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Bring your favorite brunch spot home with this decadent Nutella stuffed french toast for the perfect celebration that doesn’t make you leave the house.
If you love brunch as much as we do, we’ve got a treat for you: a homemade Nutella stuffed french toast! There’s truly nothing better to enjoy on a Sunday morning than these deliciously sweet, fluffy, hazelnut spread-stuffed slices of bread coated in cinnamon. And you don’t have to go to your favorite brunch spot to get it – this brioche stuffed french toast isn’t as hard to make as you might think. Which makes this decadent restaurant quality recipe perfect for celebrating special occasions at home. Think birthdays, holidays, or really any day that calls for a celebratory meal.
We actually created this recipe back in college after enjoying a weekend brunch at the North Street Grille in Boston. They have an awesome Nutella and strawberry stuffed french toast that’s just heavenly. So of course, we had to create our own version of this indulgent breakfast! Since then, it’s been our favorite birthday breakfast treat – and soon it will be yours, too.
What This Recipe Entails
With just 30 minutes you can have a decadent restaurant-style brunch in the comfort of your own home.
- Prep time: 20 minutes
- Cook time: 10 minutes
We love to make this brunch together as cutting, stuffing, and french-toasting the brioche is a fun activity for two. So not only do we have a nice date day brunch, we made the whole activity something fun we get to do together. Let’s see who can get more Nutella in their brioche french toast!
Nutella Stuffed French Toast Ingredients
We wanted to take our classic french toast and turn it into a more extravagant brunch that’s perfect for holidays and special occasions. While classic french toast is made with just your basic bread, eggs, milk, and spices, we wanted to upgrade the bread to brioche and stuff it with some much loved Nutella.
Here’s a full list of what you’ll need to make our Nutella stuffed brioche french toast recipe:
- Brioche bread – Brioche is absolutely the best type of bread for stuffed french toast. It’s light and fluffy and super absorbent, with just the right touch of sweetness to complement the hazelnut flavor of the Nutella.
- Nutella – Nutella is perfect for when you want chocolate in your breakfast because it’s actually made with hazelnuts. The nutty notes keep this french toast from being way too over-the-top sweet, versus if you were to use pure chocolate.
- Eggs & milk – These ingredients make up the custard-like base for french toast.
- Cinnamon – A classic flavor used in french toast that pairs perfectly with Nutella.
- Nutmeg – Found in some french toast recipes, nutmeg has earthy and nutty flavors that go really well with Nutella.
- Butter – Melting butter on your pan is essential for getting the best crisp on the outside of your french toast.
French toast is a great recipe to put your own twist on. Our perfect stuffed french toast uses the ingredients above, but you should adjust it to your taste. Add or remove spices as you like, add some delicious toppings or additional stuffings like strawberries, banana, or whipped cream.
How To Make Stuffed French Toast
Stuffed french toast is not as intimidating as it looks, we promise. Here’s some helpful advice based on learnings from our own trial and error – so you don’t have to make the same mistakes we did:
- Stuffed french toast requires thick slices of bread. We’re talking at least one inch thick, but probably closer to one and a half inches thick.
- Choose your knives wisely! You need the right tools to do this job well without tearing the bread. We recommend having 3 types of knives handy: a large serrated knife, a shorter paring knife, and a butter knife.
- Stuffed french toast can get messy. That’s okay. It’s still delicious!
Next, we’ll walk you through exactly how to create a clean pocket for stuffing, how to actually stuff the brioche with Nutella, and how to turn this all into tasty french toast.
Preparing The Brioche
The first step to making the perfect stuffed french toast is to slice your brioche bread into thick pieces, about 1 to 1.5 inches thick. Use gentle sawing motions with a large serrated bread knife for this so that you don’t inadvertently squish the brioche.
Then, working with one slice at a time:
- Insert a small paring knife along the bottom edge about 1 inch from the corner. Press the knife about halfway to two-thirds into the slice of brioche.
- Next, gently saw back and forth to cut a slit along the bottom edge of the bread. Stop about 1 inch from the other corner and remove the knife.
Keep in mind that you’re not trying to hollow out the bread or create a large pocket here. The goal is to simply make a clean, thin slot that you can slide a Nutella-coated knife into, so that you coat the inside of the brioche with Nutella in a way that none of it will escape through the pocket’s opening later on. A sharp paring knife does a good job of puncturing the brioche to create this type of clean slot – avoid using a dull knife or a serrated knife as this will likely tear the bread and create more mess when trying to stuff the brioche.
Stuffing The Brioche With Nutella
Next, grab a butter knife to stuff each slice of brioche with Nutella. This will help you avoid accidentally puncturing through the bread or enlarging the pocket. Then, working one slice at a time:
- Position the brioche so the opening to the pocket is facing your knife hand. You can try doing this with the bread laying flat on your work surface, or by holding the bread in your non-knife hand. Try both and see which is easier for you.
- Scoop some Nutella onto your butter knife, then carefully insert the knife into the center of the pocket. Gently squeeze or press down on the brioche and rock the knife back and forth, almost like you’re trying to squeegee the Nutella off the knife. It helps to keep the tip of the knife in one place and move it in an arcing motion, like a swinging pendulum. One or two passes should be enough to coat the inside of the pocket with Nutella.
- Then, keep gently pressing on the brioche as you slowly remove the knife, so that you leave all that delicious Nutella behind inside the bread.
Repeat for each slice of bread until you have a pile of stuffed brioche. Some Nutella may begin leaking out, but that’s okay! This will get easier with practice. And french toast is messy – but that’s part of what makes it so delicious 🙂
Making The Brioche French Toast
Now that you’ve stuffed the brioche, you’re probably wondering: how do you make it into french toast? And what is the trick to making the best french toast?
From this point on, you’re basically just making regular french toast:
- First, prepare your egg wash with egg, milk, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large, shallow dish.
- Next, heat up a griddle or cast iron pan and melt butter on it, spreading the butter around to coat the pan.
- Then coat each piece of Nutella stuffed brioche in the egg wash (carefully!), fully coating both sides before transferring to the pan.
- Cook over medium heat for a few minutes until the bottom is lightly browned, then flip and cook again until the bottom is lightly browned.
The secret to not having soggy brioche french toast is to avoid over-soaking the bread. Coat one slice at a time, gently pressing the brioche into the egg wash and moving it around a bit until the bottom is coated. Then flip it over, repeat, and immediately transfer it to the pan. This keeps the egg wash mostly on the outside of these thick slices of brioche, so that it crisps nicely on the buttered pan.
And since this brioche is stuffed, the Nutella will warm up and melt into the brioche as the french toast cooks, resulting in a gooey, chocolatey center to contrast the lightly crisped outer edges of the bread. Each bite is the perfect blend of lightly crisped cinnamon and butter with fluffy, moist brioche and creamy Nutella. Mmmm.
Serving Suggestions
There are endless options for topping french toast, and it all depends on your personal preference and occasion! Here are some of our favorite pairings for this Nutella stuffed brioche french toast:
- A pad of butter
- A drizzle of maple syrup
- A sprinkle of powdered sugar
- A dollop of whipped cream
- Sliced strawberries or bananas or any other fresh fruit
Or any combination of these! Get creative and don’t be afraid to go all out. When you’re already eating something as decadent as Nutella stuffed brioche french toast, does it really matter how much extra sugar you put on top? We think not.
Our restaurant style Nutella stuffed brioche french toast is one of the most indulgent breakfasts you can make at home, and it is SO worth it. Especially if you only have it once or twice a year on birthdays, like we do!
Trust us when we say you’ll feel like you’re at a gourmet brunch spot when you take your first bite of this Nutella stuffed french toast. Try our recipe below and let us know what you think in the comments! And don’t forget to rate and share if you love this brunch recipe as much as we do 🙂
Love this recipe? You may enjoy these recipes, too:
- Cinnamon Avocado Muffins
- Frozen S’mores Bites
- S’mores Dip
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana Protein Shake
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Nutella Stuffed French Toast
Equipment
- Cast iron griddle optional
Ingredients
- 7 oz French-style brioche bread about 1/2 loaf (enough for 4 slices approx. 1 to 1.5 inches thick)
- 4 teaspoons Nutella
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon butter
- Butter, maple syrup, powdered sugar, whipped cream optional toppings
Instructions
- Gently cut brioche into 4 slices (about 1 to 1.5 inches thick) with a long serrated knife.
- Use a paring knife to create a “pocket” in the brioche for stuffing with Nutella. First, take one slice of brioche and insert the knife along the bottom edge about 1 inch from the corner. Press the knife about halfway to two-thirds into the slice of brioche, then gently saw back and forth to cut a slit along the bottom edge of the bread. Stop about 1 inch from the other corner and remove the knife. Repeat with the remaining brioche slices.
- Next, stuff the brioche with Nutella. Start by scooping about 1 teaspoon of Nutella onto a butter knife. Then, carefully open the pocket you made in one slice of brioche and fully insert the knife at the center of the pocket. Gently press down on the top of the brioche and rock the knife back and forth inside the pocket (like a pendulum motion), and remove the knife. Repeat with the remaining brioche slices.
- Now prepare your egg wash. Whisk egg, milk, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large, shallow dish until combined.
- Melt 1 tsp butter over medium heat on a griddle or large skillet. Gently coat both sides of the brioche in the egg mixture, one slice at a time, and transfer to the griddle.
- Cook until the bottoms are lightly browned, about 3 to 4 minutes, checking periodically with a spatula. Flip the slices over and cook again until lightly browned, about 3 to 4 more minutes.
- Plate two pieces of French toast per person. Optionally top with butter, maple syrup, a sprinkle of powdered sugar, and a dollop of whipped cream. Serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
If you have any questions regarding the information presented in this post, please refer to our Nutrition Disclaimer here.
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This was a great recipe to try for a special occasion! The Nutella is definitely rich, placing this closer to the dessert category then breakfast for my personal taste, but we still loved it!
A couple of thoughts from my experience:
– Fresh strawberries (as you have in your pictures) balance the Nutella very well. Highly recommended.
– For me, the thicker slices worked better, and with the brioche being light and fluffy, 1.5 inches wasn’t too much.
– I found it easier using several smaller applications of Nutella into the pocket, working from the back to the front, trying to get an even application. This was the hard part, and I’m sure it gets easier with practice. The good news is that everything still tasted great, even if a little messy!
Thank you for putting this recipe together – it isn’t something I would have tried on my own!
We’re so glad you loved it! This definitely is a dessert-for-breakfast kind of meal!
The brioche french toast makes a good dinner too! It is so delicious and decadent, almost like a meal and dessert in one. Fresh strawberries on the side go very well on the side to cute the sweetness a bit. I used syrup tonight buy the next time I think I’ll try powdered sugar on them. This dish is a definite winner.
Yum – breakfast for dinner is always a good choice! Thanks for trying our recipe!