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Pistachio Cream Brioche French Toast

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Fluffy brioche, filled with pistachio cream, soaked in custard and cooked until golden brown, this pistachio cream french toast makes a delicious brunch or breakfast.

It just takes 5 ingredients to make the pistachio cream and I'd argue it's better than any you can buy. So simple and so delicious!

Ingredients

Scale

For the pistachio cream:

150g shelled unsalted raw pistachios (you can shell them yourself but it takes a while so buy shelled if you can!)

180ml whole milk

28g salted butter

100g white chocolate

1 tablespoon icing sugar (powdered sugar)

For the brioche French toast

1/2 loaf of brioche - cut into 3 large thick slices

3 eggs

60ml whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

30 grams butter (for frying)

approx 6 tbsp pistachio cream

To serve:

3 dollops of softly whipped cream

3 tablespoons of blackcurrant jam - just gently heated in a pan until it's melted

icing sugar

Instructions

  1. I always start by boiling the shelled pistachios for 3 minutes to soften them. Then drain them and set them on a clean tea towel to dry.
  2. Then use the tea towel to rub the pistachios to loosen the skins. You want to separate the pistachios from the skins. This step does take a little time but I promise it’s worth it. If you don’t remove the skins your pistachio cream won’t be lovely and vibrant green and will taste slightly more bitter, not in a bad way, it’s still good! But this way is really really good. Once you’re done, pop the pistachios  into a food processor and discard the skins. 
  3. Add the milk and 1 tablespoon of icing sugar to the food processor with the pistachios. Blend for around 5 minutes until the pistachios turn into a smooth pistachio paste, scraping down the sides every minute or so. Be patient – to begin with, it will resemble breadcrumbs but eventually, it will turn into a paste – this is important.
  4. Heat the butter and white chocolate in a saucepan and heat gently until melted.
  5. Scoop the pistachio paste into a blender and then pour in the melted white chocolate mixture. Blend until extra creamy and silky smooth

For the French toast:

Slice the brioche loaf into 2″ thick slices.

Use the knife to cut a slit in the bottom of each slice that creates a pocket inside of the bread.

Fill each slice with the pistachio cream (I use a piping bag but you can use a ziplock bag with the corner snipped off) and use a knife (and gravity) to encourage the pistachio cream to fill the slice so that it's evenly distributed and not just bunched at the top.

In a baking dish, whisk together 3 eggs with 3 big splashes of milk and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Dunk your brioche sandwiches in the eggy mixture until it's coated on all sides - it will go soggy quickly, so don't leave them to soak, a dunk is long enough.

Heat a pan over medium low heat with a knob of butter and swirl the butter round the pan to make sure the bottom is all covered. Once the butter is foaming add the brioche. Cook gently until golden brown and then flip them over and cook the other side.

I love them served with a dollop of softly whipped double cream and some gently heated blackcurrant jam. Dust generously with icing sugar. And Enjoy!

Notes

Cut the slices of bread nice and thick for your French toast which will give you room to cut the slit in the middle for the filling.

If you cant find unsliced brioche - you can also just make sandwiches with two slices of brioche, these won't be quite as thick as the ones here but that's okay. Make sure you press down the edges to seal in the filling.

Be generous with the filling.

Be careful not to soak the bread for too long as it can quickly fall apart and become too soggy.

Make sure you keep the pan heat relatively low. These slices are thick so they take a few minutes to cook all the way through. If the heat is too high, the brioche will burn on the outside before the inside is cooked through.

I would cook this fresh on the day but if you want to get ahead, you can stuff the brioche with the pistachio paste the day before and then wrap them well in clingfilm to keep them fresh. Then when you're ready to eat, you can dunk them in the egg bath and proceed.

If you want to make a big batch of these and are cooking for a crowd, you can keep them warm on a baking sheet in a low oven at 80c while you get on with the rest of the batch.

Find it online: https://desertislanddishes.co/pistachio-cream-brioche-french-toast/