Overnight Blueberry French Toast

This is my “Beach Bum”. As I’ve stated numerous times - he is a fantastic cook. I haven’t really cooked in 17 + years. I do the baking but he does ALL the cooking. Am I spoiled or what. Women hear that and say, “Does he have a single brother?” Men hear that and say, “sshhhh – don’t let my wife hear you.” HA. Sorry guys. It’s true. He rocks in the kitchen.

It really is sort of a blessing AND a curse. His meals are always so good that it is impossible to turn them down - ever. He always makes extra when he makes breakfast for our guests. Yay for me. So inevitably I get to “sample” – okay you got me – I get a “ginormous” (that’s my word for gigantic and enormous combined) helping of whatever he makes.

Now let me just interject a key fact here. The guests are only here for a few days to a few weeks. They can “afford” to eat all the wonderful stuff my Beach Bum makes. Me, however, not so much. Day in and day out enjoying his wonderful cooking makes it extremely difficult to maintain my waistline. In fact, I was whining about my clothes being snug and told him that I felt fat. He replied in his ever so thoughtful way, “well babe it’s just because you’re happy. It’s called ‘happy fat’”. There – he had said it - I was “Fappy”. Happy + Fat = Fappy. Ugh……in my head I was thinking….. “if this is HAPPY FAT then I must be ECSTATIC.”

Therefore, I figured since misery loves company I had no choice but to put his recipe for his “famed” Overnight Blueberry French Toast on line (he said I could)! Now all of you can jot it down and add it to your recipe files. That way you can make it for yourselves and eat it and gain weight.

Overnight Blueberry French Toast

Seriously, this could be a dessert it’s so yummy. You won’t be able to resist it. You know I can't. But, since we do like to spoil (and fatten up) our guests (hee hee hee….misery loves company) we sometimes make them a pseudo dessert for breakfast. It truly is a favorite and we get many requests for the recipe. So grab a blank recipe card, sharpen your pencil and loosen your belt strap – you’ll thank me later. Let’s get cookin.

What you will need:

Note: We always try to use local, fresh ingredients for our recipes. Depending on what’s in season we will serve up breakfasts using produce, baked goods, etc. from local suppliers. We like to use bread from the local bakery L’Chayim. Day old bread is fine. In season there is a great little place down the road called The Market Basket. I love to get fresh produce from there.

For the base:

12 slices day-old bread, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 cup fresh blueberries (you'll actually need 2 total - one for the base and one for the topping which has the ingredients listed below)
12 eggs, beaten
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup maple syrup

For the topping:

1 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup fresh blueberries (see, told ya)
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup water

Now that you have all your ingredients – let’s pull it all together.

Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish. Arrange half the bread cubes in the dish, and top with cream cheese cubes. Sprinkle 1 cup blueberries over the cream cheese, and top with remaining bread cubes.

In a large bowl, mix the eggs, milk, vanilla extract, and syrup. Pour over the bread cubes. Cover, and refrigerate overnight.
Remove the bread cube mixture from the refrigerator about 30 minutes before baking. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Cover, and bake 30 minutes. Uncover, and continue baking 25 to 30 minutes, until center is firm and surface is lightly browned.

Now for the topping:

In a medium saucepan, mix the sugar, cornstarch, and water. Bring to a boil. Stirring constantly, cook 3 to 4 minutes. Mix in the remaining 1 cup blueberries. Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes, until the blueberries burst. Stir in the butter, and pour over the baked French toast.

There you go. That's all there is to it. So make it, eat it, enjoy it. It will make you happy. It will make you fat. It will make you FAPPY.

Love,

The Lady of the Lake