Sausage Stuffed French Toast

I'm almost embarrassed to even post this, because it's not even a real recipe.  Several friends asked me to post it, however, so here it is.  It's a well known fact that I have "food A.D.D."  I love familiar, comforting foods with a twist.  I also love a good sweet and salty combination - any time of the day!  

I was just hungry for something different on a lazy summer morning and decided to put a couple of my family's favorite things together - good smoky sausage and french toast.  

The awesome thing about this, is you probably have all this stuff in your kitchen right now as we speak.  Yep.  Basic stuff... as breakfast typically tends to be.  One of my kids asked if it could be made with pieces of yummy crunchy bacon.  Sure.  Knock yourself out with whatever variation you prefer.  

 #easy #quick #breakfast #comfortfood #familyfriendly #frenchtoast #sausage

Ingredients: 

This is a concept, not an exact recipe.  I didn't measure anything as I'm assuming everyone knows how to make french toast.

• 3 large eggs
• Milk of choice - I probably used 1/2 cup or so
• Sugar of choice - I only used one small scoop because I don't like it very sweet
• Vanilla - probably a teaspoon.  Use a good vanilla (Mexican, Dominican Republic, etc).
• Cinnamon - several good shakes
• 1/3 pound smoked pork sausage - adjust as needed.  Andouille would work here as well, but if you want to do something like chicken/apple sausage, go for it.  Whatever YOU prefer.
• A handful of frozen sweet peppers - red and yellow bell peppers.  I like them frozen for super quick and easy prep.  Plus the frozen ones cook down faster than fresh. 
• Oil of choice for pan frying.  I used coconut oil.
• Optional - syrup, honey, or powdered sugar as a topping

Step-by-Step:  

Mix your batter.  Whisk until all ingredients are incorporated and eggs are completely broken up.  Set batter aside.  For whatever reason, I usually make my french toast batter in a pie plate as they accommodate the bread nicely and are easy to deal with. 

Cut up sausage into bite sized pieces.

Saute sausage and peppers until peppers are soft and sausage has a little bit of color on them.  Set aside to cool while preparing bread.

We only buy wheat bread, but choose what is in your pantry.  Cut the crusts off of the bread, then roll the bread out flat.  Don't worry, it will puff back up.  White sandwich bread is usually more "square" but I don't ever have that on hand.  Turns out the rounded edge didn't make a difference. 

Add a spoon of sausage and peppers to the bread.  Maybe 1/4 cup?  I didn't measure.

Roll the bread around the filling and allow to rest on the "seam."

Get that batter all whisked up again to make sure the cinnamon and stuff is all mixed in.  Soak the rolled bread in the batter until bread is saturated.  Maybe a minute. 

I used virgin coconut oil in my pan.  To the hot oil, add the saturated rolls.  Keep heat fairly low.  Like medium/low-medium so the bread can get cooked through without getting overly brown first.  Put the seam side down first so it can get glued together from the batter and heat.  Ha

Using tongs, turn to brown on all sides.

Once browned on all sides, serve immediately with topping of choice.  I wanted breakfast syrup.

Yummm!  Breakfast with a twist. 

Oh.  One more option.  

If you have made this and it was well received, you could do this in a big casserole dish and bake them for several people at a time.  Roll the bread, add rolls to dish, pour batter over the tops, cover and let soak (even overnight).  The next morning, just bake until done.  This is how I've done my Overnight Stuffed French Toast Roll Ups in the past.