Peaches & Cream Stuffed French Toast

This past week has been a complete whirlwind. Well, to be honest the last month has been one, between finishing up school work, finals, housework, regular work, etc. But Josh had show, after show, after show booked this past week, and it culminated in a weekend of almost non-stop movement. Friday night he played in Austin, Saturday evening in Addison, then later that night in Texarkana. When he plays in Austin our friends Niki & Veronica are kind enough to let us stay with them. To say thanks I brought some french toast fixings with us this time. Veronica picked up some fresh berries, mimosa fixings, and the milk that I'd forgotten to bring with me (d'oh!), and it all made for a delicious meal. After a pretty rushed week, it was nice to sit and have a good breakfast with good friends before we hit the road again.

Peaches & Cream Stuffed French Toast
Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart; Serves 4

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup peach preserves
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon-sugar
8 slices challah, appx. 1" thick
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
Pinch of salt
Unsalted butter

• In a small bowl, mix the cream cheese, preserves, and cinnamon-sugar until well blended.
• Using a small knife, cut a slit in each slice of challah, lengthwise along the bottom to create a pocket.
• Fill each pocket with the cream cheese mixture and press slightly to seal, scraping off any excess from the bottom of the bread.
• Whisk together eggs, milk, and salt in a bowl.
• Soak both sides of each slice of bread in the egg mixture very well.
  
• Heat butter in skillet or griddle over medium heat. Fry bread until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Serve warm. You can keep prepared slices warm in the oven while you continue cooking the rest.

My notes: I use a stripped down version of a Martha Stewart recipe for the batter, and created the stuffing mixture on my own. I sliced and stuffed the challah Friday morning, so at Niki & Veronica's on Saturday I just had to whip up the batter and get to griddling. I kept the bread refrigerated until about an hour before I cooked it. This came out really yummy. I think I could have fit a bit more filling into some of the slices, so I'm going to try and get them a bit fuller next time. I had some filling leftover, which is excellent on a bagel, or leftover challah slices.