Libby Klein Surprise! It's me. I'm so thrilled to be joining the Mystery Lovers' Kitchen. My favorite foods are bread and cheese. So why would I torture myself by eating gluten-free? A few years ago I was diagnosed with both Hashimotos and Celiac - because apparently, I'm an overachiever. So I'll be posting a lot of gluten-free recipes for peeps like me. Some people in my house are convinced that gluten must be the most magical-tasting food on earth and they're been persecuted by my leaving it out. To keep the peace, all my recipes can be easily converted to their gluten-full counterparts. This one in particular can be easily adjusted by using regular white bread that is a bit on the stale side.
Gluten-Free Blueberry Baked Stuffed French Toast
Serves: 6
INGREDIENTS
1
Tablespoon softened butter
10 slices gluten-free
white bread
4 ounces cream
cheese
½ cup Good
quality Blueberry Jam or preserves
1 cup Fresh
Blueberries
6 large eggs
1 cup milk
½ cup heavy
cream
1 teaspoon
Vanilla Extract
DIRECTIONS
Grease a
large 9x13 casserole dish with the butter.
Make
sandwiches by spreading the softened cream cheese on 1 slice of bread and your
jam on the other slice. Cut the sandwiches in half and lay them in the
casserole dish until you have an even layer. I ended up with an extra quarter
of a sandwich that mysteriously disappeared all on its own.
I mix my
eggs, milk, heavy cream, and vanilla in a blender because eggs freak me out and
I don’t want to see any separation between the whites and yolk in scrambled
eggs. While I’m confessing, I also don’t measure my vanilla so I probably used
more like a quarter of a cup. I make my own from vanilla beans and white rum so
it’s not as ridiculously expensive as store-bought and it tastes amazing.
Pour the
mixture over the French toast sandwiches. They will drown in it, but by
tomorrow morning you’ll see the bread again.
Cover the
casserole very loosely with plastic wrap. This is not one of those times you
want to stretch it tight. You want it to lay on top of the eggs. Then cover
with aluminum foil and gently press down. Set it in the refrigerator to soak
overnight.
In the
morning, take the casserole out of the refrigerator for 30 minutes before baking.
Preheat the oven to 350°F / 175°C.
Remove the foil
and plastic. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 55 minutes. Give it a
little jiggle. The French Toast Casserole is done when there's no more liquid
left and the egg is set. If there’s a lot of jiggle in the middle, give it five
to ten more minutes until there isn’t any.
Remove from
the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving.
Serve warm,
topped with maple syrup, whipped cream, or- I like to melt down more of the jam
I stuffed the sandwiches with and make a syrup out of it. Enjoy!
When vintage items go up for auction, gluten-free baker and B&B owner Poppy McAllister discovers some people will pay the ultimate price...
It’s peak summer season at the Butterfly House Bed and Breakfast in Cape May, with tourists fluttering in and out and wreaking enough havoc to rival a Jersey Shore hurricane. Also back in town is Courtney Whipple and his family of antique dealers for the annual Cold Spring Village antique show. Courtney’s son Auggie has a unique piece he believes will fetch them a fortune if he can get it authenticated in time—a piece rival dealer Grover Prickle insists was stolen from his store.
Poppy and her Aunt Ginny attend the auction, hoping to bid on an armoire for the B&B, and discover a veritable armory for sale—everything from ancient blades and nineteenth century guns to such potential killing devices as knitting needles and a blacksmith hammer. Strangely, they don’t see either Auggie or Grover—or the mysterious item they both claim to own. Then during the auction, a body falls out of the very armoire Poppy was hoping to acquire, stabbed through the heart. Now, surrounded by competitive dealers and makeshift weapons, she must find out who turned the auction house into a slaughterhouse…
classes revolved mostly around the Culinary sciences and Drama, with one brilliant semester in Poly-Sci that may have been an accident. She loves to drink coffee, bake gluten-free goodies, collect fluffy cats, and translate sarcasm for people who are too serious. She writes from her Northern Virginia office where she serves a very naughty black smoke Persian named Sir Figaro Newton. You can keep up with her shenanigans by signing up for her Mischief and Mayhem Newsletter on her website. www.LibbyKleinBooks.com/Newsletter/
