Strawberry Mango Strata

I love baking challah breads so whenever we host a brunch recently it has given me an excuse to bake another challah in order to make a strata.  Strata for those unfamiliar with it is essentially a way of making French toast for the masses and somewhat like a bread pudding.  It is best that the challah is a couple of days old and a bit firm.  In fact, to have a firmer challah I particularly like using 50% WW for the challah used to make a strata.  The formula for my most recent challah I used for this strata is here.

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 12 cups challah cubes

 225 g cream cheese, cubed

 2 cups frozen fruit

8 large eggs

1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla

1/4 tsp (I mL) salt

3 cups homogenized milk

80 mL maple syrup

2 tbsp granulated sugar

1/2 tsp  cinnamon

1.  Place bread cubes in a large bowl.

2. Whisk eggs in a medium bowl.  Then add vanilla, salt, milk and maple syrup and mix.  Next pour the liquid mixture over the cubed bread and fold them in so that every cube gets soaked with the egg mixture.

3. Grease a large heat proof pan.  Spread half of the soaked challah cubes over the pan.  Sprinkle cream cheese chunks and half the fruit of the challah.  Then spread the remaining half of the soaked challah cubes over the pan. finally spread the other half of the fruit over the challah cubes.

4. Combine sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over top. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

5. Remove from refrigerator and let stand 30 minutes.

5. Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C).  TOTAL BAKE TIME 60-65 mins.  Bake, covered, for 30 minutes. Uncover and continue baking for 25-30 minutes or until a knife inserted in centre comes out clean. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.