Overnight Blueberry-Pecan French Toast with Blueberry Syrup

by Jennifer

This recipe, adapted from Gourmet magazine, serves 6 generously, and comes together quickly.  The night I made it I discovered I was out of brown sugar and used granulated sugar instead, but previously I’ve used brown sugar;  both versions were delicious.

• 1 loaf Italian bread, cut into about 1 1/2” slices
• 6 large eggs
• 3 cups 2% milk
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup pecans
• 2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
• 4 TBS unsalted butter, melted

For syrup:

• 1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1 TBS fresh lemon juice

Coat a 13” x 9” pan with cooking spray, and arrange bread slices in pan (I do overlap them).

In a blender combine eggs, milk, nutmeg, vanilla and sugar,

then pour mixture over bread.  Cover pan with foil and keep in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning, preheat oven to 350 degrees and, on a small shallow pan, toast the pecans for about 8 minutes, or until they are golden and you can smell them.  Remove pecans and increase oven temperature to 400 degrees.

Unwrap pan;  scatter first the pecans,

then the blueberries, over the bread.  Drizzle with melted butter.

Bake french toast in oven for 25 minutes.

For syrup, combine blueberries and maple syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat.

When the berries have burst, strain syrup into a bowl through a fine-mesh sieve, discarding solids.  Stir in lemon juice.

Rhubarb Muffins

by Jennifer

This is an adaptation of a Cooking Light recipe (I think!  Could be Eating Well…).  I also added 2 TBS of King Arthur’s Cake Enhancer, as I had some on hand.

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1 1/2 cups diced rhubarb
• 1 3/4 cups white whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, and coat a muffin tin with cooking spray.  In a small bowl combine 1/4 cup sugar, cinnamon and pecans;  set aside.

Whisk together buttermilk, egg, sugar, and coconut oil;

stir in rhubarb.

Whisk together flour through salt.

Add flour mixture to buttermilk mixture and stir just until combined.

Divide batter among muffin tins.  Sprinkle pecan mixture on top.

Bake for 20 – 25 minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in a muffin comes out clean.