Caramel Apple Pie French Toast

 

It's late October as I write this. The leaves are falling but it's not yet snow. I wander through the backyard to the apple tree. There are still apples clinging to the branches even though it is an apple crisp, a variety that is ready for harvest by the end of August. I pick a better-looking apple and carry it across the lawn to an old lawn chair. I dig out my pocketknife and quarter the apple.

There's a cottontail rabbit under the crab apple tree, just watching, not disturbed by my meander across the yard. I watch it until it scampers across an opening and into the spirea.

The apple was tart in early September. Now the apple is over-ripe and the tartness has turned sweet and overly juicy in its ripeness. Still, I enjoy its honey-sweet ripeness.

Those apples, in their ripeness, would make fine apple pie French toast, sliced and steamed until tender with brown sugar and cinnamon.  The steamed apples could be piled on French toast, drizzled with caramel syrup, with caramel-flavored whipped cream atop.

That's not how we made this. We took apple pastry filling, (a can of apple pie filling from the grocery store will do) spread it between two slices of homemade bread, preferably Pumpkin Walnut Bread, and slowly cooked it on the griddle. It's marvelous, especially with the pumpkin bread.  The earthiness of the pumpkin bread matches the pie-like apple filling perfectly.

Buttermilk syrup is unique with a tone of caramel spiked with a touch of butterscotch. Caramel flavored whipped cream is the crowning touch. I like walnuts and their crunch with whipped cream, so I'm likely to add a handful of chopped nuts.

It's a great breakfast. No, it's a great treat, good enough for dessert and good any time of year.

 

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Caramel Apple Pie French Toast Recipe

This is stuffed French toast. It's a combination of four components piled together. Both the bread and the syrup come from mixes. The filling is packaged. The whipped cream is no harder than regular whipped cream. Combined, they're easy and delightful.  And it's like having an amped-up apple pie for breakfast. 

What you'll need:

• Pumpkin Walnut Bread, or other
• Eggs
• Milk
• a pinch of salt
• Apple Pastry Filling
• Heavy Whipping Cream
• Buttermilk Syrup
• Caramel Flavor

How to put it all together:

 For the buttermilk syrup:

• If you are not familiar with buttermilk syrup, you should be. It's luscious, a soft caramel flavor. It's made with buttermilk and the acid is removed leaving the mild caramelly flavor.
• You can purchase buttermilk syrup mixes here. To go with the pumpkin and apple flavors, I would recommend:

For the caramel flavor whipped cream:

• You make this just as you would regular whipped cream. Instead of vanilla flavor, use caramel  flavor. Instead of granulated sugar, use brown sugar. 
• To retard melting, add meringue power. That allows you to make the whipped cream ahead of time, will hold up at the table, and will retain it's peaks and not turn into a melted pool.

 

Flavored whipped cream is a delightful discovery and can be made in many flavors.  Learn more about flavored whipped cream here.

 

For the French toast:

• Whisk the eggs, salt, and milk together, the amounts determined by the number of bread slices you chose. You will need one to two eggs for each "sandwich you choose to cook.  You will want about 1/3 cup milk for each two eggs. Whisk until the egg and milk combination is smooth. 
• Make a "sandwich" out of each two slices of bread using the apple pastry filling as the filling. 
• Soak the sandwich in the egg mixture just until the egg mixture soaks halfway through the sandwich. Using a spatula, turn the sandwich over to soak the other side
• Cook the sandwich on a hot griddle just as you would a cheese sandwich. The temperature should be set a little lower than normal so that the heat will have time to "soak through the double bread slices. When the bread is cooked through on one side, turn the bread over and cook the other side. You're cooking a custard here. The egg mixture should set but no overcook making the eggs dry and tough.

 

To assemble your French toast breakfast:

• Make the syrup first. Add butter and water according to the package directions. And then cook the mixture until the syrup turns a caramel color. It can be reheated in the microwave.
• If you are using meringue powder, you can whip your cream several hours in advance else make the whipped cream just as you ready the meal.
• The pastry filling comes in a dispensable two-pound pouch, Clip the end and squeeze out whatever is needed.  To store the leftover filling, fold the tip over, put a clip on it, store it in the refrigerator, and use the remainder within six months.  See our pastry filling section for other ways to use pastry fillings.
• Leftover French toast can be stored in the refrigerator or frozen  Wrap each sandwich in plastic. They can be reheated in the microwave or in a toaster oven.

Variations on a Theme

 

Caramel Apple Pie French Toast is delightful but you can start switching out components and go wild over the variations.

Check our blog for other French toast recipes.  Here are some to get you started:

• Creme Brule French Toast (below)
• French Toast Sticks (above)

 

Or experiment and make your own:

• We have 144 bread mixes though only about half are available at any given time.
• We have 12 pastry fillings.
• We have over 40 flavors and extracts
• Check out our syrup mixes, seven of them
• We have a line of delightful flavored honeys.
• We have bottled pancake syrups, both cream syrups and fruit syrups.

 

We're built to experiment and love to help.  Have a good time.