Baked Blueberry Pecan French Toast with Blueberry Syrup
added 03/07/08
Serves 8
2002 was a great year for blueberries. Perhaps you are lucky enough to have blueberries stashed away in your freezer. Local bread, eggs, milk, butter, and maple syrup combine for this very tasty dish.
24-in. baguette
6 large eggs
3 cups milk
1/2tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup packed brown sugar, divided
1 cup pecans (about 3 ounces)
4 Tbs. plus 1 tsp. unsalted butter
1/4 tsp. salt
()2 cups blueberries (about 12 oz.)
For syrup
()1 cup blueberries (about 6 oz.)
1/2cup pure maple syrup
1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
Butter a 13 × 9-inch baking dish. Cut twenty 1-inch slices from baguette and arrange in one layer in baking dish. In a large bowl whisk together eggs, milk, nutmeg, vanilla, and 3/4cup brown sugar and pour evenly over bread. Chill mixture, covered, until all liquid is absorbed by bread, at least 8 hours, and up to 1 day.
Preheat oven to 350ºF. In a shallow baking pan, spread pecans evenly and toast until fragrant, about 8 minutes. Toss pecans in pan with 1 teaspoon butter and salt.
Increase oven temperature to 400ºF. Sprinkle pecans and blueberries evenly over bread mixture. In a small saucepan, heat 4 Tbs. butter with remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar, stirring, until butter is melted. Drizzle butter mixture over bread and bake 20 minutes, or until any liquid from blueberries is bubbling.
Make syrup while French toast is baking:
In a small saucepan, cook blueberries and maple syrup over moderate heat until berries have burst, about 3 minutes. Pour syrup through a sieve into a heatproof pitcher, pressing on solids. Stir in lemon juice. (Syrup may be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Reheat syrup before serving.)
Serve French toast with syrup.
Meet Terry Appleby
Around here we call him the General. The Big Cheese. The Head Honcho. The Big Apple. Sir. Or just plain ol’ Terry. He answers to about anything, with a typical smile and affable manner. Terry is the Co-op’s General Manager, and he carries the responsibility of a $66 million business and more than 300 employees on his shoulders. His door is almost always open, and if it’s closed all you have to do is knock. Terry has spent his entire professional life serving the cooperative cause, working for PCC Natural Markets in Seattle before coming to our Co-op more than 15 years ago. You’re liable to find Terry doing everything from shoveling snow and parking cars at the Hanover store to speaking to graduate students at Dartmouth College to dressing up as Cocoa the Cow and giving balloons away at Dairy Day.
Killdeer Farm
Spinach from Liz and Jake Guest’s Killdeer Farm is often one of the the first Upper Valley-grown vegetables to arrive at the Co-op in the spring—and it keeps on coming, fresh and tender, into November. The Guests’ skill and passion for farming stems from the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s. They sell certified-organic arugula, varieties of red and green lettuce, cilantro, carrots, and potatoes to the Co-op as part of their diversified farm operation.
