Hawaiian Bread French Toast with Orange Berry Sauce

I'm a pancake-ohlic, but my husband is a french toast-fantic. He really didn't care too much for my red velvet chocolate chip pancakes because they have chocolate. Shame on him, but he has a sweet tooth for more fruity filled breakfast - much like this one that I came across from The Nifty Foodie. I'm sorry Nifty Foodie, but my grocery store didn't have challah bread. They told me that they used to stock it, but stopped. Arrgh, and I couldn't trek across town to purchase bread from my favorite bakery. I would have made it myself, but I was pushed for time. Instead, the awesome bread lady told me to use Hawaiian bread. She told me it would be a similar texture and taste that I was going for and oh.em.gee - she was correct.

This was simply amazing and one of the best Sunday breakfast that we have had in a long time. My husband loves French toast from Mimi's Cafe with the berry compote and this was very similar to it. There's another madly enticing recipe on King's Hawaiian Bakery site that I might have to try. The Hawaiian bread is a perfect fit if you can't find challah bread, it's sweet and fluffy and oh so buttery. Then you pair it with the fruit compote and it's a marriage in foodie breakfast heaven. If you love sweet french toast, you must make this - it's simply sinful.

Hawaiian Bread French Toast with Orange Berry Sauce
Source: Adapted from The Nifty Foodie
Ingredients:
1 loaf of King's Hawaiian Sliced Bread
6 large eggs
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 cup reduced fat milk
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon orange zest
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon butter

Orange-Berry Sauce:
1 bag of frozen raspberries
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 teaspoon orange zest
2 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
pinch of salt

Preparation:

Prepwork for the night before - Place all the sliced bread pieces on a cooling rack and let sit out overnight. They will need to harden a bit so the egg mixture can absorb.

In a small saucepot over medium low heat add the berry ingredients and cook down for about 10 minutes. Stirring occasionally and mashing the raspberries with the back of the spoon.

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees and place a cookie sheet on the middle rack to keep the french toast warm.

In a large bowl, whisk all the french toast ingredients except for the french bread until fully combined.

In a large skillet or on your griddle pan for the oven, add a tablespoon of butter at medium high heat.

Place the bread slices, one at a time, into the bowl or plate, letting slices soak up egg mixture for a few seconds, then carefully turn to coat the other side. Soak/coat only as many slices as you will be cooking at one time. (I cooked 2 to 4 at time with my griddle pan).

Transfer bread slices to skillet or griddle, heating slowly until bottom is golden brown. Turn and brown the other side.

When the french toast is completely cooked, transfer it into the cookie sheet in the oven.

Repeat until all slices are cooked and keep the cooked french toast in the oven for an extra 5 to 10 minutes.

Garnish with powdered sugar, berry sauce and fresh berries. Enjoy!

Review: Smacktastic. I got the hubby to fry up some bacon to a perfect crisp, and I picked up some fresh strawberries for a buck. We brewed up some fresh coffee and watched some Sunday morning football as we enjoyed our breakfast. There is no need for maple syrup on this either because the berry sauce is perfect on top of the french toast. Food coma was in full effect for a quarter or two of the game. Next time, I'll make it with the challah bread.