I try to avoid talking about my age – I always say you’re as old as you feel, so I’m either 25 or 100! But we’ll get a hint of it with two things I’m going to do today – share my experience with my new glasses and quote “The Breakfast Club”. 🙂
So…I’ve always needed glasses to drive (I have one bad eye, so I can get around fine but I have no depth perception). But when I went to the eye doctor recently, they told me my eye were getting a little worse, and recommended…progressive lenses! Which I’m now supposed to wear all the time. They’re OK, but there are some things that are tough, like looking at something not close with my head down. So, what does that have to do with this recipe? Well, when you crack an egg and dump the shell in the trash right away, guess what you’re doing, looking down at the trash can from a distance! And this recipe takes 8 eggs! Holy dizziness, Batman!
Now for the quote from my all-time favorite movie, “The Breakfast Club”. We know that here in the Den, I’m all about low-carb living. And I know any kind of diet change should be a way of life, not just something you do till you reach a goal. But sometimes we all just want something we don’t normally have. And in the immortal words of John Bender, being bad feels pretty good.
So, with all that said, here is a delicious breakfast casserole recipe for those times when you want to go right off the rails! A note about mascarpone. You may think you’ve never had it, but you may well have – it’s in tiramisu and some cannoli fillings. Basically, it’s an Italian cream cheese, but it’s sweeter than regular cream cheese. I get it in the “fancy cheese” area of the supermarket.
Peach Mascarpone Stuffed French Toast
1 loaf unsliced bread (I used brioche bread I bought in the supermarket bakery – I think croissants would work well too, actually)
2 large peaches
8 oz. mascarpone
8 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Cut bread into chunks and leave out for at least an hour to “stale” up a little. Peel and dice peaches. Combine eggs, milk, cream, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg in large bowl and whisk well to combine.
Layer about half the bread in bottom of 9×12 casserole dish. Cover with diced peaches. Remove mascarpone from tub and cut into chunks (it cuts up easier if you freeze it for 10-15 minutes, but it’s not going to cut into pretty chunks no matter what you do). Cover diced peaches with mascarpone chunks. Layer the other half the bread over mascarpone. Pour milk mixture over the top, pushing down slightly to make sure all the bread gets covered.
Cover casserole dish with cling wrap and refrigerate overnight. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.
Here it is straight out of the oven and before and during syrup application – I used regular maple syrup with a little cinnamon added, btw.
And just because I like it and I probably won’t have another peach recipe until next summer, here’s a picture I once took out of a moving car of a large peach (I think it’s a water tower). Never a bad time for a picture of the Giant Peach!
