Saturday, July 10, 2010

Apple Raisin French Toast


Tomorrow 2 of my favourite people are coming over for brunch. Ali and Sarah were my roommates at Guelph. I knew Sarah in high school and met Ali in the first couple days. We all lived in the same dorm hallway (coincidentally, four years prior, Jeff lived in that same hallway, and was in the wedding party of the girl who lived in my room, who was my boss at the YMCA, fate much?). The next year we all moved in together in our teeny tiny house down by the river. Teeny tiny was putting it mildly; Ali’s room was smaller than Nelson Mandela’s cell). We’ve been through a darned lot, plenty of boyfriends (well, except Ali, who was lucky enough to find her soul mate in high school, though she had her moments of boyfriend related trauma), homes, calendars with ridiculously cute puppies, degrees, and weddings. We found careers and true loves and after 10 years of friendship we have a rotating brunch date every couple of months. Sometimes the men are invited, but there’s always plenty of food, catching up and gossip.

On the menu tomorrow is pea meal bacon courtesy of Jeff, yogurt and berries and the best part, apple raisin French toast strata. Strata has been our go to brunch dish for the last little bit, we’ve had basic ones, and fancy ones with lobster. This one reminds me of summer camp and applesauce raisin toast sandwiches after early morning swimming. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Ingredients
• 1 (1 pound) loaf cinnamon raisin bread, cubed ( I had already stolen a couple pieces as a snack….)
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, diced
• 1 cup diced peeled apples
• 8 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups half-and-half cream
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/4 cup maple syrup

Cube the bread and throw half in a big casserole dish. Add the cream cheese in an even layer over the bread, and then the apple. You could also add extra raisins which I just realized I forgot to do. Then top with the rest of the bread. Mix the eggs, cream, butter and maple syrup and pour over the top. Cover with plastic wrap and push down to make sure all the bread is soaked. I put it in the fridge overnight and we’ll cook it up at 350 for 45 minutes.

1 comment:

  1. How's it go? Any tips? Thinking about making this tomorrow for 'dinner'!

    ReplyDelete