Breakfast Club - Baked Blueberry French Toast

We're treating ourselves with two Breakfast Club's in the one weekend :0)

There is a big day of baking planned so a hearty breakfast is in need! Not only that but its also Grand Prix day and biting your nails while sitting on the edge of your seat really takes it out of you lol. 

Baked Blueberry French Toast
Butter, for greasing (I used frylite)
2 large eggs
380ml milk
80ml maple syrup, plus extra for serving
A pinch of fine sea salt
1 lemon, zested (I didn't have a lemon to hand so used a small orange instead)
3 thick slices (about 130g) day-old challah or sourdough bread, cut into 3cm cubes
250g fresh or frozen, thawed, and drained blueberries
1 1/2 tbsp vanilla sugar

Place an oven rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 180C. Butter a large baking dish and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs until frothy. Add the milk, maple syrup, salt, and zest. Add the bread cubes and mix until coated. Stir in the blueberries. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish.

Sprinkle the vanilla sugar over the egg mixture in an even layer. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until the top is golden and the filling is set.

Spoon onto serving plates and drizzle with maple syrup.

Serves 4
Adapted from a recipe by Giada De Laurentiis on the Food Network UK Website

In an attempt to reduce some of the calories I've tweaked the recipe a little bit, reducing the number of eggs and using semi skimmed instead of whole milk, omitting the butter etc, etc, etc!  I've also omitted the cinnamon (it's alarming just how often that spice makes its way into a recipe!) and replaced it with vanilla (mmmmmmmmmm!) and finally my final 'tweak' was to reduce the quantities by approx half.  By rights, and according to Giada's original recipe, my version should only feed 2!  Indeed the smell of the French Toast baking was so intoxicating I was convincing myself that I could feasibly eat half the contents of the baking dish myself ... but I managed to restrain myself :0)

Next time we have this I'll try raspberries instead of the blueberries, for no other reason than we are raspberry fiends!  I'll also cut back on the maple syrup, it was a touch on the sweet side.  Maybe elderflower cordial instead of maple syrup would have been a nice substitution?