Cinnamon Toast Roll Ups

It's Sunday so I'm sharing another Sunday brunch recipe with you today.  I'm seeing beautiful berries in the store and have some strawberries and a few black raspberries that the birds have left to me so thought I'd use them for brunch.  It is taking French toast and cinnamon toast and combining them and then stuffing them. These take a little work, but your family will love them.

White sandwich bread

Whipped cream cheese

Strawberries jam or what ever jam you like or fresh berries of your choice

Nutella

2 eggs

3 tablespoons milk

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 heaping teaspoon ground cinnamon

Butter

Cut off the crust from each slice of bread and flatten it out with a rolling pin making it as thin as you can.

Spread the bread with the whipped cream cheese and then place about a teaspoon of jam on top.  A variation to this can be spread the bread with Nutella.  Today I'm using fresh berries.  Another variation is to add chocolate chips.  You can also use canned pie filling.  Any combination you can think of.  

Roll the bread up tightly and repeat.

In a shallow dish whisk the eggs and milk until well combined.  In a separate shallow bowl mix the sugar with the cinnamon.

Heat a skillet set over medium heat and melt a tablespoon of butter.

Dip each bread roll in the egg mixture coating well and then place them in the pan seam side down. Cook in batches until golden brown, turning them to cook and brown on all sides. Add butter to the pan as needed.

Add cooked rolls immediately from the pan to the cinnamon sugar and roll until completely covered in sugar. You can serve with syrup for dipping but I think they're perfectly good all by themselves.

Make syrup that matches your stuffing. 

Homemade Flavored Syrup

1 part water

1 part sugar

1 part flavoring ingredient (chopped fruit or herbs or a combination)

Boil all ingredients for five minutes (or long if you want a stronger flavor), let the mixture cool, strain out the solids through a sieve and refrigerate the liquid. About one quarter of the liquid evaporates in the cooking process thickening it.  The longer you cook it, the thicker it will get.  If it gets too thick add a little more water to it.

Adjust the amount of fruit slightly based on how intense you want the flavor to be and how strong the fruit or herb is.

For a more subtle herb flavor when mixing fruit and herbs, don’t add the herb until the last minute. Then remove from heat and let steep for 10 to 20 minutes, depending on desired flavor. You can even add a sprig to the bottle or jar you’ll be storing it in to show what flavor it is.

For citrus, use the rind as well as the juicy part.  You may also use honey instead of sugar to mix it up!

Homemade syrup doesn't keep as long as the commercial variety.  Store it in one of my favorite things, canning jars and you can label the lid with a Sharpie. 

Hope you have a terrific Sunday.  Be happy and may God bless you and yours.