Strawberry Cream Cheese French Toast

It's snowing again... has been all day. I whined to my Mom about it (okay, not really whined, observed petulantly?) about our flip-flopped seasons- she told me it was normal. For the West. Lets be honest, is anything really "normal" for the West? Any state with a major mountain range in it (and no, sorry, the Appalachians don't count here) is used to bizarre, quick-changing weather. But I never remember getting one storm all winter, then FOUR in the first two months of spring! One or two, sure. But the majority of this year's snowfall?? Weird. Hey, at least we're getting water. Water is good. But it's delaying the flowers... and I am ready for flowers! 

Who am I kidding. I love it. I love bizarre weather, whatever it is. The more it changes, the happier I am. Any weather for weeks on end gets old. Well, maybe not rain. Rain is my favorite. This latest snowfall has been almost creepy... it snowed nonstop all day, but it wasn't quite cold enough to stick. So it melted as soon as it hit pavements, slowly mounding up on the grass. The eerie part was constantly checking... is it sticking yet? ...knowing that all the time, it's getting wetter and wetter... and any minute the temperature would drop just a hair more, and it would all freeze. That's when things would get treacherous. And according to the commuting Geologist, boy did it ever!! 

So here's a bit of sunshine, for all of us Coloradans who are apparently stuck in the middle of Spring's identity crisis!

Strawberry Cream Cheese French Toast
Printable Recipe

1 loaf brioche or challah bread (you can use other breads, this is what I recommend)
4 eggs
1 cup milk
2 Tb sugar
2 Tb butter, melted and cooled a bit
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt


4 oz cream cheese
1 Tb sugar
1/2 cup chopped strawberries
sliced strawberries (optional)

First, combine the cream cheese, sugar, and strawberries in a food processor. Pulse a few times to mix well. You can puree it completely, but I liked having chunks of strawberry. Place this strawberry cream cheese in the fridge.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, sugar, butter, vanilla, and salt until well combined. Dip each piece of bread quickly in the egg mixture (Don't let it get soggy!), and cook on a griddle or a skillet, on medium high, till each side is golden brown. You can grease your cooking surface with a bit of butter if you like. When your toast is cooked, spread with cream cheese and top with sliced strawberries to make sandwiches. Serve plain, dusted with powdered sugar, or even with whipped cream or syrup!

Note: You can also cut the slices of bread extra thick, and cut a slice into each one, forming a pocket. Then fill with cream cheese, and cook. The cream cheese will be warm and gooey this way. Both ways work!

My cream cheese is especially gooey, I spread it on after the first flip... so it cooked with the toast... we decided against that method. Still yummy!

Our family loves french toast. We polish off loaves at a time. When we can't agree on pancakes or waffles, we opt for french toast. It's a classic "nothing planned for dinner" meal. We've been trying to create a stuffed french toast ever since we started watching the Food Network, 3 years ago. Theirs had crushed crunchy cornflakes on the outside, and a pocket system instead of the sandwich setup... but this is dang good!

Strawberries are Joe's favorite food in the whole world. And my third favorite berry. And they're just now starting to get good over here. So I packed as much strawberry-ness in this as I could. Sure, you could just use pre-made strawberry cream cheese, but I promise, it's not as good. The fresh berries on top are the perfect finishing touch!

It isn't as heavy as it sounds. Fluffy, eggy, golden vanilla toast (NOT soggy!) spread with cool, creamy, sweet strawberry cream cheese, with fresh fruity strawberries all through? It's summer breakfast on a plate!