Strawberry Stuffed French Toast

Yum! Natasha, Zoey and I went to hand pick some strawberries in the outskirts of the city. It was one of those long lost summer days that brings me ample of memories of junior high days. A bit care free and a bit too much fun I would say, but totally worth the day off work.

Here are the pictures of our hand picked strawberries.

As soon as we got home, we washed a basket-full of these hand picked strawberries and ate them immediately. They were by far the most delicious strawberries I have ever tasted. Partly because they are so full of strawberry flavour and oooh sooo sweet. I often turn away from strawberries due to their sourness in the store-bought ones these days. But these are so worth the work to hand picked them. So what to do with our 5 pounds of strawberries? We looked up two amazinging mouth-watering recipes, a strawberry stuffed french toast and strawberry cream cheese tart, and the remaining of the day is spend baking these delicious goodies.

First up the strawberry stuffed french toast.

Ingredients:

Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients:
For the filling:
1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
2 tbsp. sugar
4 oz. cream cheese, softened

For the toast:
4 thick slices bread, such as challah or soft Italian bread
1 large egg
¾ cup milk
2 tbsp. melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. salt
Unsalted butter

Maple syrup, powdered sugar and additional fresh strawberries for serving

Procedure:

1. To make the filling, combine the sliced strawberries and sugar in a medium bowl.  Mix well and set aside to macerate for about 15 minutes.  Stir in the cream cheese until well blended.

2. To prepare the toast, carefully slice a pocket into the center of each slice of bread, taking care not to cut all the way through to the other side.  Heat a large skillet over medium heat.  In a shallow baking dish or pie plate, whisk together the egg and milk.  Whisk in the melted butter and vanilla.  Stir in the flour, cinnamon and salt and whisk until smooth.  Fill the pocket of each slice of bread with some of the filling mixture.  One or two at a time, place the filled slices of bread in the egg mixture, soaking about 30-40 seconds per side.  Remove the bread and allow the excess batter to drip off.  Transfer to a plate and repeat with the remaining bread slices.

3. Add 1 tablespoon of butter to the heated skillet and swirl to coat.  Add the filled slices of toast to the skillet in a single layer.  Cook until light golden brown and crisp, about 1-2 minutes per side.  Repeat with the remaining slices of bread, adding more butter to the skillet as needed.  Serve immediately with maple syrup, powdered sugar and fresh strawberries as desired.

Heavily Adapted from Annie's Eats

Thoughts:
1. These are soo delicious I have no complaints about them. The only thing I might change is the type of bread we used. I think it'll work well with thick slices of toast as well.
2. I'd watch for how long the cream cheese are cooked for. Because cream cheese turn a bit sour when heated, which is a turn off for me.