Egg In The Hole French Toast is a fun way to make a special and easy breakfast to surprise that special someone. Add heart-shaped bacon and a chocolate “message” for the sweetest presentation ever.
Whether you want to make a romantic breakfast for two, or a fun surprise for the kids, Egg In The Hole French Toast combines the sweet, crispy bread of a delicious French Toast and a yummy fried egg all in one. This French toast sneaks in some secret ingredients to ensure crunchy-edge toast by using a tiny bit of flour and sugar in the dipping mixture. Also to pair with the eggs, instead of adding cinnamon and vanilla which are my usual French toast add-in, I used a bit of cayenne and black pepper. These little additions add the savory component that will pair with the eggs and even with the syrup.
You can use the dipping mixture to make your next batch of “regular” French toast, but why not cut out a piece of that bread…
and fill it with an egg? Not only is this cute and a little different, the combination of the egg in the toast and all the regular French toast toppings creates a delicious bite.
You can cut out regular circles in the bread but look how cute the little heart bread is? But use what you have, it’ll still be special.
What is the best bread to use for French Toast?
- Brioche (Trader Joe’s sliced Brioche is featured in this recipe), French bread, Pain de me, and Challah are all excellent options. Also…
- Any favorite multi-grain bread! -A lot of people don’t realize that your favorite multi-grain bread can make a delicious French toast. Just handle carefully if it’s sliced thinner than one-inch thick. This option is my husband’s favorite and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how good multi-grain French Toast really is.
How long should I soak the bread for French Toast?
Many recipes call for letting your bread sit in a custard mixture for a few hours before toasting it on the griddle. These recipes are fabulous but the long-soak is for methods that use a lot of eggs so the mixture is more of a custard. In this recipe, simply dipping the bread for a couple of seconds will suffice. Especially for the pieces that you cut the hole out of; they will fall apart easily if they get too soaking wet.
For even more special treats with this meal, chocolate covered strawberries are super easy to make! The directions appear in the Notes section of the printable recipe.
And just as easy, use some of the melting chocolate to write a little love message or encouraging thought to start the day.
Of course, if you’re saying “Eggs with syrup on top? No thanks!” or if you don’t have the time for French toast AND eggs, you can forego the eggs and still make delicious French Toast. You also might’ve noticed my extra crispy, partly burnt bacon (life). Heart-shaped bacon is beyond easy too.
Check out some of my other great French Toast breakfast recipes, like Chocolate French Toast with Candied Bacon, and French Toast Casserole.
Egg In The Hole French Toast
Ingredients
- 6 slices bread, sliced 1-inch thick Brioche, Texas toast, or French bread
- 3 large eggs (2 for the egg in hole, one for your French toast batter)
- 1 tbsp all-purpose flour or gluten-free if needed
- 1 tbsp granulated sugar
- 2 cups whole milk or almond milk, or half and half for decadence
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper optional
- ½ tsp black pepper freshly ground, optional
- 1 dash salt
- maple syrup warm
- berries
- butter for frying
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300F° to be able to keep the French toast warm while finishing the Egg In the Hole pieces.
- Using a 3" cookie cutter, biscuit cutter, or glass (whatever size will cut into the bread but still leave enough of the bread around the hole to stay together), cut a hole in the center of two slices of bread. Save the piece of bread you cut out if desired, especially if using a heart-shaped cutter. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, add one egg. Sprinkle the egg with the 1 tablespoon of flour and 1 tablespoon of sugar and whisk with a fork to combine. Add the two cups milk, ½ teaspoon black pepper, ½ teaspoon cayenne, and dash of salt. Whisk very well to fully incorporate the egg and milk.
- Heat the griddle to 325F°-350F° depending on how hot your griddle cooks. Melt a generous amount of butter on the griddle. Working quickly, first dip the bread that does not have a hole in it into the batter, covering both sides, and place on the griddle. Now dip the bread pieces for the egg in a hole into the batter, being careful with these pieces so the weight of the batter doesn't break the bread. Place these pieces on the griddle also. Dip the leftover shapes from your cutouts, if using, and place on griddle. Let all the bread griddle for a couple minutes until you can tell they're browned but not burning.
- Using a good-sized spatula or pancake turner, flip all the bread. I quickly add a little more butter to the griddle as I'm flipping the toast for more good browning, flavor, and to ensure nothing sticks. See Note 1 for how to easily do this. At least add more butter to the griddle for the pieces that will get the eggs.
- To ensure egg shells don't get into your eggs that are going in the holes, break one egg into a small bowl and then gently tip the egg into the bread with the hole. Repeat with the second egg into the other piece of cut-out bread.
- By now, the regular slices of French Toast and extra shaped pieces should be well toasted on the second side. Remove them from the griddle and place on a baking sheet covered with a wire cooling rack and put into the oven to keep hot while the eggs finish.
- Once you see the bottom of the eggs becoming white, about 3 minutes, carefully but quickly flip the egg-in-the-hole bread pieces on the griddle to finish cooking the eggs to your desired doneness. About two minutes on the second side for over-easy, depending on your griddle.
- Remove the French toast pieces from the oven to individual plates, two per person, then top each plate with an egg-in-the-hole piece of French toast. Serve topped with warm syrup and berries.
Equipment
Notes
- To easily add more butter to the griddle as you flip your French toast, partially wrap about a tablespoon of butter in a paper towel. Hold onto the paper towel and just kind of wipe the butter onto the griddle where the bread is going to go. Alternately, you can just stab a hunk of butter with a fork and move it around the griddle as you flip the bread, but you need to move quickly so the butter doesn't melt in one spot of the hot griddle before you've flipped all the pieces.
6 large ripe strawberries, washed and dried
Parchment for letting the chocolate-covered strawberries harden
2 Sandwich-size plastic bag for piping the writing on the plate
Optional, about 1/2 cup white chocolate chips to melt for adding white hearts or design to the finished dark chocolate-covered strawberries. 1.Melt the chocolate wafers according to package directions. I used the entire package for large strawberries and writing on the plates. 2. Once the chocolate is ready, hold the green leafy top and dip the strawberry into the chocolate, remove and hold above the chocolate to let the excess drip back into the bowl. Place the strawberry on its side on the parchment. Continue until all the strawberries have been dipped. 3. To write on your plate with some of the melted chocolate- If necessary, place the bowl of chocolate back in the microwave and heat for another 30 seconds to make sure it's pour-able. Place the remainder of the melted chocolate into a sandwich bag, push all the chocolate into one corner of the bag and snip a tiny piece out of the corner. Holding the bag like a fat pen, "write" your design onto the plates. 4. If you're adding some white chocolate decorations to the strawberries, melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave in the same manner you melted the dark chocolate. Pour the melted white chocolate into a sandwich bag, push all the chocolate into one corner of the bag and snip a tiny piece out of the corner. Holding the bag like a fat pen, "write" your design onto the chocolate covered strawberries. You can add hearts, or just drizzle white stripes back and forth across the strawberries.
This was actually pretty good! I wasn’t sure at first since I’ve never seen the French toast version before but I really like it! Your idea with the cute bacon and covered strawberries is genius Sally so cute!
Hi Ava, Glad you tried it and thanks for commenting!
Hope my wife doesn’t spot this recipe…she will have it everyday!
Haha! That’s awesome, Tua. 😀
Delicious and easy for breakfast! Great way to combine your eggs and toast together plus it’s a nice departure from the usual French Toast.
Excellent! I’m 50 years old and had never heard of this before. I prepared it for my husband this morning and he loved it! I used a fork to mix the egg a couple times as it cooked so it wasn’t as runny. Thanks Sally your site is beautiful.
This is one of my FAVORITE breakfast dishes! My husband asks for it on all the special occasions. I even started adding the heart bacon to the side. Great idea Sally!
Becky, thanks for this comment. Heart bacon definitely is a nice little touch. 🙂
Just made these for my family! Super, super yummy and an instant hit with the kids! They were impressed with shaping the bacon lol
Hi Whitney, my family thinks the “heart” bacon is pretty cute/funny, too. Thanks for making this breakfast!
WOW! this was Amazing and so beautiful all on the plate together! It’s like you took something already awesome (egg in hole) and then you made it even MORE awesome (EIH French toast?!?)
Thanks, Sadie! We think it’s a super fun breakfast.
This “version” is the way I grew up eating it. Made it for my husband and I for our Anniversary and I did exactly what you did with the bacon and chocolate covered strawberries and he was SO impressed! Thank you so much Sally for bringing this back to our family kitchen! It was FABULOUS!
This looks SO good! What a gorgeous breakfast for a special occasion.
This would be such a great idea for Valentine’s. I love all the personal touch you added. Can’t wait to make this for my family this weekend.
Such an easy and fun way to serve up French toast!
This is such a cute idea. I’m going to make these for my kids on Valentine’s Day!
Great Valentine’s Day breakfast! What a fun idea.
What a cute plate of food! Can’t wait to make this for my family! Thanks for sharing 😊❤️
Thank you! I hope you like it. 🙂