Today I'm sharing a very special breakfast recipe, cereal crusted stuffed french toast with strawberries and guava. I always go for the oatmeal, yogurt, and chia pudding for breakfast so when I want a more indulgent meal, I go all out! This french toast is my version of a dish I saw on Food Network's Bobby Flay Throwdowns. In this specific episode, Bobby Flay challenges another gentleman's famous stuffed french toast to a battle. This french toast is not only crusted in cereal, but it's also stuffed with a strawberry and guava cream cheese filling and finished with a guava sauce. Bobby Flay lost the competition, and after creating this breakfast, I can see why!

Recipe

Print Recipe

Stuffed French Toast

Total Time30 minutes mins

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Keyword: french toast

Servings: 2

Author: Christine Ma

Ingredients

Guava sauce

• 2 tablespoons guava jam
• 2 tablespoons water

French toast

• 3 ounces cream cheese
• ½ tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon guava jam
• ⅓ cup strawberries chopped
• 4 slices brioche sliced ½ inch thick
• ½ cup milk
• 1 large egg
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ cup Honey Bunches of Oats cereal crushed
• 1 tablespoon butter divided

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Mix together guava jam with water. Set aside.
• Whip together cream cheese, butter, and guava jam until smooth consistency. Fold in fresh strawberries. Spread evenly on 2 slices of bread and top with remaining slices.
• Whisk together milk, egg, and cinnamon. Dredge the french toast in the egg batter, turning to coat. Remove from the egg batter and coat with the crushed cereal on both sides.
• Preheat griddle or nonstick pan on medium-low heat. Add ½ tablespoon butter and melt. Carefully lay the coated french toast in the pan and cook until golden brown, about 3-4 minutes. Add the remaining butter, flip over and cook on the other side until golden brown. Finish cooking french toast in the oven until the center is warm, about 5 minutes.
• Remove french toast from the oven. Drizzle with the guava sauce and serve.

**Helpful tips and common mistakes

Every component makes a difference when making french toast, from the bread to the batter to the filling to the sauce. Starting with the bread, the more common choices are Pullman bread, challah, and brioche. Some people like to use baguettes, but personally, I think the bread is too chewy. Day-old bread is always better since fresh bread can be "too soft."

For the filling, you can add fresh guava along with the strawberries or even do fresh guava with strawberry jam.

I grew up on Honey Bunches of Oats cereal, so this was the first choice; however, a popular cereal choice for french toast is Captain Crunch. You can mix it up and choose Honey Bunches of Oats with Clusters or with Almonds.

When cooking the french toast, keep the heat on medium-low to prevent the crust from burning too quickly. The best choice is to use the griddle but if you don't own one, a nonstick pan works just fine. Finish the french toast in the oven to warm up the inside.

Drizzle the french toast with guava sauce and serve.

Holy moly this stuffed french toast is out of this world! The filling is warm and gooey with bites of fresh strawberries while the bread is nice and crunchy. No need for syrup since the stuffed french toast is just sweet enough. I kid you not, I made 3 servings of this and had it for breakfast all to myself. Talk about indulging, but every bite was worth it!

For more breakfast inspiration check out these rosewater blueberry waffles!