Stuffed French Toast Muffins with Raspberries

By foodiva

Ingredients

• 1 small loaf or 1/2 large loaf of Challah bread (approx. 8 oz)
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup frozen raspberries
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, cubed
• 4 oz of cream cheese, softened
• 2 tbsp confectioners sugar
• 1 tbsp maple syrup

Details

Servings 12
Preparation time 20mins
Cooking time 45mins
Adapted from followtheruels.com

Preparation

Step 1

Every year for Christmas breakfast my mom makes the same things. We have all come to expect her delicious strata and tater tot casserole. My contribution has always been the monkey bread. Of course I am responsible for the sweets!

This year she threw a wrench into the whole plan. Three days before Christmas she said, “why don’t we make something different this year for Christmas breakfast.”

We went through dozens of recipes on Pinterest to find the perfect one and settled on a blueberry french toast casserole, but swapped in raspberries. It was a good first try, but afterwards I was eager to go home and make the recipe my way. And by that, I mean stuffed with cream cheese.

I started by cubing up a loaf of Challah bread. I hands down prefer Challah bread for French toast because its a tad sweeter and so light and fluffy. It’s delicious on it’s own and even better as French toast.

Next I mixed up some eggs, milk, vanilla, maple syrup, and cinnamon. Then I added in all the cubes of bread and gave them a good toss until the bread had completely soaked up all the liquid.

When I made this on Christmas Day, I used fresh raspberries, which I nestled in between the cubes of bread. After making this recipe with frozen raspberries, I will never go back! I love that I was able to basically pound them into tiny pieces that I could just sprinkle over top. That way I had little bits of raspberry in every bite. But, if you don’t like raspberries, you can add blueberries, strawberries, chocolate, or just leave them plain! Fine by me!

On top of the raspberry layer I added more cubes of bread. Then I topped everything off with a generous amount of strussel topping. I know it looks messy, but it’s worth it!

Now, this exact same recipe can be made in a casserole form. If my mom wants to make this recipe again next year, that’s probably what I will do. Instead of piping the cream cheese filling into each muffin, I would pipe it randomly into the casserole using the same method, or thin it down a bit to make a nice cream cheese icing.

Yield:

Using a serrated knife, cut the Challah into 1 inch cubes, then set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, maple syrup, vanilla, and cinnamon. Add in the bread cubes and toss to coat until all the liquid has been absorbed. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in the fridge for at least 1 hour, or overnight.

When ready to assemble the muffins, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the raspberries fresh from the freezer into a zip top bag and smash into pieces using a large spatula or rolling pin.

To make the strussel topping, add the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt to a small bowl then stir together with a fork. Add the butter and cut the butter into the flour mixture using two forks, a pastry cutter or your fingers. Sprinkle about 1 tbsp of strussel on top of each muffin.

Allow the muffins to cool on the counter. Meanwhile whisk together the filling ingredients until smooth. Transfer to a piping bag fitting with a large round piping tip or a zip top bag. Press the piping tip between two cubes of bread into the center of the muffin. Squeeze the bag while slowly lifting the bag back out of the muffin.

Serve immediately with extra maple syrup and confectioners sugar.

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