forward to using this recipe anytime I have some odds and ends of berries and fruits in the freezer.

Blueberry Orange Brioche Tart -- Tuesdays with Dorie

Our TWD treat of the week was picked by Denise of Chez Us, she chose Brioche Plum Tart, thank you Denise! You can visit her site for the recipe if you would like to give this a try.


I had plums all ready to go into this but this morning while my dough was resting I visited Michelle's site and fell in love with her blueberry brioche and since I had some blueberries to use up, I decided to save the plums for another day and go the blueberry route.


I used orange marmalade as my 'jam' since the blueberry orange combo is one I really enjoy.


I baked in my 10 inch heart tart pan at 375 (since it is a darker tart pan I didn't want it way over browned on the outside) for 25 minutes and my tart was done!


After trying this I have a hard time calling it a tart, to me it is more of a brioche baked in a tart pan :) While I was pressing the dough into the pan, I thought to myself I could probably do two tarts, one blueberry and one plum, and have a thinner "crust" but I decided not to, but now I know that would have worked out fine.


And there you have it, a very nice blueberry breakfast bread type tart that the kids really enjoyed and I had the pleasure of making!

Blueberry Crumb Cake -- Tuesdays with Dorie

A big thank you to the very sweet Sihan of Befuddlement who picked Dorie's Blueberry Crumb Cake as out TWD treat of the week. I was really excited about making this recipe, I love to try recipes like this, almost breakfast, almost dessert, a fruity little something to munch on with some tea, not to mention I am a huge blueberry fan.

I actually made this cake twice, the first time I used fresh blueberries and baked it in an 8 inch round springform pan, it was perfect! We had a few visitors that day and the cake was gone in no time, I didn't get any photos except for this one above of the last little half slice left.

The second time I made this cake I just had to see how it would work in my new Kaiser pan. I actually bought the pan mostly to use for cheesecakes (it has a removable bottom) but I don't make cheesecakes that often (so no, I guess I didn't really need another pan, I know, I know) and I really wanted to use it...

I personally think the cake looked prettier coming out of the springform, the top mounded beautifully and it was just picture perfect, even though I never got a picture. I have no idea why but the topping didn't get as golden brown when I used the Kaiser pan...could the frozen blueberries have caused that? I don't know. I do think that the cut cake looked better with the fresh blueberries, with the frozen the color was a little off -- but really not a big deal.

The second cake I decided to do a little simple lemon glaze -- 1 cup powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and drizzled it over the top just for looks. Yeah, I forgot to line the table, oh-well, powdered sugar glaze cleans up very easily, don't worry :)

I hope everyone enjoyed this cake as much as we did, thanks to Dorie for another great recipe and to Sihan for this fun choice!