Something Delicious: Deep Dish French Toast with Blueberries and Lavender

Looking for a special breakfast or brunch recipe?  This oven-baked French toast combines bread, eggs, milk, and sugar with cream cheese, blueberries and nuts.  The secret ingredient -- lavender -- makes all the ingredients taste even better.  

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon butter for coating the baking dish
• 1 large (1 ½ - 1 ¼ pound) brioche loaf cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, cut into 18 cubes
• ¼ cup pecans, chopped
• ½ cup blueberries
• 8 large eggs
• 2 cups milk
• ½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon culinary lavender buds​, ground into powder
• Pinch of nutmeg
• Pinch of cloves
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted

Serve with 

Powdered sugar

Pure maple syrup, warmed

Directions

1. Butter a 9x13-inch baking dish.  Place half the bread cubes in a single layer, covering the bottom of the dish.  Scatter the cream cheese cubes, nuts, and blueberries on top.  Cover with the remaining bread cubes.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, brown sugar, vanilla, lavender, nutmeg and cloves.  Pour this mixture evenly over the bread cubes.  Press down on the bread cubes to make sure they absorb the egg mixture.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for four hours or overnight.  To ensure bread absorbs the egg mixture, put a heavy item (e.g., two pounds of butter) on top of the plastic wrap to weigh down the bread.
3. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Remove the dish from the refrigerator and let it sit for 20 minutes at room temperature.  Remove the plastic wrap.
4. Bake the French toast covered with foil for 20 minutes, then uncover it and bake 15 to 20 minutes longer, or until the cubes are nicely toasted.
5. Place the dish on a cooling rack, then drizzle the melted butter over the French toast.  Let sit for 5 minutes. Cut into square.
6. Sprinkle powdered sugar over the top and serve with warm maple syrup. 

(From Discover Cooking with Lavender by Kathy Gehrt)

Last year, we decided to try our hand at beekeeping.  We thought we'd start with two hives, so we went to a beekeeping class, bought all of the supplies and then, of course, purchased a nuc of bees.  But soon after last Fall's fires, we realized one of our hives had swarmed.  And then a month after that, the other one disappeared as well. There was no sign of them. 

So over the winter, we started the process of cleaning out the hive boxes, and questioned whether we would continue our beekeeping adventure.  And then in April, before we had cleaned out the second box, we caught a swarm of bees.  Well “caught” isn’t the right word actually. They just moved in.  So our beekeeping adventures were destined to continue.  We realized, however, that as busy as our lives were at the moment, we needed help to get going again.  Enter Matt the beekeeper at ORE Beekeeper.  He will be managing our hives and teaching me at the same time so that I can take over the beekeeping duties eventually (after harvest).  Thank goodness for Matt!

However, this isn’t the first time we’ve had help with our beekeeping aspirations.  Back in San Diego, we were lucky enough to be part of the “host-a-hive” program that Hilary Kearney (The Girl Next Door Honey) had implemented.   It was a great introduction to beekeeping -- we were able to provide a safe space for a few colonies and observe and learn, but we weren't responsible for the care of the hives. As lovely as that sounds (and it was), we did get off to a quite exciting start!

On the evening of the bees arrival,, Hilary drove up in her white Prius, filled with bee supplies and two bee hives, and the first thing she said as she walked up was…”we have a bit of a problem.”   Read More...

I hope you've enjoyed our July newsletter! Please feel free to forward our newsletter to any lavender-loving friends who you think might be interested!  ​

​Pam ​