Mango Stuffed French Toast

Somehow I forgot the most important recipe I made on Christmas--our breakfast!! I was looking at recipes on the Rick Bayless website recently and saw this recipe for Mango Stuffed French Toast. Oh man...I wanted to make it right then! I figured I'd save it for Christmas morning. I like to have some kind of breakfast casserole that can be in the oven while we're opening presents. It worked out even more perfectly because there were mangos in my basket from Bountiful Baskets.

Mango Stuffed French Toast
Copyright © 2009 Rick Bayless

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus 1 tablespoon softened butter for casserole dish
3 mangos (approximately 2 1/2 pounds) peeled and diced into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 cup sugar (divided use)
12 ounces cream cheese (softened)
12 slices egg bread (challah) sandwich loaf
6 large eggs
1 1/2 cups half & half
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Powdered sugar for garnish
Warm maple or agave syrup

In a very large (12-inch) non-stick skillet over medium-high heat, melt 4 tablespoons butter. Add the mango and saute for approximately 10 minutes or until soft. Sprinkle in a 1/4 cup sugar and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Set aside to cool.

In a small bowl, mix the softened cream cheese and the remaining 1/4 cup sugar.

Butter a 13 x 9 casserole dish with 1 tablespoon softened butter. Divide the cream cheese mixture equally between the slices of bread and spread, covering the entire surface. Place 6 of the slices in the bottom of the prepared dish with the tops of the bread facing out. You may need to squeeze the slices together to make them fit. Spoon the cooled mango slices and their syrup evenly over the bread. Press the remaining slices, cream cheese side down, on top of the mango layer.

Whisk together the eggs, half and half, vanilla and cinnamon. Pour the mixture over the top of the stuffed French toast, making sure to cover all the bread with the egg mixture. Wrap tightly and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, remove the baking dish from the refrigerator and let stand at room temperature for 20 minutes while you preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake for approximately 45 minutes, or until lightly browned and warmed through. Sprinkle the top with powdered sugar and serve with warm syrup.

*****

I just realized we didn't have any syrup or powdered sugar with ours--we just ate it as is (or as was). This was AMAZING. I have yet to be disappointed by a Rick Bayless recipe. I'm telling you, he's a god among men (but not in a blasphemous way). Jen B. and I are dying to take a trip to Chicago and eat at all three of his restaurants.

We all really liked this. It's definitely a breakfast dish I'd make again. It was easy to put together and tasted awesome. Just thinking about it makes me want it again!

Soggy and gooey, going in the fridge the night before!




Mmmmmm...pan of mango french toast...


See the yummy layers? Man I can't wait to have this again!

Mango Banana Daiquiris

Quite awhile ago, my friend Jen B. told me about a blogging group that makes recipes from the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks called Barefoot Bloggers. If you read my blog regularly, you know that I heart Ina Garten, so I was very excited to find this group and be accepted as a member!

Each month, two members each choose a recipe from one of the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks and all the members of the group make those two recipes. I missed the actual date this was supposed to be done, but I think as long as I post by the end of the month I'm still allowed in the group. ;)

The first recipe for August was Mango Banana Daiquiris, chosen by Veronica of Supermarket Serenade. The husband is from New Orleans, and if you've ever been to New Orleans you've probably seen (or gone through) a drive through daiquiri stand (apparently if there's a straw it's considered an open container but no straw is fine). He is always game for trying some kind of daiquiri. I thought this would be a great accompaniment to our grilled pizzas tonight (which actually might end up being baked in the oven instead of grilled because it's looking a bit stormy outside).

Mango Banana Daiquiris
serves 4 (or 2 if you're at my house!)

2 cups chopped ripe mango (1 to 2 mangos, peeled and seeded)
1 ripe banana, chopped
1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice (4 limes)
1/4 cup sugar syrup*
1 1/4 cups dark rum, such as Mount Gay
Mango slices, for serving

Place the mango, banana, lime juice, sugar syrup, and rum in a blender and process until smooth. Add 2 cups of ice and process again until smooth and thick. Serve ice-cold in highball glasses with the mango slices.

*To make simple syrup, heat 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water in a small saucepan until the sugar dissolves. Chill.

*****

Mmmmmm...I love me a good fruity frozen drink. I hate cutting up mangoes, so I took the easy way out and bought a bag of frozen mango chunks at Trader Joe's. My bananas aren't super ripe, but I'm not too concerned about it. Heck, it may give me a reason to try these again soon. ;)

*****

You know what I just saw? This is my 600th post! How exciting!!

It's Saturday night now and the husband and I just finished off ANOTHER batch of these bad boys. We had two batches last night. I think we've found our summer go-to drink (fantastic, now that it's late August)! These are so super yummy. When I said my bananas weren't that ripe--wow, that was the understatement of the year. They were still green and difficult to peel. I think with ripe bananas, these would be even better. I added a little more simple syrup to try and compensate for the lack of extra sweetness ripe bananas would have added to it. I found the first batch to be too limey (which may have been because I just haphazardly squeezed in juice from four limes instead of measuring it out), and we left the lime juice out of the second batch. Now, whether they were really better without the lime juice or if it was just because we were on batch #2, I'm not sure. The husband wanted to add more rum, and I tried to convince him to just try them as they were, but he insisted that it needed another shot. He added one to his and then said it was too much rum. He obviously doesn't know to trust Ina!! Although, I did add 1-1/2 cups rum instead of 1-1/4, so I guess technically I did add extra but not once they were done.

Ina, once again you've done me right!!!!