Easy Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast with Berries

My little brother turned 30 the other day (Happy Belated Birthday, Tyler!) and so I made him a delicious birthday breakfast of cream cheese stuffed french toast.



It turned out really yummy! This is how I did it:

First, I wanted to make some berry toppings to go on the french toast, so I made one pot of strawberries, and one pot of blackberries. I set each to boil on the stove in a pot of water, then added the sugar once it started boiling.



Then I turned it down to simmer on medium heat, while I started the french toast. I mixed up the eggs, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and milk, for the batter.



Next, I dunked each piece of bread in the batter and flipped it to coat both sides. I cooked it in a pan until it turned nice and brown, then flipped and cooked the other side.



While the toast was cooking, I mixed up softened cream cheese with powdered sugar.



When the toast was all ready, I made sandwiches using 2 pieces of french toast with sweetened cream cheese in the middle. I put it on a cookie sheet to bake for a few minutes.



At this point, the two pans of berries are looking good. I add some corn starch mixed with water to thicken them up a little.



Then I topped off each french toast sandwich with some berries and a little whipped topping. Voila!



Since it was a birthday breakfast, after all, we had to put a candle in it, and sing to him :)



(Bet he is not going to be a fan of this picture posted on my blog...sorry Tyler! Love you!!!!)

The whole project just took about 45 minutes. Not too bad for a delicious, fancy breakfast :)

Here is the recipe:
Topping:
2 C strawberries
2 C blackberries
1 C sugar
4 C water
2 T cornstarch
2 T water

Batter:
6 eggs
1/2 c. milk
1 T. vanilla
3 T. sugar
2 t. cinnamon

Filling:
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 c. powdered sugar

12 slices of bread
Whipped cream, for garnish
powdered sugar, for garnish

Boil berries each with 2 cups of water in 2 separate pots. Bring to boil. Add 1/2 c. sugar to each. Reduce heat to medium. Simmer, stirring occasionally.

Preheat oven to 350. Mix up batter in a bowl, beating with a fork. Dip each piece of bread in the batter, turn to coat both sides. Brown on a griddle or in a frying pan, on both sides over medium heat. While bread is cooking, heat 8 oz of cream cheese in microwave for about 1 minute, until very soft. Mix with 1/2 c. powdered sugar until well blended. Make sandwiches of 2 pieces of french toast with cream cheese in between. Place sandwiches on cookie sheet and bake for 6-8 minutes (or as long as it takes you to finish the berries). :)

Stir 2 T. cornstarch into 2 T. water in a small bowl until dissolved. Pour half into each pan of berries. Cook on medium for 2-3 minutes, until thickened.

Remove sandwiches from oven. Top each with berries, whipped cream, and a sprinkling of powdered sugar, for garnish. Enjoy!

Persimmon Walnut Bread

What to do with persimmons???....I got 6 or 7 persimmons in my bountiful basket this week. I had no idea what to do with them! I had never even seen them before, and had to ask what they were! I went looking on pinterest, and found an idea I liked, Persimmon Walnut Bread. It was written by a lady from Sydney, so all the measurements were metric, the oven temperature was in Centigrade, and it called for persimmon pulp, which I didn't know how to make. I decided to try it anyway. I have converted my measurements below so those from the US will know how much of everything they need. Now I know how to make persimmon pulp! I have demonstrated below. If you want to see the original recipe, it is at: http://scandifoodie.blogspot.com/2011/07/persimmon-and-walnut-bread.html

So, first of all, persimmon pulp is fairly easy to make. I looked up some different methods of extracting persimmon pulp, and then I combined them and made up my own way. Basically you have to get out the pulp, which is everything except the skin and seeds. I decided to blanch the persimmons first, to remove the skin easily (if you don't know what blanching means, it is to put them into a pot of boiling water for about a minute, just enough to loosen the skin.) Then I dumped them into a sink of cold water and peeled them one at a time. As I peeled each, I put it in my wire mesh strainer, which was over a bowl. Then I pushed the pulp through the mesh, leaving the seeds and stringy stuff (kind of like inside a pumpkin) in the strainer. I have a small strainer, so I discarded the seeds between each persimmon.

This was a fairly easy process, and only took about 15 minutes for the entire pulp-extraction process, once I had the water boiled. The seeds are very interesting. They have a soft skin, not hard like most seeds. The skin is kind of translucent.

After that the bread was very easy to make. You mix up with a stand mixer (or a whisk the original recipe said) eggs, sugar, and melted butter. Then combine the dry ingredients (it said to sift them together, but I didn't).

Then you dump the dry ingredients in with the egg mixture and combine. Its very thick at this point.

Then you add the persimmon pulp, vanilla, milk, and walnuts. (The original recipe called for chopped dried apricots also, which I didn't have on hand, so I skipped, but I'm sure that would be delicious also). When it's all combined well, pour into a greased loaf pan. Then you set the loaf pan into a high sided baking dish, and fill with warm water, until it is halfway up the side of the loaf pan.

To be honest, I'm not sure exactly why the pan of water, but I'm thinking maybe it has to do with the loaf baking all the way through. I am going to experiment with banana bread and see if this helps the center of the banana bread get done faster. I always seem to have the outside a little too done by the time the inside gets done. Anyway, I digress...

Then you bake it for 75 minutes at 355 degrees. (The original recipe said 180 degrees centigrade, so I converted that, and came up with 356. My oven only does 5 degree increments, so I was stuck with 355).

It turned out great! Reminded me of zucchini bread. Lots of spices. Very delicious!

I made it for breakfast before school this morning (I'm a teacher), so I had to get up very early, but I did combine the dry ingredients, make the persimmon pulp, and set some of the other things out the night before, so it would be easy to put together this morning. And then I had plenty of time to start this blog post as it was baking :)

This is the recipe:
2 eggs
A scant 1/2 cup of brown sugar (.4 cups, to be exact)
2 T. melted butter
1 1/4 c. flour
2 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground cloves
small pinch of nutmeg (I just did a couple shakes)
2 t. baking soda
1/2 c. chopped walnuts
1/4 c. dried apricots (or you can skip them, like me)
1/2 c. milk
1 t. vanilla
1 1/2 c. persimmon pulp (about 6-7 small persimmons)

*Note, the original recipe calls for rapadura sugar, which I have never heard of, but it is brown in color, so I substituted brown sugar.

Preheat oven to 355 degrees. Beat the eggs, brown sugar, and melted butter. Combine flour and spices and mix in with the egg mixture. Add the rest of ingredients and mix to combine well. Pour into greased loaf pan. Set the pan into a deep sided baking dish, and fill with warm water until the water is halfway up the side of the loaf pan. Bake for 75 minutes. Remove loaf pan from pan of water and set on a wire rack to cool. Then dump the bread onto wire rack to cool.

Autumn Roasted Vegetable and Sausage Pasta

I have decided to start a blog with some of my favorite recipes. I have been thinking about writing one for a long time, and I thought, might as well just do it! I wanted to share one of my favorite fall recipes. It is so delicious, I am making it tonight for dinner. Plus, I thought if I posted it, and then pinned my post on pinterest, I won't be able to lose my recipe anymore!




So basically, you just cut up a whole bunch of veggies: cherry tomatoes, carrots, green peppers, onions, garlic (I used my electric mandolin slicer) and then stir in chicken or turkey sausage, cut into chunks. You coat the whole thing with herbs (it calls for dried, but I had fresh, so I used those) and olive oil.


After you get that all mixed up, bake it at 300 degrees for 40 minutes. Then serve over spaghetti. The original recipe doesn't call for any pasta sauce, but we like to put it on, and then serve with parmesan and pine nuts. So yummy! One of our favorite fall dinners!



*Note: I make this a lot in the crockpot as well. Just cook the veggies and sausage for 8 hours or so on low. Then I whip up the pasta when I get home from work and serve it up. When you make it in the oven, the carrots come out a little crunchy. So I decided to boil them first this time, before putting them in the oven to roast with the other veggies. We are not really fans of crunchy carrots. But if you like your carrots a little crunchier, just bake them with everything else. In the crock pot, of course, they come out nice and soft.







Autumn roasted Veggie and Sausage Pasta:
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
4 cloves of garlic, sliced or minced
2 green bell peppers, cored and sliced into strips or rings
1 large red onion, chopped roughly
(the recipe calls for 8 oz of sliced mushrooms too, but my husband detests mushrooms, so we always leave them out...you can put some in if you like)
4 large carrots, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
12 oz. cooked Italian chicken or turkey sausage, cut into small chunks
3 T. olive oil
1 t. dried oregano (or use fresh if you have any)
1 t. dried basil
(I also added in some fresh parsley and rosemary, because I had some on hand)
Salt and pepper
1 pound of spaghetti
Parmesan
1/4 c. pine nuts
Pasta sauce (optional)
Mix up veggies and sausage in large pan (I used a 9x13) or a crock pot. Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle herbs. Stir to coat. Roast at 300 degrees for 40 minutes (or 8 hours on low in a crockpot). Cook the spaghetti according to package directions. Serve veggies and sausage over spaghetti. Top with sauce, if desired, pine nuts, and parmesan. Enjoy!

*Thanks to my friend Randee from down the street for this recipe, that she clipped from the newspaper a long time ago :)