A few weeks ago, Brian met a couple in Mount Dora (our hometown) that were taking a vacation from the vacation business.  They are the innkeepers at the Penny Farthing Bed & Breakfast in St. Augustine.  So naturally, when we were driving through St. Augustine last week we had to stop in for a cup of coffee and say hello.

I have to confess ... I was a little confused about who "Penny" was and I kept adding an extra syllable to the end of their name as in "Farthing-ton."  I've since been enlightened.  Take a look here at the video.

Marie (not Penny), gave me a fantastic recipe for a Berry French Toast.  I love breakfast made in a ramekin since you end up with nice little individual servings of goodness ... and ... if you have extra you can just put a lid on it or cover in saran wrap, stick it in the refrigerator and save it for later.

Here's what you'll need!  Simple ingredients ... yum-mee flavor.  I used some fresh raspberries and also some froze mixed berries since berries are not in season at the moment ... I had to elbow a few people at the grocery store to even get my hands on a pint of raspberries!

I could actually just take the bread, cheese and raspberries and go have a picnic!

When we visited Paris, everyone had a baguette in hand, under arm, or in a basket.  It was like, if you didn't have one you were missing out!  That memory pops up every time I slice into "French" bread.

My large cutting board was in the sink, dirty, and my no-slip cutting board was in the dishwasher ... also dirty!  So, I used my simple el cheapo cutting board and placed a dish towel underneath to prevent sliding.  It also came in handy for cleaning up the crumbs afterward!

You'll need four slices, and you want them to be in small bite sized bits.  The quickest way to do that is to cut it in half ... then flip one side over so you have the crusts facing the same way.  That makes it easier to slice through.

Also slice up some cream cheese.  Careful ... it's sticky!

After you have the bread and cheese chopped and ready to go, layer them into the ramekins. Bread first, then berries, then cheese, then more bread.  Cause, ya know, you can never have enough bread!

Mix together 3/4 cup of milk, 3 tsp of maple syrup and 2 eggs.

Pour the egg mixture on top of the layered bread, cream cheese and berries.  Cover and let it sit overnight in the refrigerator.

The next morning, bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes.

I think I followed directions pretty well all except for one ...

... greasing the ramekins!!!  AAAAAARRRRGGGH!

Since I made a crappy move by forgetting to grease my ramekin, it made me think of a friend of mine's son who had a great phrase for making a turd.  And that was ...

Taaaah Daaaaah!

Well, it might not look pretty, but it tasted GREAT!

Good thing I had a few more to spare.  We'll just keep them in the bowl, shall we?

A little dash of some berry sauce ...

(I had this sauce on hand. Marie at Penny Farthing has a couple ingredients listed below to make some sauce from scratch)

... and now we've got some good looking AND great tasting Berry French Toast.

Here's the whole recipe.  Enjoy!

Berry French Toast

from Penny Farthing Inn

Ingredients

4 slices of French bread cut in 1/2 inch cubes

3/4 cup raspberries or blueberries

2 ounces of cream cheese cut into 1/2 inch cubes

2 eggs

3/4 cup milk

3 tbsp maple syrup

(Sauce)

2 tbsp raspberry preserve

1 cup maple syrup

Directions

(prepare night before)

1) Grease two ramekins and line with half the bread cubes

2) Cover with raspberries or blueberries (or both!), top with cream cheese and cover with remaining bread.

3) Beat together eggs, milk & 3 tablespoons of maple syrup.

4) Pour egg mixture over bread/cream cheese/berry filled ramekings and place in the fridge over night.

5) In the morning, bake at 350 for 25 to 35 minutes.

6) Cut round the edge of the ramekin and turn the French toast over onto a plate.  Cover with sauce and serve!

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Every time walk through the grocery store I can't pass by the produce section without being lured in by these berries.  They're in season right now, so how could I pass up 2 pints of this colorful goodness?  They make a great low fat snack for munching while working on your computer or watching a movie.  But this recipe ... is definitely NOT of the low-fat-guilt-free diet variety.  But they're worth every calorie!

Besides, when you look at the ingredients ... some milk, some orange juice, some eggs ... you can convince yourself that this is a healthy breakfast.  Right?  Well ... at least believe me when I say that they're super delicious.

This recipe was sent to me by Deanna at The Old Hen Bed & Breakfast in Seattle.    I have the entire ingredients list and instructions at the bottom of the post.  Enjoy!

See!  I told you!  Look at all the healthy stuff going into these scones!  Just ignore the 2/3 cup of sugar and all that flour.  It's invisible.  You don't see those extra calories ... you just get to enjoy the flavor.

Add in your dry, "invisible" ingredients ...

Pay no attention to my clumpy sugar.  I store it in the fridge as to not attempt bugs to enter my kitchen.  So it's clumpy.  And cold.

Baking Powder.  Doesn't it look fake?

Mix them all up until you've got a nice powdery batter.

Next, zest your orange.  Watch your knuckles.

Using the same orange, cut in half and juice.

After adding the fresh orange juice (isn't this starting to smell wonderful!), break open the eggs and add them to your dry ingredients.

Mix.  I'm doing this by hand ... working on those forearms of mine.

The word "chopping" and the word "butter" just don't seem to go together.  I supposed my chilled butter warmed up a bit too much while we were prepping ... cause my description would be more of a "mash."  Using any chopping/mashing style you choose ... your butter needs to end up in little bits.

Gently fold it into your nicely forming dough.

Deanna recommended getting fresh blueberries and freezing them over night.  I couldn't agree more!  Freezing them helps them not explode/burst when you add them to the dough.

Now, can you guess how frozen blueberries behave?  The sweat.  Naughty little things.  Coating them in some flour will keep them from getting stuck in your dough and make them nice and pretty little berries.  Kinda like powdering your nose.

But I forgot to flour/powder my hands!  Ugh!

Ah well.  Nothing wasted.  A little taste, a little hand washing and I'll get right back on track.

Form your dough into a ball and then press into a "disk" shape.  Don't ya just love photo examples?  I'm a "visual" person, so when Deanna wrote "disk" shape I had to wrinkly my nose and scratch my noggin ... but I got it!

Place your scones on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

I'm using a baking stone.  Don't forget to dip your fingers in flour as you're picking these up!  Unless, of course, you like to eat the raw dough.  I'm not judging!

Bake them at 400 degrees for 45 minutes.

And now ... the moment you've been waiting for ... the most divine thing I've ever licked off a plate ... orange icing!

For the recipe, click here ...

For the food porn ... keep scrolling.

That first one didn't last long enough for the mint and blueberry garnish.  It was scooped off the place and devoured before the icing even had time to pool on the plate.  And then we licked it clean.  Here's another one.

Oh yeah!  This is going on my list of favorites.

Thank you Deanna!

See the full recipe below.

--Rachelle

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Ingredients

2 3/4 cups of flour

1 tsp salt

1 tbs baking powder

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup of chilled butter

3/4 cup of heavy whipping cream

2 large eggs

zest of one orange

juice of one orange

1 pint of fresh blueberries (freeze them overnight before using)

Directions

1) Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F.

2) Combine dry ingredients.

3) Add heavy cream and eggs to dry ingredients.

4) Zest one orange, then cut in half and juice.

5) Cut butter into very small pieces and mix into dough.  Don't over mix.  Butter should be about the size of peas when you are done mixing it into dough.

6) Coat fresh frozen blueberries with a light dusting of flour then add by folding gently into dough.

7) Place about a cup of flour onto counter and place half of dough on it.  Coat dough lightly with flour and form a round disk with the dough.  It should be about 10 inches around.

8 ) Cut circle of dough into 4 sections.  Remove excess flour from scones and place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

9) Repeat with second half of dough.

10) Bake at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes.

11)  Add orange icing and serve!