Bacon Wrapped French Toast

Sweet french toast sticks wrapped in crunchy, salty bacon.  A great handheld breakfast.

Another delicious gameday breakfast or snack.  If you haven't noticed I kind of have a bacon theme when it comes to football snacks, and breakfast.  What can I say... I love bacon.  These delicious breakfast bites were actually my husband's idea; I just executed them.  Prepared the night before, these were baked in the morning and ready for 6am kickoff with very little work.  I know I have no interest in preparing an extravagant breakfast that early, and I want to watch  the game.

I ❤ bacon | Bacon Wrapped French Toast  [Tweet this]

Bacon Wrapped French Toast

Prep time:  30 min
Bake time:  15 min

Ingredients:

3 thick slices of bread
3 eggs
2-3 tsp maple syrup
2 Tbsp milk
dash vanilla extract
12 half strips of bacon, raw

First cook the bacon.  You want to slightly undercook the bacon so it is pliable and squiggly (my husband's word but I think it describes it well). Let the bacon cool on paper towels while preparing the french toast.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, maple syrup, and vanilla until well beaten.  One at a time dunk a slice of bread in egg mixture and place in a buttered frying pan at medium heat.  Fry on both sides until browned.  Repeat with all the bread.

Let the french toast cool until easy to handle.  Then cut each slice into 4 strips for a total of 12 french toast strips.

Wrap one piece of bacon around each french toast strip.  Place seam-side down on a baking sheet.  You can use toothpicks to secure the bacon if you prefer, but as long as the ends are tucked under the toast, it will shrink during baking and cling to the french toast strip.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to bake.

On gameday morning, preheat the oven to 350F with the rack in the center.  Remove the bacon wrapped french toast from the refrigerator and bake for 15 minutes until the bacon crisps.

Allow to cool slightly (that's when I take pictures).  Serve with maple syrup for dipping.

Watch the game, eat and enjoy (great with a spicy bloody mary and a beer back).

Linked to:  Merry Monday

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Saturday Breakfast and Liebster Award

Today's breakfast/brunch was french toast (with home made bread), breakfast potatoes, and bacon.

This is just a quick post to show off my tasty breakfast.  I had fresh bread so I decided to make french toast.  I also had a leek and a potato left over from what I cooked earlier in the week and I always have bacon on hand so these all became my breakfast. Here is what I did.

The french toast was very basic.  Just egg, milk, maple syrup and vanilla extract.  4 slices of french bread dunked in the egg mixture and fried in butter until brown.  Simple yet very good.

The breakfast potatoes were awesome.  I cooked them in a cast iron skillet.  In about 1 Tbsp of bacon grease I sauteed the leek that had been chopped (just the white part).  Then I added the diced potato and sauteed those together for a few minutes with salt and pepper.  And put the whole skillet in the oven at 400F for about 20 minutes until the potato was thoroughly cooked.  I melted a slice of provolone on top and then dropped on 2 raw eggs, a little salt and pepper, and put it all back in the oven for about 3-5 minutes until the eggs were just set but the yolks still runny.  It made for some tasty potatoes.  Makes 2 servings.  Enjoy.

Liebster Award:

Recently, I was nominated by BitterBaker for the Liebster award.  It's a social award to interesting new blogs/blogs with few followers.  It seems like a great way to introduce myself and get to know other bloggers.  Here are the rules:

• Post 11 facts about yourself
• Answer the 11 questions the person who nominated you asked
• Notify the person who nominated you that you answered their questions
• Nominate 11 blogs with few (some places say less than 200 followers)
• Notify your nominees and give them a link to your questions
• No tag backs

11 random facts about me:

1.  My high school  mascot was a unicorn
2.  I have Multiple Sclerosis
3.  I've worked as a bartender
4.  I like to knit and crochet
5.  I'm 29
6.  I love the water (swimming)
7.  I like to eat peanut butter with my chocolate ice cream (that's the only way I prefer to eat ice cream)
8.  I have 3 older sisters
9.  I love to read (lately I've been stuck on teen fantasy/romance)
10.  I think I may love my kitchenaid stand mixer more than my husband
11.  I  played rugby in college

11 questions I was asked:

1. What did you want to be when you grew up?  A Veterinarian
2. What’s the number one thing one your bucket list?  I don't have a bucket list
3. What inspired you to start food blogging?  I love talking about what I'm cooking and always telling my family about it.
4. What keeps you going?  Swimming
5. Have you ever stood on a skateboard?  No
6. Tell me about an awkward moment that you laugh about today.  Sorry, I can't think of one
7. Do you like kale?  Yes
8. Are you a coffee or tea person?  It depends on my mood but usually I'm just a water person
9. What do you have for breakfast?  Usually a granola bar, sometimes a bagel, and often on weekends bacon
10. Three words your friends would use to describe you?  Nice, Happy, Awesome
11. Your favorite motto/quote?   May your crust be crisp and your bread always rise--baker's blessing

11 blogs I would like to nominate (in no particular order): (some of these have more than 200 followers)

Simple Kitchen Seasons
With Love From Mom 's Kitchen
One Couple's Kitchen
Turmeric n Spice
Words of Deliciousness
Phickle
Yesterfood
Smoked n Grilled
Foodienarium
Stephanie Cooks
Planet Bake Life

My 11 questions for you:

1.  What is your favorite kitchen appliance?
2.  What is your favorite cooking/baking tool?
3.  What is your favorite food?
4.  What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
5.  What is your favorite book of all time?
6.  Where would you like to travel/vacation?
7.  Beer or Wine?
8.  Edward or Jacod (if you have no idea what I'm talking about just ignore this question)?
9.  What is your favorite sport?
10.  Ocean (or lake) or pool?
11.  Dogs or cats?

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Stuffed French Toast Bread Pudding

Bread pudding lightly sweetened with maple syrup with cream cheese and raisins.  Great breakfast.

What to do with sandwich bread that didn't turn out as soft and fluffy as preferred?  French toast is always an option, but an even better one is bread pudding.  I wanted my bread pudding to be more of a breakfast instead of a dessert so I didn't sweeten it as much as usual.  I added some cream cheese to the mix to make it reminiscent of stuffed french toast and that was a great idea.  The cream cheese added a bit of cheesiness to the pudding with out being overwhelming and cut the sweetness a bit.  I planned on eating this for breakfast all week, but as I was putting the dish in the refrigerator it slipped from my grasp to shatter on my kitchen floor (I really need a rubber floor in my kitchen, anything that gets dropped shatters).  I said some very un-ladylike words and had to throw it all away.  At least I had one serving and it was great.  When I get over the pain of my loss maybe I will try to make this again.

Ingerdients:
Slightly modified from Better Homes cookbook

5 cups of bread pieces (I used a dense multigrain)
4 eggs
2 1/4 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp orange zest (optional)
1 tsp cinnamon 
1/4 cup maple syrup
4 oz cream cheese, softened (1/2 pack)
1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350F.  Cut or tear the bread into large chunks and set aside in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl mix the cream cheese, eggs, milk, vanilla, orange zest, cinnamon and maple syrup.  Pour the liquid over the bread and toss to coat every piece with liquid.  Let sit for a few minutes so the bread absorbs some of the liquid.  Then, spoon into a buttered casserole dish while layering in the raisins.  Press down on the bread so that it is packed tightly into the dish and pour over the rest of the liquid.  Allow the casserole to sit for about 10 minutes until much of the liquid is absorbed, then cover with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes.  Uncover and bake for about 10 minutes longer to form a brown crust (pudding should be set so that a knife inserted in the center comes out clean).  Allow to cool for about 15 minutes before serving.  Makes 6 servings.  Serve with bacon and orange wedges (from the orange that was zested).  Enjoy, and try not to drop it.

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French Toast

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When ever I have a good dense home made bread (especially cinnamon raisin) I want to make french toast in the mornings. Some people get a little scared when they hear 'french' in cooking, but this is not a difficult recipe. I don't even use an official recipe, it's all very basic.

The main thing about french toast, is you soak your bread in an egg mixture so it softens and absorbs some of the flavor. Then you bake, toast or fry it. It's raining today or I would try grilling it...maybe another time.

• note this is a great use for slightly stale bread

• also note this works best with a more substantial slice of bread, one that will not fall apart when it gets soaked

My bread:

From my earlier post, I have cinnamon raisin bread. This is a great type of bread to use for french toast b/c it has so much flavor. As I mentioned in my post, this bread is rather dense so it will hold up nicely.

My Soak:

I am only making enough french toast for myself (so only 2 slices). I think I will use only 1 egg. Then I will add milk, for this I will use vanilla soy milk. It has great flavor, and a little less fat than regular milk, and I won't need to add any vanilla extract.

• note on soy milk: I only buy and use organic soy milk. This is the only way to make sure the beans used in my soy milk are not genetically modified. While it is not certain if genetically modified foods cause any health risks, I choose not to support genetically modified (GM) soybeans for other reasons. GM seeds are patented by the company that modifies them. They then sell these seeds to the farmer. However even after the farmer buys these seeds he/she does not own them. After planting and harvesting the farmer is not allowed to keep the seed and replant he/she must buy a new batch of seeds from the company that modified them. I don't like this so I choose not to support it. I would rather support farmers not big corporations.--I apologize for the rant

So I have an egg/milk mixture (kind of like scrambled eggs). To this I add a little cinnamon, alittle nutmeg, and a little maple syrup. This is all up to individual taste and smell, I never measure--if you use regular milk, you may want to add just a dash of vanilla extract. Then let the bread soak for about 10-15 min per side (this depends on how stale/hard your bread is. It can soak over night if necessary).

My cooking method:

I will be frying my french toast. So heat up the pan about a medium heat, grease/oil the pan. You can use butter if you want, I will be using almond oil (it has a little less saturated fat and it wont burn at this temperature. Fry the toast on both sides until it is browned and a little crisp.

Finish off with a sprinkle of powdered sugar and enjoy. (I will be enjoying mine with a few links of turkey sausage)

Results:

Wow that was a great breakfast/lunch. 2 pieces was more than I could finish with sausage and fruit. I did not add any more maple syrup to the toast when it was done (I didn't want too much sweetness b/c I also had fruit)

I had a whole fresh pineapple that I cut up, I had about 1/2 cup of pieces, about 10 grapes, and a banana cut up. The fruit was a wonderful addition to my breakfast, it added great color, and freshness.

I still have 1 piece of french toast and 2 sausage links left for later.

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