Cooking for one can require a lot of planning sometimes, but luckily for me, I am the food planning queen. My intensive organisation essentially means I avoid wasting food, whilst also avoiding cooking the same boring meals over and over. If I plan, I can decide how to use the same ingredients to create different dishes, and that’s where my French Toast comes in.

One whole loaf of Brioche is quite a lot for one person to get through before it gets past its best, but I certainly managed it. Here are two ways to use that loaf in a short space of time in completely different meals. Both ideal for a delicious brunch, my sweet French toast stack, and savoury gooey eggy bread are indulgent, comforting and restaurant-brunch-worthy.

They’re incredibly easy to follow, so be sure to give them a go!

SWEET

Rocky Road Brioche French Toast Sandwich Stack

Serves 2

Ingredients:

6 slices of Brioche

Nutella

6 digestive biscuits

2 handfuls marshmallows (mini or larger ones torn into smaller pieces)

2 eggs, beaten

2 tbsp honey

2tsp vanilla essence

icing sugar

butter

1. Whisk together 1 egg, 1 tbsp honey and 1tsp vanilla essence.Soak both sides of 2 Brioche slices – you don’t need to leave them for very long at all, as the egg mixture will very quickly saturate the Brioche and you don’t want it to end up falling apart!
2. Heat the butter in a non-stick pan and fry the 2 soaked slices until golden on both sides. These will form the middle slices of each stack.
3. Soak just one side of 4 more slices – 2 slices will form the tops of the sandwiches and 2 will form the bottom layers. At this point I needed to make a 2^nd bowl of egg wash mix, hence the need for 2 eggs above so you may need to do the same.
4. Now stack your sandwiches. The bottom slice should have egg wash only on the bottom side, and be dry on top. To this slice, add a layer of Nutella, a generous sprinkling of Marshmallows and crumble some chunky-ish pieces of biscuit over the top.
5. Now add the middle slice of Brioche – remember, this is the one that we cooked at the beginning with both sides sealed in egg wash. Repeat the layering of Nutella, marshmallows and crumbled biscuit, and finish with the top slice (egg wash side facing upwards).
6. Heat some more butter and add your 3 layer sandwich stack. Weigh it down by placing a small plate on top, followed by a heavy tin, as this will encourage everything in the sandwich to melt and bind it all together.
7. After a couple of minutes on a low-medium heat, check that the bottom is golden brown, then turn over and do the same with the other side.
8. Remove the sandwich to a plate (can cover with foil to keep warm), and repeat with your second sandwich.
9. When both sandwich stacks are complete, sprinkle over the remaining marshmallows and biscuit crumb and drizzle over as much heated, loosened Nutella as you wish.
10. Finish with a sieved sprinkling of icing sugar and dig in!

As always, I love a good plantification of dishes. For those unsure, that translates as a vegan alternative. As farfetched as it may seem, this is definitely not out of bounds for those following a plant-based diet. Nowadays you can buy vegan Brioche, get vegan Nutella equivalents, vegan butter-based biscuits and vegan marshmallows. The egg isn’t even an essential! For your wash, simply mix some plant-based milk with a little vanilla essence and maple syrup and it still work really well!

SAVOURY

Caprese Eggy Bread

Serves 2

Ingredients:

4 slices of Brioche

1 ball of mozzarella

handful of basil

6-8 cherry tomatoes (depending on how much you like them!)

salt/pepper

1-2 eggs, beaten

pesto – homemade or from a jar

butter

1. Preheat the oven to 180C, and when ready, roast the tomatoes in a little oil, salt and pepper until they’re just bursting from their skins.
2. Spread a layer of pesto on top of 2 of the Brioche slices.
3. Tear the mozzarella and place that on top.
4. Sprinkle over some pepper, followed by some basil leaves and the tomatoes. Add a little more salt and pepper and then top with the other slice.
5. Soak the top and bottom sides of each sandwich in the beaten egg and then cook in melted butter in a non-stick pan on medium heat until golden brown. Like with the sweet version, place a small plate over the sandwich, topped with a heavy tin to weigh it down and encourage the mozzarella to melt and the sandwich to bind.
6. Repeat on the other side and then slice into 2 large triangles to serve.

You may notice in the image above that I used larger salad tomatoes instead of roasted cherry tomatoes. Well, those tomatoes were rubbish and I don’t recommend trying that version – annoyingly, it’s the only photo I have!

Feel free to alter the proportions when it comes to the quantities of mozzarella, tomatoes, basil and basil you use. Make it your own, just how you like it. My original version of this recipe didn’t feature pesto, so you could try it without and the gooey mozzarella with sweet roasted tomatoes should do the trick equally as well – you could always add a drizzle of balsamic too, but I just adore pesto, and combined it creates a delicious pool of Italian flavours.

This has been one of my most exciting recipe posts to write, because having tasty, creative French toast dishes at home feels like such a luxury that’s normally reserved for quirky cafes and restaurants. But now it’s super simple for you to try yourself. Awful day at work? Why not go wild and even try it for dinner one day? When it comes to my meals, there are no rules.

¡Comemos!

xo