Pepperoni and cheese French toast roll-ups

That’s French toast? By definition, bread dipped in egg and fried is French toast.

When I first published this recipe in 2007, a regular reader commented that I could have coated the egg-dipped rolled bread in bread crumbs before frying. I could have but I chose not to. Adding another layer that need to be cooked to crispness means longer cooking time. And there’s the risk that the cheese would melt, seep out and drip into the oil before the surface of the bread was golden and crisp.

If you’re thinking that bread crumbs will give the bread better texture, I’m sure it will. But you will need to choose a cheese variety that will not start melting fast as soon as the bread hits the pan. Aged cheddar would be a good choice, as opposed to Monterey Jack which was used in this recipe.

Does the meat have to be pepperoni? No, it can be ham, salami, bologna… any thinly sliced, pliable and highly seasoned meat will be good for making these roll-ups.

If your meat is very salty, you might want to balance that with with a not-too-salty cheese. I’ll leave it to you to decide what meat and cheese combination to use.

Pepperoni and cheese French toast roll-ups

Connie Veneracion

Stale bread is especially good for making these roll-ups. The are drier than newly-baked bread and that means there's very little chance that they will turn soggy after getting dipped in egg.

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Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 2 minutes mins

Total Time 7 minutes mins

Course Breakfast, Snack

Cuisine International

Servings 2 people

Ingredients

  

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• ▢ ¼ cup butter
• ▢ 2 slices white loaf bread
• ▢ 6 slices pepperoni
• ▢ 2 thick strips cheese Monterey Jack was used here
• ▢ 1 egg lightly beaten

Instructions

 

• Set the stove to medium heat. Start heating the butter in a frying pan.
• Cut off the crusts of the bread slices. Reserve the crusts for another use (like making bread pudding).
• Flatten the bread slices with a rolling pin. You can’t skip this part; if you do, the bread won’t be pliable enough to fill and roll.
• Lay three slices of pepperoni, in slightly overlapping fashion, on each slice of bread.
• Place a cheese strip on one side. Roll up the bread as tightly as you can without squishing the cheese inside.
• Dip the rolled bread slices in egg.
• Fry in hot butter or oil, rolling them around for even browning.
• Drain the bread rolls on paper towels.
• As soon as they can be handled, cut into slices about an inch and a half to expose the delicious filling of pepperoni and cheese.