Stuffed French Toast w/ Pumpkin Cream Cheese

    For awhile, I've been wanting to make some sort of stuffed french toast for dinner but something always came up which put that out of the question. On Monday I decided "to heck with it" and just did it. I had pureed pumpkin already waiting for me in the fridge.

     I creamed together 3/4 cup of the pureed pumpkin with 8 ounces of cream cheese along with some cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice (my favorite spices to use with pumpkin!). 

     I love using Texas Toast when I make french toast because of its thickness-- the slices are 1 inch thick! Great for french toast, and even better for stuffed french toast! After making the filling, I sliced a pocket in the slices of bread with a knife and left about 1/4-inch around the other three sides.

     Then, using a spatula, I filled the 'pockets' with the pumpkin cream cheese. I then dunked the stuffed bread slices into the egg mixture (5 eggs whisked with a little milk, cinnamon, and melted butter); one side, then the other. 

    Then they went into an already hot pan--after it gets hot, put the heat to medium so that the outsides won't burn before warming the inside. The girls were pretty hungry so I couldn't get a good picture before they were inhaled, but you are aiming for a nice even brown. Mine are a little uneven, but like I said, I had to hungry girls not concerned with even browning--just french toast with butter and maple syrup!

  
    If you give this a go, I really hope you enjoy them! I will use any excuse possible to eat chocolate, so of course I slathered some Nutella on mine then topped with maple syrup--I highly recommend this! My hubby likes giving them a good layering of butter then sifting some powdered sugar on top. The melted butter mixes with the powdered sugar for a pretty sweet topping to any piece of french toast, pancake, or waffle!