My Big Fat Stuffed French Toast

AKA 'Did that hole in my jeans just rip bigger so you can now see the color of my underwear?'






*Ahem*






The 'recipe':

You need Cinnamon Bread























3 cups warm (110-115 F) milk
about 1 cup plain full fat yogurt
3-4 tsp yeast
2-3 tablespoons honey
2-3 tablspoons canola oil
2 eggs
1-2 tablespoons sea salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup oat flour (pulse oatmeal in food processor until powder)
6 or 7(?) cups all purpose flour
4-5 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla sugar
3-4 tablespoons ground cinnamon
half a stick melted butter

Stir honey into warm milk. Bloom yeast for 5-10 minutes. In large mixing bowl, mix whole wheat and oat flours with salt. Dump in milk/yeast/honey mixture. Add yogurt. Stir to combine. Add eggs and oil and mix well. Add a little cinnamon to dough, too. Gradually add the all-purpose flour, a cup or so at a time until it can be more or less handled. Dump out onto floured countertop and knead 10 minutes, adding as little additional flour as possible. Return to mixing bowl and coat dough ball with a little more oil. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and allow to double.

In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla sugar. Divide dough into three equal parts. Spread each part roughly to 8X12 inch rectagle. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture to edges. Add more cinnamon if it doesn't look cinnamony enough. Starting with long edge, roll up and seal seam. Repeat with other 2 dough sections (yep, you'll have plenty for sharing). Place on parchment paper lined baking sheets. Spray with non-stick butter flavored cooking spray and cover with plastic wrap. Let loaves double, either an hour in warm kitchen or retard all day long in a cool place (I think this way tasted better). Melt butter and lightly brush loaves. Dock tops lightly with sharp knife. Bake about 35-40 minutes at 350, or until centers of loaves hit 200 on an instant read thermometer. Brush with a bit more melted butter as soon as they come out of the oven.

For the French Toast:

3 8-ounce packages light cream cheese
about 2 teaspoons vanilla
about 1/2 cup powdered sugar
about 2 teaspoons cinnamon
8 large eggs
about 6 cups milk: mostly skim, a little whole, some heavy cream I needed to use up before it got old and curdled.

Mix cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon in a bowl with a spoon. Whisk eggs and milk. Assemble triple-decker sandwiches with slices of cinnamon bread and the cheese, matching equal sized slices and cobbling together tightly in a 9X13 pan that you've sprayed liberally with non-stick spray. Carefully pour custard over bread. Cover and let sit overnight.

In the morning, bake at 350 for about 30 minutes covered. Uncover, and administer the caloric coup-de-gras: in a small bowl, cut 1/4 cup butter, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 3 tablespoons or so of flour, and a dash or three of cinnamon until it resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle topping onto French Toast and bake another 15 minutes. Broil if you like it a bit more brown and toasty.

Serve with real maple syrup, the fake gooey kind in the mother figure-shaped bottle, or honey. To a whole lot of company, or to 2 beloved family members for a couple of mornings in a row. Follow with 3 hours of shopping in Cabela's and an hour or more of kayaking...