Peaches and Cream Cheese French Toast

It's peach season!

I stopped by a local fruit stand and bought a bag. Oh man, are they ever good. Utah peaches may just be the best in the world. Before eating devouring the entire bag, I decided to use some baking. I put together two recipes, a peaches and cream cheese French toast and a peach pandowdy. Unfortunately, I made the pandowdy at night when the light isn't good for photographing. It didn't make it until morning and the aftermath wasn't so pretty. So for right now, I'm only posting the French toast. I'll try and do another pandowdy later.

This French toast recipe was a favorite from our bed & breakfast days. We loved the recipe because the ratio of "Ooohs!" and "Aaaahs!" to the amount of actual work that went into it was very good. It's really easy. And then one day, Katie discovered that our cinnamon cream syrup makes the French toast really divine. We've tried the recipe with other kinds of fruit, too. Blueberries are especially nice.

Give this a try. It's great for breakfast, lunch or dinner—not necessarily in the same day. (But hey, I could be tempted.)

Or, a late night snack!

Peaches and Cream Cheese French Toast

Ingredients:

• 1 large loaf of French toast (day old is best)
  
• 1 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese
  
• 2 cups peaches, fresh or canned*
  
• 12 eggs
  
• 2 cups milk
  
• ⅓ cup maples syrup
  

Cut bread into 1" cubes. Place half in greased 9"x13" baking dish. Cut cream cheese into ¼" pieces and place over bread. I usually just use my fingers and tear off pieces of cream cheese. Place peaches over bread and cream cheese. Top with remaining bread. At this point, I usually press down on the bread to compact it all. In a large bowl, beat eggs. Mix in milk and syrup. Pour over bread mixture. Cover with foil and chill at least 8 hours. Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. In a preheated oven, bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake 30 minutes longer or until golden brown and the center is set.

Serve with maple syrup or cinnamon cream syrup.

*Blueberries combined with the peaches or by themselves work very well in this recipe.