Since Ree is somewhere in D.C. right now with her gushing armpits (sorry for that visual on a cooking blog), we’ve invited a very special guest to host the Tasty Recipe post this week. Quite coincidentally, this lovely lady was also our very first member featured here in the Tasty Kitchen blog. She’s fabulous in so many ways, and we’re so glad to have her here. And boy, has she picked a great recipe to share with us today. Take it away, Alice!
French toast is one of my most favorite foods to eat any time of the day. When I saw this Tasty Kitchen recipe posted by manda2177, it was love at first sight. It makes ordinary French toast extraordinary. May I introduce you to Stuffed French Toast?
Here’s a list of everything you need: a loaf of French or Italian bread, eggs, milk, butter, cream cheese, cinnamon, and jam or fresh fruit (if you’re like me, you’ll use both). I also added slivered almonds just for the fun of it, but you don’t have to … unless you want to. If you do, let me know when and where I can invite myself over for breakfast. Thanks.
Before you can invite me over for breakfast, you’ll need to know how to make this. Slice a loaf of bread in 2-inch pieces. You should get about six pieces all together, not including the end pieces. Using a paring knife, cut a deep slit across the top in the middle of each slice, approximately 4 inches long (as pictured above). This will form your “pocket.” Once you’re done, set the bread aside.
I decided to go with strawberries for the filling. They were almost too pretty to eat. You could use any fruit or no fruit at all, but I highly recommend strawberries.
Wash the strawberries, remove the stems, and cut slices in each one. Turn them a quarter turn and slice them again, adding them to a bowl.
Next, macerate the strawberries, which is fancy way of saying add a little sugar and mix it in. Set them aside and allow the sugar to release its magic.
Next, add jam to the cream cheese and mix both of them until well combined.
The cream cheese mixture now looks like strawberry yogurt. Yum!
Now comes the fun part! Grab a slice of bread and add about a tablespoon (or as much as you like) of cream cheese filling. Personally, I like about 2 tablespoons per slice. Do the same thing with the fresh fruit. Make sure to close the opening by gently pressing the bread together. This will make frying them easier and less messy. Set the filled slices aside.
Now it’s time to make the egg bath. Mix eggs, milk, and cinnamon together until well mixed. Turn the stove top on to medium-high to preheat the skillet. While your skillet is heating up, dip sliced bread in the egg wash for about 20 seconds on both sides. Only dip as many slices as you plan on frying. In other words, if your pan can only fry two pieces at a time, be sure to only coat two pieces of bread a time.
Add a little butter to the surface of skillet. This will help prevent the French toast from sticking. I heart butter.
Fry each slice for about 3 minutes per side or until golden brown. Remove from heat and serve.
If you’re interested in making your stuffed French toast a little more glamorous, sprinkle powdered sugar over the tops of the slices and garnish with fresh strawberries and almonds.
Look at how beautiful these babies are! Can you believe how easy that was, yet how fancy this looks by adding a little magic dust (a.k.a. powdered sugar)?
Final thoughts: although I loved this recipe, I would like to suggest a few things. For a whole loaf of bread, you may want to double the amount of cream cheese and jam the original recipe calls for. If you plan on using fresh strawberries for the filling like I did, I recommend using a 1/2 cup of chopped strawberries with 1 tablespoon of sugar mixed in. Also, because I found the stuffed French toast was plenty sweet on its own, I opted not to add maple syrup.
Many thanks to Amanda for this great recipe. It’s now in my regular Sunday morning rotation!
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Description
A wonderful twist on a breakfast classic!
Ingredients
- 1 loaf French Bread
- 3 Tablespoons Any Flavor Fruit Spread (You Can Also Use Jelly, Jam, Or Fresh Fruit)
- ½ packages Cream Cheese (4 Oz), At Room Temperature
- 2 whole Eggs
- 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
- ½ cups Skim Milk
- 2 Tablespoons Butter
Preparation Instructions
Heat skillet or electric griddle to 325 to 350 degrees.
Cut french bread into 2-3 inch wide slices. Then, with a paring knife, go back and cut halfway into each slice, in the center, creating a ‘pocket’ that your fruit mixture can be stuffed into.
In a bowl, place the room temperature cream cheese and three tablespoons of fruit spread of your choice. (I used all organic blueberry spread in the picture.) Combine well.
In a separate bowl, break 2 eggs; add cinnamon and milk and combine well.
Now, take fruit mixture and stuff into the ‘pockets’ of your french bread slices. Place on a baking sheet.
When done stuffing each piece of bread, completely coat each piece in egg mixture. Make sure all sides are covered. Do all pieces before starting to fry.
Put 2 tbsp (you can use less!) of butter into a hot skillet and melt completely. Add all of the bread to the skillet and cook roughly about 3-6 minutes on each side, until it reaches a nice golden brown. You want to make sure the cream cheese mixture heats through.
When done cooking, serve immediately with butter and syrup.
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Alice Currah is the force behind Sweet Savory Life and Everyday Alice. She and her husband Rob are the proud parents of three children: Abbi, Mimi, and Elli. Alice is the winner of Saveur’s Cover Contest and is on the Forbes.com list of Eight of The Very Best Food Bloggers. All we’ll say is that we knew she was a winner way before they did.
152 Comments
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Jenny R on 8.9.2010
I just made this this morning…Very Good!!! I too added vanilla to my egg bath…That what I Momma did, and I did with out thinking.
Thanks for sharing!!
Aneliya on 7.22.2010
Thanks for this great recipe!
I did it a week or so ago and they turned out perfect – my boyfriend really enjoyed them. For anyone who doesn’t want to put/doesn’t have cream cheese – you can use yogurt instead, turned out really good for me.
Also, I was inspired and did my own modification – salty stuffed french toast! Just removed the cinnamon and replaced it with black pepper, and for the stuffing used some salty cheeses and thinly sliced olives. Mmmmm, yammy
jen on 7.19.2010
I’m making this for my family. Period.
Wade on 7.19.2010
Trying this tonight but with bananas instead of fresh strawberries.
Vivianne on 7.12.2010
I made these this past weekend and it was absolutely delicious! My kids don’t usually like my french toast but this they raved over! Thanks!
Qtorrents on 7.11.2010
I’m going to try this tomorrow for my wife.
on 7.10.2010
Yummm!!!
Roume on 7.7.2010
The recipe was just so tempting that I actually left my seat, went to the kitchen and made something similar with peach jam for my sister. She loved it.
And it took just 20 minutes.
I had no jam therefore I chopped peaches and cooked them in cinnamon, sugar, milk and butter…
And to think that the recipe popped at a time when I was having a particularly intense craving for something sweet.
Mohit on 7.6.2010
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Jo on 7.5.2010
i used to hate french toast but just looking at the pictures made me want it!! i just finished eating it and it was worth it biiig tiime!!!!!
thank you for the lovely recipee!!!!!
it will be my ultimate breakfast treat from now on!!!!!
Sylvia on 7.4.2010
Strawberries are fresh in season right now and absolutely divine. I can’t wait to try this recipe.. we are so excited about picking all the berries in our garden for french toast, and your recipe for stuffed french toast looks divine!
-Sylvia
Cigar Ratings
JuicyMentality on 7.1.2010
This looks so good! I can’t wait to try it.
hana on 6.30.2010
beautiful, mouth watering photographs ….can’t wait to try it
Rincewind on 6.28.2010
This looks awful and will kill you off.
anonymoose on 6.28.2010
om…nom….NOM…
Laura B on 6.28.2010
I made this the other day and OMG!!! Wonderful!
Lee-Ann on 6.24.2010
I guess I know what I will be making for breakfast this weekend. My hubby will surely love it! Thanks for the recipe and great photos!
Davide on 6.23.2010
those are the best french toasts ive seen, thanks for the recipe and for taking all those pictures, sure makes this recipe tempting
Juan on 6.22.2010
DEAR MOTHER OF GOD! All my friends agree that this looks FREAKING AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS. I’m definitely going to try this soon.
TOMTOM on 6.22.2010
Excuse my french(toast ha ha) but holy fuck that looks delicious.
ringo on 6.8.2010
that is some nasty looking shit…
John the Fatbloke on 6.6.2010
Bloody hell!
It reminds me of some of the more delicious stuff that comes out of Scotland!
Wonderful food, but you can feel your arteries hardening by the mouthful!
mike on 6.5.2010
These look really good! I made some like this for my family last saturday but i added fresh guava jam! the guava and strawberry really hit it off. I also crusted them with corn flakes
Poppy & Zack on 5.26.2010
We found this recipe and pictures to be QUITE explicit. Seriously this is like food porn. It should have a XXX rating its so unbelievably tasty looking. I think I got a cavity just looking at these pics. Have you no shame?
Alas,
As a baker I (poppy) will baking the bread from scratch and then I (zack) will be doing the frenchy toast bits because I am a master of all toast of french origin all according to you sinfully amazing recipe.
We thank you very much for the plethora of pleasures our taste buds will enjoy verryyyy soon.
but next time… at least warn us…. Children could’ve been present!
In all good jest and sincere appreciation
Poppy & Zack
jonathan on 5.24.2010
Wow, that will taste delicious
Caleb Laws on 5.23.2010
Great, simple recipe and fantastic idea. I love the photos. You must have worked hard on the photoshoot! Fantastic!
Terry O on 5.20.2010
This looks orgasmically delicious, easy to make, which is a must for my cooking, and also easy to vary ingredients and flavours .
Michelle on 5.17.2010
I’m interested in learning more about the maple walnut version, too. Any specific recipes for that one?
Cindi on 5.16.2010
looks delish!! Luckily, I have all the ingredients to make stuffed french toast today!
Rowan Watson on 5.15.2010
this is simply too amazing, and amazingly too simple! i cannot wait to try it, and if i die of an overdose, i thank you. what a way to go! ha ha ha
DianeCA on 5.15.2010
Amazing cooking blog and very good photos. The recipe looks delicious.
earthprincess on 5.12.2010
Gosh that looooooooooks soooo good, only problem I’m fasting so I’m not eating eggs. Will try
Jon on 5.12.2010
I made this with peanut butter and banana. It’s da bomb!
Put some dark rum in the egg bath and use HALF AND HALF instead of milk. ROCKS!
Richard on 5.11.2010
The kids and I will give this a try this weekend. Looks wonderful and not all that hard. Thanks for sharing!!!!
Brian Porter on 5.11.2010
This looks as sweet as Rachel
flonia brown-hall on 5.11.2010
made it for my husband and kids, they loved it.thank you
Si on 5.11.2010
Oh Puurrleeese , Are you Americans completely incapable of recipes that are either not high in fat or sugar ? , Nearly every single time i stumble on one its loaded with one or the other , Awful . .
on 5.11.2010
The recipe is looking delicious .I am going to try this one out tonight will be back to let you know
Jill
Barry Eagen on 5.11.2010
You know, all these recipes are contributing to the diabetes epidemic. Thanks for one more!
Rose T. on 5.10.2010
My hubby made this for me for Mother’s Day. DELICIOUS!!! Thank you!
Rachel Rimmer on 5.10.2010
Bought the ingredients today! Can’t wait to try it!!!
wanda on 5.10.2010
I’m almost sure…I heard the brush of angel’s wings!
It looks heavenly…I want some now!
elian1 on 5.10.2010
I made this for my wife for Mother’s Day breakfast. I made it with fresh blueberries & blueberry jam. It was delicious. I will make it again….soon.
Kim
River_Kat on 5.10.2010
We had this yesterday morning for Mother’s DAy….. AWESOME!!!! I did the prep work (strawberries, cream cheese, jam, cut the bread etc) the night before and my hubby did the preparation the next morning. Amazing how quickly they turn out once the prep work is done! We had enough to send two pieces to our 80 year old friends a few doors down. She called to say they felt like they’d just eaten at a 5 star resturant!! Thank you so much for sharing….keep them coming!
Kathy
Sarah in Kansas on 5.10.2010
I made this yesterday for my mom and our extended family for Mother’s Day. It was so yummy! Thank you.
Heidi on 5.9.2010
I made this today and it was a huge hit with my 3 teenage boys and husband.
LindafromGeorgia on 5.9.2010
Just made these for myself for Mother’s Day with the help of my teenage kids, lol. Yummy! Very quick and easy. You all must try them……
liz on 5.9.2010
This was absolutely amazing! I made it for Mother’s Day breakfast, and everyone was very impressed. You were right, the filling needs to be doubled!
Chelle on 5.9.2010
I just made this and wow…pretty sure I’m in heaven right now!
ellebee24 on 5.9.2010
I just made this yesterday with Strawberry Jam and French Toast. OH MY WORD….I have a new addiction!