Strawberry Cream Cheese French Toast

Fluffy brioche bread, filled with a strawberry cream cheese, and cooked in custard, this strawberry cream cheese french toast is the perfect weekend breakfast.

Prep Time15

Cook Time15

Total Time30

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Cream Cheese, french toast, strawberry cream cheese

Servings:

Calories: 442kcal

Equipment

1 Cast Iron Skillet

Ingredients

Strawberry Cream Cheese Filling

110 grams cream cheese
110 grams greek yogurt
17 grams freeze dried strawberries
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 tablespoons heavy cream

Bread

225 grams brioche bread 4 thick slices or 8 single slices

Custard

4 eggs standard large
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
75 grams milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons salted butter for cooking

Instructions

Strawberry Cream Cheese Filling

In a small blender or food processor, add in the cream cheese, freeze dried strawberries, greek yogurt, vanilla, salt.
Blend until smooth. Add in a splash or two of heavy cream as needed until you are able to get a smooth filling that is blended.

Assemble

Cut 4 2" think slices of the brioche loaf.
Use the knife to cut a slit in the bottom of each slice that creates a pocket inside of the bread.
Basically you want to cut the slice into two but don't cut through the two sides and top of the slice.
Use a spoon or knife to fill each slice with the strawberry cream cheese filling. Be sure to really fill em up and press the filling into all corners of the opening.

Cook

In a baking dish, whisk together the eggs with a pinch of salt. Then add in the milk and vanilla and whisk again.
Heat a cast iron skillet (any pan will work but cast iron will give the best crisp), over medium low heat with a decent amount of butter - it kind of depends on how big your pan is but basically you want a bubbling coating of butter in the pan.
While the pan heats up and the butter melts, soak both sides of the first two slices of stuffed french toast in the custard mixture.
Place the soaked slices in the warm pan. They should sizzle slightly when you put them in, if they don't increase the heat slightly, if the are wildly sizzling, turn the heat down. Let them cook until golden brown and then flip to cook the second side.
Cook again until golden brown. Keep them warm on a baking sheet in the oven set to 200 F. Then repeat with the remaining slices.
Optionally dust the slices with powdered sugar and or top with a bit of whipped cream.

Notes

Tips for making Strawberries and Cream French Toast

While fresh bread will always be delicious, the magic of french toast is that you can use day old or even two day old bread.
For the filling be sure to use freeze dried strawberries, not fresh. If you can't find freeze dried strawberries, any other freeze dried berries will work too! Or you can use fresh raspberries or blueberries in the opening just not blended into the filling.
Cut the slices of bread nice and thick but when cutting the slit be sure not to cut through the other three sides.
Don't skimp on the filling, you want quite a bit of it in the bread because it will somewhat melt into the bread as it cooks.
Be careful not to soak the bread for too long or it will fall apart before making it into the pan.
Keep the pan heat relatively low. Because the slices are actually sandwiches and therefore quite thick, they take a little longer to cook than normal. If the heat is too high, the bread will burn before the inside is cooked through.
Stuffed french toast will always taste best day of but it actually reheats well if stored in an airtight container in the fridge!
Ideally top it with a dusting of powdered sugar and if you feel like it, a bit of extra whipped cream!

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