Porch Swing French Toast

My cousin Phillip and his wife Teresa came for a visit.  This was the perfect opportunity to try out a recipe sent to me from my Aunt Suzy.  It won a contest for a B&B recipe and I thought it might work for me at our B&B.  I made a few changes.  Some on purpose and one by necessity...from a shopping error.  But Aunt Suzy is Phillip's aunt also, so I figured he could take the risk along with me.  Poor Lee and Teresa were only along for the ride.

 


Variation on Porch Swing French Toast

2 Tablespoon butter
1 loaf French bread 
1 cup fresh blueberries  This was not part of the recipe, but I had about 1 cup and decided to use it up.

4 eggs
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated if you can
1 8 oz. can crushed pineapple
1 Tablespoon orange zest or 1/4 teaspoon orange extract

I must confess that I didn't add the orange zest.  I love citrus zest.  But I only bought one orange at the store and then sliced it up and put it in the Sangria I made for dinner. Oops.  So I used orange extract and hoped for the best.

Do you think I can pull out the slices and then zest them?

1/2 cup chopped pecans

 

Topping
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 Tablespoon light corn syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped pecans

 


The night before, melt butter ( I used the microwave)  and pour it into a 9X13 baking dish.  Spread it over the bottom of the dish.  The recipe called for 1 inch slices.  I did one inch cubes.  The store didn't have a full French loaf.  I bought twin loaves and used 1 loaf and about 1/2 of the other.

 

Place the cubes in the buttered dish and scatter the cup of blueberries on top of the bread, if you are using them. In fact, more than one cup of blueberries would be even better.

 

Whisk together the eggs and cream.  Then add the sugar and whisk. Next add the OJ, vanilla, nutmeg, orange zest (PLEASE don't forget the orange for zesting.) nuts and crushed pineapple and mix well. 

I know these pictures are dark.  I made this just before bedtime.

Poor the mixture over the bread.

 

Combine the softened butter, corn syrup and brown sugar. 

 

Spread it as best you can over the bread mixture.  I dropped lumps all over the top and the spread them around with the back of a spoon.

 

Sprinkle the chopped nuts over the top, cover and refrigerate. 

 

Go to bed.

In the morning, heat the oven to 350°.  Remove the dish from the refrigerator and remove the plastic covering.  A VERY important step.  Let it sit on the counter to (mostly) warm up to room temperature and then bake for 40 minutes or until golden brown.

And now the pictures are too bright.  Some people are never satisfied.

It was really good and a hit with my guinea pigs...I mean, Phillip and Teresa.  Unless they were just being polite. 

 

I served it with scrambled eggs and bacon. 

 

The recipe said it served 6, but with the addition of eggs and bacon, I could have served 8 people easily.  In the future I will reduce the size of the baking dish to 8X8 and reduce the amount of bread to fit it.  I would keep the eggs and cream the same, as the dish was a bit dry on the edges and needed more liquid.  I will definitely make this in the future.  It was really good and the blueberries were excellent.