Coconut Cream Stuffed French Toast
Thick challah stuffed with coconut cream cheese, griddled golden, and topped with toasted coconut, fresh strawberries, and brûléed bananas. This is not breakfast — this is an event.
Prep: 20 min · Cook: 15 min · Total: 35 min · Serves: 4 · Difficulty: Medium · Rating: 5/5 (267 reviews)
INSPIRED BY
Miss Shirley's Cafe — Baltimore, MD
Featured on Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives
Inspired by Miss Shirley's Cafe in Baltimore, MD — a DDD featured institution with lines out the door for brunch, and French toast that borders on illegal. Their stuffed French toast taught an entire city that brunch could be a dessert-first experience, and nobody went home sad.
Story
My mom came to stay for a long weekend in February and I wanted to make her something that felt like more effort than it actually was, because she made everything from scratch my whole childhood and I have things to prove. So on a slow Sunday morning I made coconut cream stuffed French toast, which I'd been thinking about ever since I had a version at Miss Shirley's in Baltimore on a work trip a couple years back. The filling is cream cheese beaten smooth with cream of coconut, the Coco López stuff from the cocktail aisle, not coconut milk. I made that mistake the first time, grabbed a can of coconut milk thinking it was the same, and ended up with a thin runny filling that leaked out the sides while it cooked. Cream of coconut is thick and sweet and it holds. Lesson learned the soggy way. Thick challah is what makes this work, cut a good inch and a half. Thin bread falls apart in the custard. You dip each stuffed sandwich just twenty or thirty seconds a side, long enough to soak the outside but not so long the whole thing turns to mush. Medium heat, butter in the pan, three to four minutes a side until it's deeply golden. Toasting the coconut is the step everyone rushes, including me the first time, when I walked away to pour coffee and came back to a pan of black flecks. It goes from golden to burnt in seconds. Stand there and stir it. I brûlée the bananas with a little kitchen torch, but a broiler works if you watch it like a hawk, which is a phrase I apparently use a lot in my kitchen. My mom said it was too sweet, and she's right, it is. There's no syrup needed and honestly no syrup wanted. The kids loved it for exactly that reason. My 4-year-old ate the brûléed banana and the strawberries off the top and ignored the toast entirely, which tells you the priorities of a 4-year-old. This is a weekend thing, a once-in-a-while thing, not a Tuesday. But it made my mom feel fussed over, and that was the whole point of the morning.
By Casey
Ingredients
- 8 slices challah bread, cut 1.5 inches thick
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup cream of coconut (Coco López or similar)
- 1 cup toasted sweetened shredded coconut
- 3 eggs
- 3/4 cup whole milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 bananas, halved lengthwise
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar (for brûléeing)
- 1 cup fresh strawberries, sliced
- 3 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp powdered sugar for dusting
Instructions
- Make the coconut cream filling: beat softened cream cheese until completely smooth and fluffy. Mix in cream of coconut until fully incorporated and silky. Fold in half the toasted coconut. Taste it — it should be sweet, creamy, and tropical. Refrigerate while you prep everything else.
- Toast the remaining coconut: spread it in a dry skillet over medium heat and stir constantly for 2-3 minutes until golden and fragrant. Watch it like a hawk — it goes from perfect to burnt in seconds.
- Make the custard: whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla in a wide, shallow bowl.
- Spread a generous amount of coconut cream filling on one side of 4 challah slices. Top with the remaining 4 slices to make stuffed sandwiches. Press gently to seal.
- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Dip each stuffed sandwich in the egg custard for 20-30 seconds per side — long enough to soak through but not so long the bread falls apart. Cook in batches, 3-4 minutes per side until deeply golden. The challah should have a caramelized, almost custard-crisp exterior.
- Brûlée the bananas: place banana halves cut-side up on a sheet pan. Sprinkle generously with sugar and use a kitchen torch to caramelize until bubbly and golden brown. Alternatively, place under a broiler for 3-4 minutes.
- Plate the French toast, dust with powdered sugar, and top with brûléed banana, fresh strawberries, and a generous scatter of the remaining toasted coconut. Serve immediately — and don't even think about maple syrup. This is complete as-is.
Chef Tips
- Day-old challah is significantly better for French toast than fresh — the bread is slightly drier and absorbs the custard without falling apart during the soak and cook. If you're planning ahead, cut the challah and leave it uncovered on a rack overnight. Cream of coconut (not coconut milk or coconut cream) is key for the filling — it's thick, sweetened, and intensely coconut-flavored in a way that won't water down or curdle the cream cheese. The brûléed banana is not just aesthetic; the caramelized sugar forms a thin glass-like crust over the banana that creates a dramatic crack-and-crunch when you cut into it. If you don't have a kitchen torch, it's worth getting one — the broiler works but can't match the control.
Cook's Notes
- **Bread tip:** Day-old brioche or challah is ideal — slightly stale bread absorbs the custard without getting soggy in the middle. Fresh bread can be dried in a 200°F oven for 20 minutes.
- **Coconut cream substitute:** Full-fat canned coconut milk (scooped from the top of an unshaken can) works if coconut cream isn't available.
- **Make-ahead:** The coconut filling can be made 2 days ahead and refrigerated. Stuff the bread right before cooking.
- **Storage:** Cooked French toast lasts 2 days refrigerated. Reheat in a skillet with a little butter, not the microwave — the microwave makes it rubbery.
- **Common mistake:** Cooking at too high heat. The thick stuffed slices need medium heat to cook the custard through the center without burning the exterior. If it's browning in under 2 minutes per side, the heat is too high.
- **Doneness cue:** The French toast is done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (no raw egg custard) and the exterior is deep golden brown.
- **Filling tip:** The coconut cream filling should be thick enough to hold its shape — if it's loose and runny, it will leak out during cooking. Fold in cream cheese or powdered sugar to firm it up.