Granola French Toast with Very Berry Maple Syrup
I hope everyone had a wonderful Father’s Day! That seems like so long ago, although it was only just a week ago! I’ve been looking forward to posting our yummy Father’s Day french toast breakfast but I have been surprisingly busy this week, but in a good way! My mom (grandma/Bachan) stayed with Bebe E and I to keep us company and help out while Bebe Dada was traveling. Needless to say, we had a fabulous time while my mom was visiting and Bebe E was happy to have a play mate other than mommy AND someone who feeds her baby cookies since I don’t!
We had a busy, yet very fulfilling Father’s Day holiday weekend recognizing all of our special Dads. On Saturday night we celebrated with Bebe Dada’s family at a Chinese restaurant with multiple delicious dishes. As soon as we arrived (the last ones, again) everyone wanted to hold Bebe E and give her a hug but she just woke up from a nap in the car and wasn’t ready to be social, so to each family member who held their arms out to her to get a hug, she would shake her head quickly, “no”. It was quite cute since she just started shaking her head “no” last week when she didn’t want to eat what I was feeding her. (Ok, the part where she won’t eat her food isn’t so cute.) Eventually, she went to Yin-Yin and Papa (grandma and grandpa) and gave them big hugs.
On Sunday night, we celebrated Father’s Day with my side of the family and my brother picked-up fresh crab from the Redondo Beach Pier because my Dad LOVES crab. If you’ve never been to the fish market at Redondo Beach Pier, it’s definitely an interesting experience. You select the live crab that you want to purchase, and then they give you the option of taking the crab home live, or they’ll steam it for you right there. When we were kids, my parents used to take my brother and I to the pier to buy fresh, steamed crab. It was always an adventure because we got to see an abundance of tanks filled with different crab, lobster and fish. As we stood in the long line to select our crab we could peer over the sides of the tanks and watch the crabs moving around. We thought that was pretty neat.
Earlier that Sunday, Big Onechan and I made Bebe Dada a very nice breakfast at home. Usually on Sundays, Bebe Dada makes breakfast for us so we wanted to return the kindness on Father’s Day and let him relax. Big Onechan wanted to learn how to make eggs over-easy and make these for Bebe Dada, since they are his favorite. I, in turn, saw a granola french toast recipe in last month’s issue of Parent’s magazine by celebrity chef Jamie Gwen that I thought would be perfect for a special occasion, especially since I’ve been making homemade granola fairly regularly. So Big Onechan and I made a nice breakfast of eggs, french toast and bacon. I must confess, however, that Bebe Dada made the bacon for us since I don’t know how to cook bacon properly and always burn it. What can I say…. When I was growing up, my Dad always made bacon for me and I’ve never been motivated to learn!
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 1-inch thick slices challah egg bread
- Touch of vanilla extract
- Unsalted butter
1) 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.
2) 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.
3) 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.
4) 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.
5) 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.
Big Onechan did a FANTASTIC job making eggs over-easy. She didn’t break ONE egg yolk, and she made 5 eggs over-easy! I taught her how to use two spatulas to flip the egg over, what to look for when the egg is ready to be flipped, and most importantly, to season the eggs with salt and pepper while they are cooking. Below is the Father’s Day plate she made for Bebe Dada.
The bacon above the “eyes” are Bebe Dada’s “hair” although we joked that they could be his bushy eyebrows. We already poured the berry maple syrup on the french toast which is the brown stuff you see on the plate. Rest assured, Bebe Dada’s face is clean, and the blueberries aren’t representative of multiple moles.
The granola french toast was different than our usual french toast and was oh-so-delicious! The very berry maple syrup had a refreshing berry taste and really livened-up our plain ol’ maple syrup. I will definitely make this again and have filed this under Family Favorites for another special Sunday breakfast in the future.
I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend and I’ll “see” you again soon!
Cheers,
Judy | bebe mama
- 1 cup maple syrup
- ½ cup fresh sliced strawberries
- ½ cup fresh blueberries
- 2 cups homemade granola (see Recipe page of blog)
- 3 eggs
- 1½ cups low-fat milk
- 6 1-inch thick slices challah egg bread
- Touch of vanilla extract
- Unsalted butter
- Make berry syrup. 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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