Baked French toast can be made in advance

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Here is a good breakfast recipe for all that company we get. The problem is they won’t want to go home if they think more of the same might be in the offing.

Tina in Holden remembered eating a make-ahead baked French toast at an Ellsworth restaurant. She described it as a kind of strata with blueberry sauce on it, and sure enough, Margaret Earley in Alton and Jean Fosillo in Mount Desert recognized this dish and sent along recipes and advice.

This dish is much beloved by B&B owners, apparently. I took a quick squint on the Web, where several recipe sources described this as Such-and-Such-an-Inn’s blueberry baked French toast. Jean’s recipe came from the Maine Course Cookbook put together for the benefit of the Mount Desert Island YMCA by Patty and Bruce LaMotte from recipes donated by various inns and restaurants. This particular one, Jean writes, came from the Maples Inn. I can see why they’d like it. You can make this the evening before and it goes together so easily that you could be half-asleep when you do it. Then in the morning, shove it in the oven and an hour later there is a substantial and yummy breakfast or brunch dish.

Actually, it might be a bit too substantial. I was startled when I saw that it called for a pound of cream cheese and a dozen eggs. I did what I was told, though, but I was right: a pound is a bit much and my husband, Jamie, thought it ought to have a whole other layer of bread if it had that much cheese in it. Jean’s recipe called for a mere ten eggs, and that is how many I used. I liked nutmeg in these bread pudding-like recipes, so I added a quarter or so teaspoon of it, and a shake of cinnamon.

And I could not leave the blueberry sauce instructions alone. When Jean suggested garnishing this with a twist of lemon, I thought, hmm, I think I’ll put lemon in the sauce. I use brown sugar a lot in place of plain white, and as you know by now, I like things a little less sweet, so the lemon was just right to offset the sauce’s sweetness. If you like it really sweet, you know to leave the lemon out.

Margaret Earley, who makes her sauce in the microwave, likes to take this to potlucks, where she points out you get more servings than the six to eight specified. Truly, I couldn’t eat a sixth or even eighth of this, so use your own judgment on serving sizes.

I have one of those Pyrex baking dishes that has the snap-on lid, which I think is perfect for closing up something like this to spend the night in the fridge, otherwise you get to put aluminum foil over the baking dish. And when I beat up the eggs and milk, I used my nice, old-fashioned rotary egg beater. That way no slippery yolk could slide past my spoon and miss participating in the custard.

Looking for …

Marion Wright of Bangor wrote to say, “Years ago my mother made a tart that she called ‘chess cakes.’ She lined the cup cake tins with pastry, then a spoonful of jelly, and lastly a cake batter.” Marion and I would love a detailed recipe for these “goodies” and we hope one of you will have it.

Baked Blueberry French Toast

Serves 6-12

12 slices of thick cut bread, crusts removed

8 ounces of chilled cream cheese, cubed

1 cup of fresh blueberries

10 eggs

2 cups of milk

1/3 cup of maple syrup

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Grease a 9-by-13-inch glass pan. Put six slices of bread in the bottom of the pan. Distribute the cubed cream cheese over them, and sprinkle in the blueberries. Put on the remaining slices of bread. Beat together eggs, milk, and maple syrup, and pour over the bread. Cover and put into the fridge overnight (or for eight hours). When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees, cover the dish with aluminum foil, if it isn’t already. Bake 30 minutes covered, then remove the foil and bake an additional 30 minutes.

Blueberry Sauce

Makes about 2 cups.

1 cup of water

2 tablespoons of cornstarch

1/2 cup of light brown sugar

1/4 cup of sugar

2 cups of blueberries

Zest of one lemon

Juice of half a lemon

1 tablespoon butter

Whisk together the water and cornstarch, and then add the sugar and half of the blueberries. Bring to a boil and cook for a minute or two. Then add the rest of the blueberries, lemon juice, zest, and the butter. Bring to a boil again, and put into a sauce boat or on individual servings of the French toast.