Savory French Toast BLT

Ingredients:
8 slices of bacon
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 c. heavy cream
1/4 c. fresh chives, chopped
coarse salt and pepper
3 T. butter
4 slices crusty bread, cut 1 inch thick
4 lettuce leaves
8 slices of tomato

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375. Place bacon on a rimmed baking sheet; cook until golden and crisp, about 15 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through. Drain on paper towels.
Meanwhile, in a large shallow dish, whisk together eggs, cream and chives; season with salt and pepper. Lay bread in a single layer in egg mixture coating on each side. In a large skillet, melt butter over medium. When butter sizzles, add bread and cook until golden and crisp around edges, about 3 minutes per side, flipping once.
To serve, layer lettuce, tomato, and bacon on each slice French toast and sprinkle with chives.

Makes 4 servings. Total time 30 minutes.

Verdict:
When I thought about making this I was under the impression that it was going to rock our world. French toast and BLTs together. What wouldn't be good about this? I was underwhelmed. I like just plain BLTs better and plain French toast. Just not together.

Pretzel Pancakes With Caramel Sauce

For the pancakes:
1/2 c. crushed pretzels, divided (1 heaping cup or 25 tiny twist pretzels)
3/4 c. flour
1 T. sugar
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. kosher salt
1 egg, separated
3/4 c. milk
1/4 c. buttermilk
vegetable oil

For the caramel sauce:
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
2 T. water
1/2 c. heavy cream
1 T. butter

For the pancakes:
Whisk together 1/4 c. crushed pretzels, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl; set aside.
Using a hand mixer on med. speed, whip egg white in a bowl to soft peaks; set aside.
Whisk together egg yolk, milk, and buttermilk in a bowl until frothy. Stir into dry ingredients only until ingredients are moistened. (Small lumps are OK.) Let batter stand for 10 min. Fold in whipped egg white, stopping when thin, white streaks still remain in the batter.
Heat a griddle or nonstick skillet over med. heat. Brush griddle with a thin layer of oil.
For each pancake, pour a scant 1/3-1/2 c. batter onto the griddle; sprinkle each pancake with some of the remaining crushed pretzels.
Cook until bubbles form on surface of pancakes, about 2 minutes. Flip pancakes; cook until golden, about 2 minutes more.

For the caramel:
Boil brown sugar and water in a small saucepan 5 minutes, gently swirling occasionally to prevent scorching. Whisk in cream. (Mixture will bubble furiously and begin to harden into candy-like pieces; keep whisking and it will melt again.)
Boil mixture 2 minutes more, then whisk in butter until melted. Set caramel sauce aside; keep it warm.

Makes 4-6 pancakes. Total time 30 minutes.

Verdict:
Oh these were so yummy. I only made one batch and I should have made two. Our kids ate 2 or 3 pancakes each. They just kept eating. The caramel sauce was good and tastes great on ice cream (I tried it.) I will warn you that the batter is a strange consistency but they turn out good so don't fret. Make a double batch. Seriously.

Dutch Babies

Ingredients:
3/4 c. flour
3/4 c. milk
3 eggs
1/4 t. salt
1/2 cube butter

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400.
Melt butter in oven in a 9x13 pan.
Mix together flour, milk, and eggs in a blender until combined.
When butter is melted, and starting to bubble and turn slightly golden, pour batter into center of pan.
Cook until dutch babies are risen and starting to brown at edges.
Serve with powdered sugar and butter.

Makes 4 servings. Total time about 20 minutes.

Verdict:
I love dutch babies. We ate these growing up. This may be the only food that our kids eat with out complaining.

Breakfast Strudel

Ingredients:
1 box puff pastry dough
2 Tbsp. butter
1 c. frozen cubed hash brown potatoes
1 c. red or green pepper, seeded, diced
1/2 c. onion, diced
1 c. ham, diced
12 eggs
2 Tbsp. green onion, thinly sliced
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 Tbsp. water
2 Tbsp. parmesan cheese, shredded

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Thaw puff pastry dough according to package directions.
Melt butter in large skillet. Add potatoes and cook until starting to brown. Stir in bell peppers and onion. Saute about 3 minutes then add ham.
Whisk together 11 eggs and green onions. Add them to pan and scramble until set. Off heat stir in cream cheese until blended.
Unfold pastry and using a rolling pin roll out dough length wise to 12 x 10".
Cover baking sheet in foil and place rolled out pastry dough on baking sheet. Using a knife cut strips on both sides every 1/2 inch at a 45 degree angle (making sure to keep it attached to center). Place half of the egg mixture down center of dough. Braid dough over egg mixture alternating sides using strips.
Combine the remaining egg and water. Brush lightly over top of strudel. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden.

Makes 2 strudels. Total time 45 minutes plus thaw time.

Verdict:
The strudel was surprisingly simple to make. I was a little worried about the braiding process but when it cooks up it doesn't really matter what it looks like. If you were just going to make this for a normal size family I would definitely cut the recipe in half. I made the whole recipe only to find out that it made two strudels. That is a lot of food. Everyone seemed to love it. The kids ate the eggs in the middle but not the crust part. The rest of us ate it gladly. Blake had it for lunch the next day and liked it some much that he sent me a text to tell me how good it was.