Granola French Toast With Very Berry Maple Syrup

Photo: Bebe Love Okazu

Ingredients

Granola French Toast with Very Berry Maple Syrup

1 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup fresh sliced strawberries

1/2 cup fresh blueberries

2 cups homemade granola

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups low-fat milk

6 inches 1 thick slices challah egg bread

Touch of vanilla extract

Unsalted butter

Preparation

In a small saucepan, combine maple syrup and all of the berries. Simmer over medium heat, then remove pan from heat and keep sauce warm.

Using a food processor, grind homemade granola into coarse crumbs. My food processor didn’t do a good job chopping the dried fruit in the granola, but the chunks of dried fruit added a surprisingly nice contrast in texture to the soft french toast. Pour the ground granola into a shallow dish.

In a large casserole dish, whisk eggs, milk and vanilla extract. The original recipe doesn’t call for vanilla, but I always use vanilla for our french toast and didn’t want to stray from habit. Soak the challah bread for 5 minutes, turning over the bread once.

I’d like to mention that this was my first time using challah bread for french toast, and when I saw this recipe called for challah bread, I was very excited because not too long ago, The Hungry Artist, posted challah french toast and when I asked her about the bread she highly recommended I try this, and I am SO glad that I did! It was so incredibly soft and delicious. We usually make french toast with wedges of Hawaiian King’s Bread or the thick Japanese shokupan (white breakfast bread) but I’m happy to incorporate this wonderful bread in our Sunday morning french toast.

Transfer soaked challah bread to the dish with granola and coat both sides. I recommend pouring the granola into the dish a little bit at a time because I made the mistake of pouring all of it into the dish, and as the rest of the granola gets wet, it doesn’t stick as well to the french toast. Repeat with the remaining bread.

In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Working in batches, cook french toast, about 3 – 4 minutes on each side, until golden brown. Serve the granola french toast warm with the very berry maple syrup.