Stuff It

Every year my friend Alisa and I host a Chrismukkah brunch, and the only food that gets repeat play is her breakfast casserole. Coming up with new foods we've never made before is half the fun of planning the brunch, and for some reason, this year, the first food that came to mind was stuffed French toast. I've never actually made stuffed French toast before, so I set out researching recipes. Most had you slicing whole loaves of bread and cutting a pocket into each slice, then stuffing the pocket with your filling. That seemed too time consuming. I've made monte cristos plenty of times, so I decided to go with that dipped sandwich approach.

My first attempt was to make banana stuffed French toast. I sliced a banana up into 1/4 inch coins, laid the coins out on the first piece of bread, covered it with the second, then let each side soak in an egg and milk mixture for a minute per side, then cooked it in a well buttered pan for two minutes on each side. I dusted the tops with powdered sugar and my fiancé and I ate them with syrup. They were good, but the egg mixture didn't soak in all the way, and even if it had, we would have been eating raw egg on the inside and cooked on the outside.

For my second attempt, I decided to add Nutella to the mix. First I toasted just one side of each slice of bread (using the bagel setting on my toaster). Then I smeared Nutella on the toasted sides of the bread, laid the banana coins out as before, soaked the outside in the egg mixture and cooked. I left off the powdered sugar and syrup figuring the Nutella was sweet enough. This was pure heaven! Each bite gave a soft spongey texture on the outside, a crisp bite from the toasted side, and in the middle, gooey, warm, chocolate and banana. Perfection.

I plan on serving these cut into bite sized cubes, maybe with a slice of strawberry on top.



Banana Nutella Stuffed French Toast

4 slices of buttermilk or white bread
1 medium banana, cut into 1/4" slices
4 tablespoons of Nutella or other chocolate spread
2 eggs
1 tablespoon of milk
1 tablespoon of unsalted butter

Toast one side of each slice of bread. Spread Nutella on the toasted side of each slice, then arrange the banana slices on two of the slices of bread. Cover with the remaining slice, Nutella side down, so that you have a layer of bread, Nutella, banana, Nutella, and bread.

Beat the eggs with the milk in a pie plate until incorporated. Rest the sandwiches in the egg mixture for 1 minute on each side.

Heat the butter in a cast iron skillet over medium heat until melted. Add the sandwiches to the pan and cook for 2 minutes on each side.

Serves 2.