Chocolate Brioche Is The Decadent Way To Enjoy French Toast

Light, fluffy, and slightly sweet, brioche bread is often compared to cake due to its taste and texture — and if it wasn't for the presence of yeast in its dough, it very well might be. Indeed, because of its dessert-like nature, brioche is one of the best breads to use when making French toast. But like almost anything else that's edible, it can be made even better by adding chocolate. To take your breakfast to decadent new heights, try whipping up a stack of French toast using chocolate brioche.

Technically, brioche is a type of pastry known as a viennoiserie. It is made from enriched dough using butter, sugar, eggs, and milk, making it taste richer than your typical loaf of bread. The chocolate version, meanwhile, can be baked with the addition of chips, chunks, or a liquidy chocolate filling spread and folded into the dough.

Whether you use a store-bought loaf or bake one up from scratch, you can use slices of your chocolate brioche just as you would any other bread when making French toast to create a gooey-on-the-inside, golden-on-the-outside treat. However, you can't go wrong using Tasting Table's French Toast Waffles recipe, which sees fluffy slices of bread coated in a batter of heavy cream, eggs, vanilla extract, maple extract, cinnamon, and nutmeg, then toasted on a waffle iron to give it a nice, crispy exterior. No waffle iron? No problem — simply dip and fry in a buttered pan.

Now that we've established that chocolate brioche bread makes for an excellent French toast base, it's on to the next step: picking the perfect toppings. While plain brioche bread (or plain bread in general) leaves a blank canvas to be sweetened up in the form of chocolate or maple syrup, hazelnut spread, and/or whipped cream, one must remember that the chocolate brioche already comes pre-flavored. In that case, less may be more in terms of toppings; after all, you don't want to overpower your taste buds and completely miss the eggy, buttery taste of the bread itself. Then again, if you don't mind going the extra-sweet route, you can pile on all the spreads, syrups, and sugary additions your heart desires.

In order to let the chocolatey flavor of the brioche shine, a simple dollop of fresh whipped cream with a dusting of powdered sugar will do the trick. You can also complement the taste of chocolate with a smattering of fresh fruit; raspberries and blueberries can work particularly well, adding a refreshing tartness to balance out the sweetness, while slices of banana add a creamy richness to the whole shebang.

Of course, strawberries and chocolate are another iconic pairing, so you can simply sprinkle some on top of your stack or go all out by using our Strawberries and Cream French Toast Bake recipe, which turns slices of brioche into a delectable breakfast casserole. Whenever chocolate brioche is involved, you can't go wrong.