Recipe: Stuffed French toast for Valentine’s Day
Ah, Valentine’s Day. Tomorrow is a day for hearts, flowers and murmuring sweet nothings into your loved ones ear. Though in our house Rich is more likely to slap me on the bum, tell me that he picked a good ‘un and I will reciprocate by chucking a sock at him. And who says romance is dead.
Tokens of affection are more likely to take the form of a favourite chocolate bar picked up with the milk or a cup of coffee silently appearing during a particularly tense spot of negotiation with Izzy. And food, food makes up a lot of our time together. Though a table for two is a rare occurrence we do try to take the time to have a couple of special meals throughout the month, even if there is a three year old chaperone. Breakfast or brunch is often the easiest to step up to a different level.
French toast is a treat in itself but stuffed French toast has an air of decadence about it. Thick slices of bread sandwiched around your favourite fillings, bathed in an egg wash and fried in butter until perfectly crisp and golden brown. Sweet is the way to go for us, with chocolate, cherries, peanut butter or bananas, ideally using brioche and (very) occasionally swapping some of the milk for cream. Though of course savoury is good too, doorstop slices of a farmhouse loaf, chunky ham and gruyere cheese melted to perfection. Don’t think about the fat or calories, everyone knows that they are non-existent when it comes to special occasion food.
I’ve given the quantities below for making two servings but clearly this is easily doubled or trebled even. As there was no chance of getting away without making some for Izzy I made two batches, one stuffed with Nutella* and black cherries and the other with the divine Lotus spread. For those not in the know, Lotus spread is also known as Speculoos, from France and is essentially the popular Lotus biscuit in paste form. It’s dangerously addictive, melts well and was by far my preferred version in our stuffed French toast-athon. As far as I’m aware you can only pick it up in Waitrose in the UK so if you see some, grab some. You won’t regret it.
And if you do do the whole present thing then you can’t go wrong with chocolate. No time or spare cash? No problem. My chocolate bark takes around half an hour from start to finish or you could always go retro with homemade giant jazzies.
*Other chocolate and hazelnut spreads are available, the one from Aldi is well worth a try.
Golden French toast stuffed with Nutella and black cherries for a decadent breakfast for two.
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 50ml milk
- 4 thick slices of bread
- 4 tsps Nutella
- 425g tin black cherries, drained
- Butter for frying
Instructions
- Beat the eggs and milk together in a jug and then pour in to a dish large enough to fit your bread.
- Spread a teaspoon of Nutella on each slice of bread and divide the cherries between two of the slices. Top each cherry piled slice with another slice, Nutella side down, to make a sandwich.
- Melt a little butter in a frying pan.
- Dunk each sandwich in the egg mixture, making sure both sides are covered. You want a good covering of egg but don’t saturate the bread and only dunk them just before you fry.
- Place each sandwich in the frying pan (depending on the size of your pan and the size of your sandwiches you may have to fry them one at a time) and fry over a medium high heat for a few minutes until the base is golden brown and crisp. Turn over and fry the other side.
- Serve immediately.
If you liked this then you might like:
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Laura@howtocookgoodfood
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http://fishfingersfortea.co.uk/ Fishfingers for tea
