Take your brunch to the grill! This grilled French toast stuffed with strawberry basil cream cheese will be the perfect brunch recipe.
Recipe Overview
Why you’ll love it: this stuffed French toast recipe cooks up deliciously golden on the grill. A creative spin on a classic brunch recipe!
How long it takes: 25 minutes.
Equipment you’ll need: your grill, a couple of bowls, and a large pan for soaking.
Servings: 6
Strawberry Stuffed French Toast on the Grill
Want to hear a funny story? It wasn’t too funny at the time but you have to laugh at life. A couple of weekends ago, I had 3 or 4 recipes I wanted to develop on the grill. One of them being a variation of our favorite French toast. We hadn’t grilled yet this season, so we got the grill out, and… it was raining. Yep, raining.
Thankfully I had begun some initial recipe development using my grill pan inside, but still. But wait, there’s more! By dinner time it had brightened up, so I asked Ben to fire up the grill again. He went to turn it on, and guess what? OUT OF GAS. Throw me a freakin’ bone! So, it was back to the grill pan. Luckily, this grilled French toast turned out to be a golden and delicious success!
Why You’ll Love This French Toast Recipe
- Strawberry and basil filling. I love the combination of strawberry and basil, in fact, I’ve made my own strawberry basil freezer jam.
- Soft, fluffy bread. I carried on with my shopping and saw the challah from Zingerman’s (aka Heaven on Earth). That solidified the grilled French toast in my mind. The bread toasts up so gorgeous and golden on the grill!
- Easy ingredients. Into my order went eggs, milk, tons of fresh berries, fresh basil, and cream cheese. This French toast on the grill uses a handful of simple but quality ingredients, and turns out so full of flavor!
Ingredients You’ll Need
Scroll to the recipe card for the full details!
- Cream Cheese
- Strawberry Basil Preserves
- Fresh Challah Bread: Sliced into thick 1-inch slices.
- Eggs and Whole Milk: For soaking the bread.
- Honey and Vanilla: For sweetness and depth of flavor.
- Berries: Fresh organic strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries make the best garnish for French toast!
How to Grill French Toast
Grilling French toast was a natural progression from my air fryer French toast sticks. You can never have too many ways to prepare French toast! Here’s how to make stuffed French toast on the grill:
- Prepare the bread slices. You’ll want to slice the challah into nice thick slices, about an inch thick. Then, carefully with a sharp knife, slice a hole in the middle of the slice, making a pocket for the cream cheese. I flavor plain cream cheese with the preserves and stuff the bread with that.
- Soak. The stuffed bread goes into a large baking dish until you’re done stuffing each piece. Then you pour your egg and milk mixture over the bread, letting it soak it all up. All that’s left to do is grill it!
- Grill. Grill your slices for about 5 minutes per side over direct heat. You could definitely cook it on a griddle as well, but grilling it gives it such a great flavor. You have to try it!
What To Serve with Grilled French Toast
For the perfect brunch centered around the grill, I also grill asparagus and bacon. You could round it out with some other great brunch offerings like a beautiful cocktail. If you want to add more protein to brunch, consider a frittata, they’re very easy to make and taste great at almost any temperature. A white pizza frittata or a leek and asparagus frittata are both great vegetarian options.
If you’re in search of a more traditional French toast, don’t miss my classic French toast recipe – I cover all the tips to make perfect French toast!
More Easy Brunch Ideas
Stuffed French Toast
Ingredients
- 1 loaf (16 oz.) sliced brioche bread
- 1 container (8 oz.) spreadable strawberry cream cheese
- 3 large eggs
- ⅔ cup whole milk
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Optional toppings: sliced fresh strawberries, maple syrup, whipped cream
Instructions
- Preheat griddle to 300ºF.
- Cut a 2-inch slit into the bottom side of each slice of bread.1 loaf (16 oz.) sliced brioche bread
- Fill a piping bag with the strawberry cream cheese and pipe approximately 1 tablespoon of cream cheese into each slice of brioche.1 container (8 oz.) spreadable strawberry cream cheese
- In a medium bowl, beat the eggs until blended, then beat in the milk, vanilla, and brown sugar.3 large eggs, ⅔ cup whole milk, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Dip each slice of brioche into the egg mixture, flipping to make sure all sides are coated.
- Place each slice on the preheated griddle. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes per side or until golden brown. Cook time may vary depending on how hot your griddle is.
- Remove from griddle, top with fresh strawberries, maple syrup, and whipped cream, if desired.Optional toppings: sliced fresh strawberries, maple syrup, whipped cream
Notes
- Nutrition information is calculated for French toast and does not include toppings. Images in post show more than one serving.
- Bread Choices: You can use other kinds of bread such as challah, French bread, or Texas toast. The bread has to be thick-sliced (about 1 inch) to hold the cream cheese.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did You Make This?Share a comment and rating below! I love hearing what you think!
Okay, I am totally enamored with your twist by using the grill! I did a grilled strawberry pound cake last year that was awesome, but this sounds even better. And having all of the organics delivered? That is what’s right with the world right there.
RIGHT?! Between Door to Door Organics and Amazon Prime Pantry, I barely need to leave the house. I love America.
PS: Strawberry pound cake sounds amazing!
This makes me want to plan a fun brunch real soon!
You definitely should! Everything on the grill. Except the mimosas. ;)
Well, I know what I want for brunch this weekend!! Love these flavors!
Thanks Lauren!
Such a fun way to change up French toast.
Thanks Barbara!
Now *this* is how you do brunch! I never think of grilling brunch – so going to try this!
Thanks Deborah! You’ll have to do a Big Green Egg brunch ;)
Grilled French Toast is absolutely genius! We are obsessed with Door to Door Organics and have been using them for our produce for years! Such a quality company.
It is SUCH a great company!
LOVE that you grilled this, so creative Rach!!!! would love a slice ;)
Thanks Christine! I wish I could host a blogger brunch :)
What an awesome recipe and photo
Thank you, Claudia!
I would make grilled pineapple and yogurt parfaits!
Thanks for the chance to win!
wildorchid985 at gmail dot com
Yum! That sounds delicious!
Agh! Damn mold! I am so sick of it, haha. I’m from Arizona where we don’t have much mold thanks to the dry weather (but dust covers everything) so now on the east coast mold is my worst enemy.
In any case, this french toast looks fantastic. I’ve never had cream cheese with it but it sounds divine!
SUCH a gross thing. I hate mold.
You need to try cream cheese stuffed french toast….total game changer!