Brioche French Toast with mixed berry compote – Recipe

You don’t need a weekend to enjoy this delicious leftover dish, at least in our household. A brioche French Toast with mixed berry compote is a pretty quick lunch during the week as well. Using a soft and fluffy brioche roll or braided milk bread is the luxury edition of a usual bread slice. This upgrade is well worth it as a brioche is already packed with a bunch of flavor from eggs and butter.

We like to serve our French Toast with fresh berries or with a quick homemade mixed berry compote topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Sooooo good! Find our favorite quick ‘n easy berry compote made from frozen berries below.


closeup - 3 slices Brioche french toast on white plate by Breadista
Brioche French Toast made from fluffy Hot Cross Buns

Whether you’re using the spiced Hot Cross Buns, a Challah bread or a milk bread with raisins, all variations bring a unique and delicious touch your French Toast. Just remember, commerical store-bought brioche buns or milk breads are way softer and have a less solid crumb structure. This can make it more difficult to handle an unbaked French Toast. We always recommend a homemade version of bread or from your trusted artisan bakery.

How you make a fluffy Brioche French Toast

For our recipe we used leftover Hot Cross Buns which make 3 slices/bun. Depending on the size of your buns you need 3-4 thick slices per person. When you’re using a sweet braided milk bread, we recommend cut the slices thicker and then in half. This will help with handling the toast in the pan. The following instructions are written for 2 servings.
NOTE: Use a digital scale to measure the water in gramm (oz NOT fl.oz)!


Bread:
2-3 Brioche Rolls / 3-6 slices Braided Milk Bread

170 g / 6 oz milk (whole or 2%)
2 eggs whisked
cinnamon
—
1 TBS butter, unsalted
0.5 TBS olive oil
—
Sugar-Cinnamon Mix and/or powder sugar

Mixed Berry Compote:

1.5 – 2 Cup mixed berries, frozen
0.5 – 1 TBS brown sugar

optional: 1 TSP potato starch


birdview - slices of hot cross buns with serrated knife and whole buns in upper left corner
birdview - green bowl with egg, milk, cinnamon and a fork ready to whisk
birdview - 5 frying slices of french toast in butter with browned side up by BREADISTA
birdview - slices of toasted and untoasted hot cross buns with one whole bun next to it on rack by Breadista
birdview - 7 frying slices of french toast in pan with browned side up by BREADISTA

Instructions for making Brioche French Toast

STEP 1 – Whisk the eggs with the milk, set aside. Choose the bowl size according to your bread slices.

STEP 2 – Slice your brioche buns or milk bread in thick slices (almost 1 inch). Now the crucial part that they do not fall apart – toast them!

STEP 3 – Prepare your frying pan, a coated works well too. Add 1 TBS butter with 0.5 TBS olive oil and set the heat to low/medium. This is our flavor trick and it helps keep the butter from burning.

STEP 4 – Dunk each toasted slice in the egg-milk for 2-3 seconds each side. Don’t overdue it as the dough gets too wet and will fall apart. How long does actually depend on the thickness of your slices, how well it is toasted and the bread itself.
Place them on a plate or baking sheet to get them into the pan all at ones or be quick with dunking and put the soaked slices direct into your pan.
Fry the slices on medium heat until golden brown and turn them carefully with a spatula.


Mixed Berry Compote recipe from frozen berries

STEP 5 – Meanwhile, warm up the berries in a small saucepan over low-medium heat. Add ~1 TBS brown sugar and stir from time to time. The berries will get juicy and the sugar disolves. Don’t overdue it with the heat as all the vitamins will then be gone and the berries become mashy.
! NOTE: Depending on how many blueberries are in your mix you probably want to thicken the mixed berry compote a bit (More blueberries means more natural thickening). To lightly thicken the liquid, mix 0.5 TSP starch with a splash of water lumpfree and add it to the berries. Stir it in evenly and bring the berries to a quick short boil so that the starch can do its magic. Set aside before serving.

TIP: You can do Step-5 upfront before starting to fry your bread slices. Keep in mind, the compote will thicken as it cools depending on your fruit mix and the amount of starch used.

STEP 6 – Plate your baked slices, sprinkle with sugar and/or cinnamon, add the berries and top this mouthwatering dish with a scoop of your best vanilla ice-cream.


closeup - white plate served with 3 slices of brioche french toast with mixed berry compote topped with scoop of vanilla ice-cream by BREADISTA

We made our French Toast with mixed berry compote from leftover Hot Cross Buns that were made with the EINBACK bread mix. 1 bag makes 2 batches of these soft rolls (24pc).