Ever since I had French Toast at a breakfast table on our honeymoon in Malaysia, there has been no looking back. I am really not a breakfast person and have skipped my morning meal on most of the occasions. Back when I was a single working girl living a fast paced life in Bombay, early morning office rush in local trains meant hurriedly leaving home on time with just a cup of tea and a handful of biscuits while mom would scream not to stuff my mouth so hastily. When I came to Dubai, it was all different. Having to prepare own breakfast would usually see me whisking up an omelet for the husband, almost every now and then. After couple of weeks we got bored of having eggs at the breakfast and I started searching for ideas when it finally dawned on me that I am the sole person in the house who has to feed my new family. Gone are those days when I’d step in the kitchen only after great deal of coaxing from mom and now as you can see my life has changed leaps and bounds since then!
And don’t you agree weekends are always a reason for celebrations? I love lazy Fridays in Dubai. Well who doesn’t? After all that waking up on first call of an alarm and running errands during the week, one needs a day off to relax and refresh. On most of the weekends, I’d whip up a batch of French Toast as a treat; always tweaking a recipe or two that I’d generally stumble upon on the web. And sometime make stuffed toast that I had in Langkawi, Malaysia. Off all things that we ate on our honeymoon, one of my favorite things was our English breakfast by the poolside at Langkawi Lagoon Resort as newly weds with my hands and feet still decorated with elegant henna. And yeah food markets in the night too. I can recall it was stuffed with cream cheese and oozing with flavors of dragon fruit – excellent would be an understatement! I’d make a pig of myself eating that everyday alongwith other offerings for over a week in a row and still not get tired of it. Strange enough it had that homey feeling that I absolutely adored.
Every time I have my fridge stocked with even small amount of cream cheese, I love to make a stuffed French Toast and more often than not stir in fresh fruits and sometimes spice it up with either cardamom or cinnamon! Here’s my version of French Toast with cardamom spiced strawberry cream cheese filling. Hope you’ll like it too!
Ingredients:
Makes 8 triangles
For Toast :
- Bread Slices – 8 loaves, each cut into triangles
- Milk – 2 cups, at room temperature
- Eggs – 2, at room temperature
- White Granulated Sugar – 2 tbsp
- Cardamom – 1 tbsp, optional
- Butter – for cooking, unsalted.
For Cream Cheese Filling:
- Cream Cheese – 1/4 cup, room temperature
- Fresh Strawberries – 7-8 nos, hulled and chopped
- White Granulated Sugar – 2 tbsp
Method :
Whisk cream cheese smooth with sugar. Stir in chopped strawberries and keep aside. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs. Add milk, sugar and cardamom. Give a good whip till everything is incorporated and keep it aside. Spread the strawberry and cream cheese mixture on 4 triangles and top with other 4 (plain ones). Melt butter on a non stick pan over medium heat. Dip each sandwich in the milk-egg mixture for a few seconds on each side and cook on a buttered pan until golden brown on each side, approx 2-3 minutes per side. Serve it as it is sprinkled with some sliced dry fruits or topped with your favorite maple syrup.
