Mascarpone and Chocolate Stuffed French Toast with Homemade Strawberry Sauce

Please excuse the Dora plate, this batch was for my kids...I am thinking I need to buy some pretty plates for pics.

This post is three recipes in one.

You'll learn how to make my basic french toast,

stuffed french toast, and homemade strawberry sauce.

The other day when I went to WalMart,

they had packages of strawberries for $1 each.

With all my best intentions of making jam,

I picked up four packages.

Well, as you know strawberries are a fickle fruit.

You must eat them within a day or two or they will go bad.

After the hubby said he didn't have time to help me do the canning,

I set out to use up those strawberries.

We gave a pack to Grandma...

We ate strawberries with breakfast and for snack...

Yet two days later, we still had more berries and they were getting very ripe so I had to make something with the last package.

I started by hulling my strawberries.

(FYI- hulling is just a fancy word for cutting the stem and surrounding white part off)

Then I quartered my berries and put them in a sauce pan with two cups of water, a cup of sugar, half a tsp of salt and a half cup of clear corn syrup. Bring to a simmer and let it boil lightly 

for ten or so minutes. It will look like this:

Then, use a slotted spoon to remove the berries and set them aside, then put the mixture back on the heat and bring to a rolling boil for a few minutes to reduce and thicken the mixture.

Don't let it boil over.

You will have a huge mess.

After your mixture has thickened, add your strawberries back in.

(the reason you take the berries out is so that they keep their shape and not turn to mush)

To store, keep in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

You can also freeze this sauce:

Once its completely cooled, 

store in freezer containers for up to four months.

ON TO THE FRENCH TOAST-

Here is my basic french toast batter we will be using-

(I find one egg makes 2 pieces of french toast, 

so multiply accordingly to suite your needs)

Yields- 8 pieces of french toast or 4 stuffed

8 pieces of bread

4 eggs

pinch of salt

1 tsp of vanilla

a good shake of cinnamon

whisk together in a flat baking dish (I use a pie plate)

soak bread in mixture long enough to coat

cook over med-high heat just as you would grilled cheese

HOW TO STUFF FRENCH TOAST:

Mix together softened mascarpone cheese with chocolate chips.

(mascarpone is like a lighter, Italian version of cream cheese found in the specialty cheese 

sections of most larger grocery stores, I found mine at WalMart.)

Spread your mascarpone mixture onto one side of two pieces of bread and put them together like a sandwich.

Press lightly around the edges to form a seal 

so the goodies stay inside the french toast.

Dip  and coat your "sandwich" in the egg mixture, 

and cook like a grilled cheese.

Yum... I just made myself hungry for it all over again.

Hmm...I have leftover sauce and cheese filling,

I think I am going to go make it again right now!

Here it is again in all its glory...

Yes, in all its D-D-D-D-Dora glory. LOL