We’re steadily working our way toward Valentine’s so of course, and I wanted to surprise my family with a treat. I wanted to make sure it tasted good first as we all have had those recipes that look great but don’t turn out so good. So I decided I needed to make Heart-Shaped Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast Recipe with Strawberry Sauce in advance to try out the recipe I plan to make for Valentine’s breakfast.
How could I pull this off so they have no idea what I’m planning? I decided to make it while they were at school, I was able to get rid of all of the evidence before they got home and keep them none-the-wiser. Now if I can just keep the secret for a little longer, I’ll be ready with a fun surprise Valentine’s Day breakfast the kids will love!
These easy heart-shaped cream cheese stuffed french toast with strawberry sauce are so rich and tasty, I can’t wait to serve them to the family Valentines Day morning. And the best part is, as decadent as they sound, this stuffed french toast recipe is made as healthy as you can make french toast.
There’s no added sugar, they’re packed with protein (3 eggs and a whole brick of cream cheese!) and they’re made of wheat bread. So, if you’re ready to make the most fun stuffed french toast for Valentines, let’s get cookin’!
Ingredients for Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast Recipe with Strawberry Sauce
Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast
- 3 eggs
- 4 teaspoons of water (can use milk)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 8oz block cream cheese
- 12 pieces of whole wheat bread
- 1-2 teaspoons butter
- Heart-shaped cookie cutter
Strawberry Sauce
- 1 pint of frozen strawberries
- ⅓ Cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Heart-Shaped Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast Recipe with Strawberry Sauce
Crack the 3 eggs into a shallow bowl.
Add water and vanilla. Beat with a fork until well combined and set aside.
Grab a few slices of wheat bread for your heart-shaped cream cheese stuffed french toast with strawberry sauce. Lay down one slice of bread on a plate. Add 1-2 tablespoons cream cheese to the middle of the slice. (Estimate how much area you need to spread it on by holding the cookie cutter over it.)
Top with another slice of bread. Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to press into the middle of the “sandwich”.
Remove crusts and discard them or you can have a snack while you prepare the stuffed French toast.
Heat butter in a small pan over medium heat until fully melted.
Then dip one side of a heart in the egg mixture then flip over and dip the other side.
Allow excess to drip off then place into the pan a few at a time. Allow to cook for 1-2 minutes until browned.
Flip over and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes until browned. Add more butter to the pan as needed between cooking if needed for the heart-shaped cream cheese stuffed french toast recipe with strawberry sauce.
Now your heart-shaped french toast is done and ready to eat if you don’t want the strawberry sauce. If you want it with strawberry sauce keep reading.
To make the strawberry sauce for the stuffed french toast rinse off the strawberries and use a paring knife to cut off stems. Since they’re frozen, it’s more of a peeling motion. Then add then to the saucepan
Add the white sugar and vanilla to the saucepan. Then cook them all over medium heat for about 5 minutes.
Once strawberries are soft, use a masher to mash them.
Use an immersion blender to smooth out the sauce. Once lumps are out then set aside to cool or serve warm.
Now you’re ready to Serve heart-shaped cream cheese stuffed french toast with strawberry sauce.
Ideas for How to Serve Stuffed French Toast Hearts
So, one of the things that’s important to me is how food is presented. I mean, if it’s not appetizing to look at, why in the world would the kids be willing to put it in their mouths?! I am kind of the same way. As a result, I do some overthinking sometimes on how to present food, whether it be for a party, for guests or, as in this case, a new breakfast recipe the kids have never tried before.
The goal is, in this instance, to make a healthy french toast recipe into an appetizing-for-kids french toast recipe. So, I’ve come up with some ideas that I plan to implement to make sure they just can’t resist.
Some ways I plan to serve my heart-shaped cream cheese stuffed french toast with strawberry sauce:
- Drizzle with strawberry sauce before serving. Because the exterior of french toast is not super-duper appealing on its own, I mean, it’s brown bread; I feel like the pop of color from the strawberry sauce is a requirement, even before the kids walk-up to the table. Just a little pop of pink drizzled over the top, dripping off the side, that will be the money.
- Add a dash of powdered sugar. Another pop of color that french toast desperately needs is that sprinkle of white across the top. I firmly believe that a light dusting is absolutely critical not only for taste, but also for aesthetics. It’s going to make the french toast look more textured and less like a piece of bread. And don’t think for two seconds that I am somehow turning this french toast recipe unhealthy by putting a LIGHT dusting over it. An itty bitty bit of powdered sugar is a-ok, in most situations. Just make sure you apply the powdered sugar or instead of a light dusting it might look like a snowstorm hit!
- Don’t load-up the plate. Kids get easily overwhelmed–heck, I get easily overwhelmed. So, if you load up each of their plates with the stuffed french toast, bacon, scrambled eggs and sliced strawberries, well, they’re going to crumble under the weight. So, leave off all the other stuff. Serve it family-style and let the kids grab it themselves. Not only does that give them some control and therefore encourage them to own their food choices, but the fact that they can focus on the french toast will allow them to eat just it then decide if they want something else as well.
I think there are probably other things I could do to make this easy french toast with cream cheese more “fun”, but really, I don’t think it takes a whole lot. You just have to stop and think about it, as can always add more fruit or a little bit of whipped cream or even chocolate chips but remember you don’t want to turn this breakfast into a dessert…. or do you ;).
If you’re just as excited about this stuffed french toast as I am, but you’re not quite ready to make a batch, be sure to pin this to your favorite Valentines’ recipes board on Pinterest so you can find it again super quick when you are ready!
Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast
Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast. Delicious slices of sweet, egg soaked bread stuffed with sweet cream cheese cooked until golden and topped with strawberry sauce.
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 4 teaspoons of water (can use milk)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 8oz block cream cheese
- 12 pieces of whole wheat bread
- 1-2 teaspoons butter
- Heart-shaped cookie cutter
- 1 pint frozen strawberries
- ⅓ C white sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Crack eggs into a shallow bowl.
- Add water and vanilla.
- Beat until well combined and set aside.
- Lay down one slice of bread.
- Add 1-2 tablespoons cream cheese to the middle of the slice.
- Top with another slice of bread.
- Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to press into the middle of the “sandwich”.
- Remove crusts and discard (or eat).
- Heat butter in a small pan over medium heat.
- Once melted, dip one side of a heart in the egg mixture then flip over and dip the other side.
- Allow excess to drip off then place into pan a few at a time.
- Allow cooking for 1-2 minutes until browned.
- Flip over and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes until browned.
- Add more butter to the pan as needed between cooking.
- Strawberry Sauce - Rinse off strawberries and use a paring knife to cut off stems.
- Add everything to a saucepan and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes.
- Once strawberries are soft, use a masher to mash them.
- Use an immersion blender to smooth out the sauce.
- Set aside to cool.
- Serve Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast with strawberry sauce.
Notes
You can serve with or without the strawberry sauce.
You can skip the cutting heart shapes, I did this more so for Valentine's Day.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
6Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 434Total Fat: 20gSaturated Fat: 10gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 135mgSodium: 473mgCarbohydrates: 50gFiber: 5gSugar: 20gProtein: 14g
These values are automatically calculated and all nutritional information provided is simply a guideline. For exact nutritional information, consult your dietitian.