Warm, syrupy strawberries deck this French toast topped with raspberries, blueberries, powdered sugar, and whipped cream! This celebratory breakfast treat isa great way to celebrate the Fourth of July!

French Toast Ingredients

  • 5- 6 slices of Challah bread (or brioche or French)
  • 6 eggs (3 eggs; 3 yolks) 
  • 1 cup half and half
  • 3/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 Tbsp vanilla 
  • Unsalted butter for pan (about 4 Tbsp)

Strawberry Compote Ingredients

  • 10 ounces of fresh strawberries
  • ½ cup sugar
  • For every 5 ounces of strawberries, use ¼ cup of granulated sugar (note: if you want syrup to be thinner and/or there to be more syrup, add 1-2 Tbsps of extra sugar for each 5 ounces of strawberries.)

Garnish

  • Whipped Cream
  • Powdered sugar (optional, but recommended)
  • Blueberries
  • Raspberries

*Use a 2:1 ratio for the raspberries: blueberries. This mean that you use twice the amount of raspberries to garnish as you do blueberries!

Tools & Timing

  • 2 Large Frying pans
  • Spatula (for flipping your toast)
  • Wooden spoon or heatproof whisk (for stirring your compote)
  • Pie plate or baking dish
  • One large prep bowl
  • Whisk
  • Fork
  • Cutting board, cutting knife, and strainer for prepping your strawberries
  • This whole process takes about 25 minutes (5-10 minutes for prep; 15 to cook)
  • Makes 2-3 servings.

Background

At this time of year, it is so fun to experiment with new summer fruit recipes! Since French toast feels holiday-ish (since I have the time to actually make it for breakfast or brunch), I wanted to experiment with making a warm syrupy strawberry compote for French toast.

So, in honor of our nation’s birthday, I give you Red, White, and Blueberry French Toast!

Step-by-step

Prep Process for Compote and French Toast

  1. Slice bread into ¾ -1 in slices (make sure they are all the same width).
  2. Wash and dry strawberries. Slice off tops/greens, then slice your strawberries into ¼ inch slices (this will help them break down better).

Begin to Make your Syrupy Strawberry Compote:

  1. Place strawberries in pan. Add sugar.
  2. Turn heat to medium high. Using a heatproof whisk, immediately begin to stir strawberries and sugar – the strawberries will slowly melt down as the sugar melts – cooking magic! It takes about 45-60 seconds for the sugar to melt down.
  3. Once the syrup fills the bottom of your pan, continue to whisk frequently until the mixture begins to create syrup  (don’t worry – there will still large chunks of your berries). This takes another 30-45 seconds (if you used 10 ounces of strawberries).
  4. Once your berry sugar mixture begins to boil (after about another 60 seconds), turn the heat to medium low and simmer  (we want there to be soft, periodic bubbles but we don’t want a boil) – this will cause the fruit to slowly break down, creating more syrup. Continue to stir periodically.
  5. As the beginnings of your syrupy strawberry compote simmer,  begin your French toast (continue to cook your compote as you make your toast).

Begin to Cook your Toast:

  1. In medium prep bowl, whisk ingredients together for dipping toast (eggs, yolks, half and half, cinnamon, vanilla). Carefully pour into pie or baking dish (use a 9 x 13 if you want to cook all of the pieces simultaneously – however, this means you’ll use an additional frying pan).
  2. Begin to melt your butter . Place 2 Tbsp of butter in second pan and turn heat to low. Let butter melt almost all the way, then begin soaking your bread (we don’t want to oversoak the bread, and if you’re watching your butter, you might accidentally do this!)
  3. Place slices of bread into baking dish to soak. You’re going to soak the first  side for about 10-15 seconds (15 for a thicker piece), so place your first pieces of bread into your egg mixture.
  4. Use a fork to check to see if your bread is ready to flip: after about 10 seconds, use a fork to check the center of the bread for liquid absorption. If your bread looks like it’s starting to be soaked, but you can still use a fork to lift it, your bread is ready to flip (we don’t want to oversoak the bread – a good indicator of oversoaked bread is when the bread is too soggy and begins to break or come apart when you try to flip it with a fork).
  5. Once bread is ready, flip your bread and soak the second side for 10 seconds.
  6. Meanwhile, swirl your butter in the pan and turn heat to medium.
  7. Stir your strawberry compote.
  8. Remove bread from egg mixture, allowing excess liquid to drip off. Place slices of bread into pan (Only place a single layer or bread in the pan – I do this process twice to cook 6 slices of toast in a large saucepan). Cook on each side for 3-4 minutes. Flip your bread when golden brown patches begin to appear on the bottom.
  9. Once bread has flipped, cook second side for about 3 minutes.
  10. After your first round of toast is done, remove your compote from the heat and let it rest on a cool burner.
  11. Finish cooking your first round of toast and repeat process for your second round of French toast if needed – including re-buttering your pan (sometimes I wipe mine out with a clean paper towel so I can start fresh)  – your compote can continue to rest.

Assemble 

  1. Plate the toast
  2. Scoop the syrupy strawberry compote onto toast
  3. Garnish with raspberries, blueberries, powdered sugar, and whipped cream.

Serve and Enjoy