French toast that will knock your socks off

French toast has always been one of my favorite breakfast meals. I haven’t experimented much with different recipes since I love the plain old regular French toast, but my son told me about a new recipe he tried and liked. He made his French toast with French bread, but I tried it with the thick sliced French toast bread and it was really good. I used some homemade apricot preserves, but you can probably use any flavor preserves in the cream cheese filling and syrup for variety.

APRICOT CREAM CHEESE STUFFED FRENCH TOAST

SYRUP
1/3 cup apricot preserves
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/3 cup orange juice

STUFFING
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 Tbsp. apricot jam or preserves
½ cup walnuts, chopped

BATTER
5 eggs
½ cup half and half
1 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp. rum (optional)

8 slices thick sliced French toast bread
Butter for grilling
Powdered sugar

Make syrup by combining apricot preserves, corn syrup, and orange juice together. Set aside.

Mix cream cheese and jam together. Stir in chopped nuts. Spread 2 Tbsp. cream cheese mixture between 2 pieces of bread (sandwich style). Repeat for remaining pieces of bread.

Beat together eggs, ½ and ½ , vanilla, sugar and rum. Pour into a pie plate for easy dipping. Dip cream cheese sandwiches, one at a time in egg mixture for 30 seconds on each side. Cook on lightly buttered medium temperature griddle until both sides are golden brown. Remove from heat and slice diagonally.

Serve hot French toast with apricot syrup drizzled on top and sprinkled with powdered sugar.

MAKES 4 STUFFED SLICES.

I'm going to try this recipe with boysenberry, strawberry or peach preserves the next time I make it, just for fun.