jill’s killer stuffed french toast

this was our new years day breakfast meal.  an excellent start to the new year, if i do say so myself.  i suppose something this special could make any day special, but it definitely makes special days REALLY special.  please serve this responsibly, as you may cause extreme feelings of love or infatuation in the hearts of anyone that eats it.

you may recognize this dish from our marquee image.  words can’t really do this one justice, nor can my crappy cell phone picture.  maybe the fact that i was half way through my meal before i regained control of my body and was able to snap a shot will help you get an idea of how good this is.  also, jilly uses adrian’s jams (yeah, this adrian) made from local santa barbara county fruits canned at the peak of their seasons.  if you don’t have my jam, you’d better hope you’ve got Jam According to Daniel jam, or else all you’ve got is jelly.  in case you couldn’t tell, jam is pretty close to my heart.  i’ll write a future post all about it so that we can move on for now.

anyway, this recipe starts with jill’s already outrageously good french toast.  my whole life, french toast was stale bread dipped in a beaten egg.  still good, especially with a ton of maple syrup.  but french toast can be so much more.

as the story has been told to me, when jill was a kid, she had a friend whose mother grew oranges for sunkist.  when they had sleepovers, this mom would make french toast for breakfast, and the secret ingredient in her batter was a fresh squeezed orange!  i’m pretty sure you don’t have to pick it straight from the tree for it to be delicious, but it would help if it’s a good orange that had some flavor and sweetness, not some styrofoam imitation of fruit that tastes like nothing.

bread — a quick note — you may or may not know, but challah is the best french toast bread.  brioche comes in second, it’s pretty similar.  i also love sour dough french toast.  but really you can use whatever bread you have in your pantry.  if you’re cooking regular french toast, you’re gonna want a nice thick piece, so make the slices around an inch thick.  for this stuffed french toast, i recommend going thinner, maybe half an inch slices, so the final product isn’t too intimidating.

so, beat a couple eggs, add some granulated sugar, a little vanilla, a healthy amount of milk (or soymilk, for those of us who have trouble with dairy), and squeeze that magic orange in there.  another secret is to leave your bread soaking in the batter for a while before you cook it.  the longer the better.

preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

now put a nice dollop of butter (or earthbalance) in your pan and bring it up to a medium heat.  if you want regular french toast, just fry well on both sides until golden brown.  for stuffed toast, fry lightly on both sides, leaving the toast a little undercooked so it can finish in the oven. place them on a cookie sheet or baking pan.  spoon a nice bit of jam and a dollop of  marscapone on each toast, but don’t spread it to the edges (you want the eggs to kinda seal the edges a bit), then top with another piece of toast.  now put them in the oven for around 10 minutes, until the egg has finished cooking and kind of fused the things together.  serve with butter and maple syrup.

we really love vegetables for breakfast.  turns out kale is an awesome breakfast veggie.  i prepare it brazilian style, which means chiffonade the kale, saute it in olive oil and minced garlic, squeeze a quarter lemon onto it half way through cooking (steams it a little and cuts the oil), and dash a bit of salt on it at the end.

we also did this meal up with TWO types of meat — thick cut bacon and portuguese linguica sausage.  since there’s two types, you only need to serve a little of each.

there you go, a breakfast to make anyone fall in love with you forever.  enjoy!

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