Spring is when I open our chest freezer and wonder at what I find. There's berries from last summer, roasted peppers from Whatley Farm, chickens made unsaleable by blown seals and then, there's the bread! What did I think I was going to do with all those loaves of bread?
Does your Spring cleaning include the freezer? Our does, as there's no better time to get ready for the bounty of the season ahead. Here's a delicious recipe way to combine leftover bread with the freshness of the season.
One delicious tweak is to add Apple Creek's rosemary sausage to this recipe. You can also substitute the spinach for kale or chard. The leftovers store well and we enjoy them as dinner or as breakfast!
Ingredients
- 6 Apple Creek Farm organic eggs
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup loosely packed and chopped fresh herbs
- 2 tsp sea salt, or to taste
- 1/4 tsp or to taste, freshly ground pepper
- 8 cups of fresh or stale bread, cut or torn into 1" cubes (roughly 1 baguette)
- 3 tbsp organic butter
- 1/4 cup chopped scallions
- 1/2 lb of fresh mushrooms, quartered
- 1 - 2 bunches of fresh asparagus, stalks cut into 3 pieces
- 1/2 lb fresh spinach
- 4 oz fresh goat cheese
Directions
- Beat together the eggs, cream, milk and then stir in the herbs, salt, pepper.
- In a large bowl, pour the liquid over the bread and let sit a couple of hours or overnight in the fridge
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
- Saute the scallions in butter over medium heat until soft
- Add the mushrooms and cook a few minutes more until the mushrooms are soft then set aside
- Saute the asparagus pieces or blanch for one minute
- Butter or oil a dutch oven or deep baking dish then, layer bread, asparagus, mushroom mixture, spinach, then dollops of goat cheese.
- For a crispy topping, the top layer should be bread.
- Pour the remaining liquid over the top
- Bake covered for 45 minutes, then uncovered for 10-15 minutes until the top is golden and slightly crisp
