Our friend and affiliate in gourmet-goodness, the Prepared Pantry (www.preparedpantry.com), is one of my non-stop sources of delectable food ideas. So I turned to them for inspiration regarding a spring brunch I plan to hold in a couple of weeks.

Not to disappoint, they had the best ideas for French toast—always a winner for brunches. The master chef and owner of Prepared Pantry, Dennis Weaver, says “If you can make a sandwich, you can make stuffed and crusted French toast.  In fact, speaking of sandwiches, a peanut butter and jam sandwich made into French toast is quite good.”

And his reference to sandwiches is accurate: To make stuffed French toast, you literally make a sandwich, dip it into your egg batter, and fry it on the griddle.  It’s that simple.  The magic, though, is in the fillings.

A favorite at our house is a cream cheese filling and fresh fruit. For instance, mashing fresh blueberries with a little raw honey and softened cream cheese is an amazing filling. Or try mashing fresh fruit into jam. We love strawberry jam with lots of fresh strawberries mashed into it. And on the same note, peach jam with oodles of fresh peaches mashed into it is dreamy.

Dennis says at Prepared Pantry they usually use pie and pastry fillings—their Bavarian cream with fresh strawberries folded into it is a company favorite. I just tried cherry pie filling with whipped cream cheese folded into it and wow, it was superb.

From fillings talk we move to the actual cooking. You cook stuffed French toast exactly as you do “regular” French toast, except that you use lower heat and cook it longer so that the heat drives through both slices of bread. You want your filling piping hot.

Now here’s where it gets even better: Take your stuffed French toast to a new level. After making a “sandwich” with your bread and fillings, and dipping it in your egg batter, dredge the whole thing in chopped nuts or coconut. Dennis says he’s sure there are probably other things it could be dredged in as well. 

o that comment got me to thinking. Thus far we’ve talked about sweet French toast. In fact, that’s what we always think of when we turn to French toast. But I wondered if French toast had to be sweet. Is a savory French toast possible—something like a toasted cheese sandwich? Only rather than topping it with syrup or whipped cream, etc., could it be topped with a cheesy sauce instead?

So here’s what I tried: I filled two slices of bread with a filling I made of Gruyere cheese, diced green onion, finely chopped bell pepper, and crumbled cooked bacon. I dipped this sandwich in my egg batter and cooked it until both bread sides were crispy. To serve, I topped this new version of “French toast” with a medium thick cheese sauce (white sauce with lots of grated Cheddar cheese added). Without sounding like an arrogant braggart, I have to say, my Guinea pigs LOVED this new twist on a familiar theme. (I apologize for the lack of a picture—we gobbled this up before I remembered I should have taken a picture of it!)

So that said, my upcoming brunch will have three varieties of French toast: Dennis’s suggestions of sweet stuffed and crusted and my new discovery of savory stuffed. I’ll report back, but I’m betting on a good time all around!