Recipe - Oven-Baked Monte Cristos

1 Loaf firm bread*
1 Packag; (8 oz) cream cheese
10 lg Eggs
One half cup Real maple syrup
1 One half cup Halfandhalf
One half cup Any flavor seedless jam**
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
Butter or margarine

The night before: Grease a 9xl2 " glass baking pan with butter or
margarine.

(*We use Earth Grains French) (**We use peach or apricot jam, or lemon or
orange curd imported from Englanddo NOT use preserves or jelly!)

Remove crusts from bread and cube it. Place in a closelyfitting single
layer in the baking pan.

Pinch off marblesized lumps of cream cheese with your fingers, evenly
distributing them over the bread layer. Melt the jam in the microwave, or
in a double boiler, until it is warm and fairly liquid. Do not boil it.
Drizzle it over the cream cheese and bread. If you like, you may add a
layer of minced Canadian bacon at this point.

Place a second layer of bread, cubed and closely fitted in the same way,
over the cream cheese and jam.

Beat the eggs until lemonyellow and slightly frothy. Add the
halfandhalf, maple syrup and vanilla and stir until well blended. Pour
this mixture over the bread layers. "Squish" it into the bread with your
hands. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. (This
wonderful dish can be refrigerated as much as three days before baking!)

In the morning: Preheat oven to 375 F.

Remove plastic wrap and bake French toast for 5060 minutes until nicely
browned on top. Slice in the kitchen and serve warm with more maple syrup,
powdered sugar, butter and/or fmelychopped pecans.

NOTE: This recipe can be made 'guiltfree" by substituting skim milk,
margarine, and low or nofat cream cheese.

Suggested accompaniments: We usually serve this wonderful dish with fresh
fruit in season and savory turkey sausage patties.

This recipe originally called for 1 2 loaves of bread.

Recipe by: W.J. Marsh House Victorian Bed & Breakfast, Albuquerque, Ne

Posted to MCRecipe Digest by SuzyWert@aol.com on Feb 13, 1998