Vegan French Toast…. Yes!!!!!
Last weekend I stayed at a friends amazing country home. I was the only vegan, and as I was munching away on my peanut butter toast, I found myself contemplating how to veganize the French toast that was being served up. After doing a bit of research and reading several recipes, I came up with my own version, and it turned out so, so yummy!
What do you use for egg!? Pssshhhh… Egg shmegg. This recipe is 10 times more awesome than “regular” french toast. Full of creamy coconut and banana goodness, in my opinion, this is the ultimate upgrade to French Toast.
In a food processor or blender, add your coconut milk (shake can before opening), banana, vanilla, a bit of maple syrup, and cinnamon.
Pulse, and whizz that up until you have a thin smoothie like consistency. If it is too watery, add more banana and blend again.
Heat up your pan to about medium and add a pat of butter. Pour your French Toast dip into a shallow bowl that will fit your slices of bread. When pan looks ready, dip your bread in and coat both sides.
Fry the bread up just like you would any French Toast.
*Note Sometime the sauce ventures around the pan and burns, just scrape it out and add a new pat of butter between batches.
- 4-6 Pieces of Day Old Bread (sucks up the juices better)
- ¾ Cups Coconut Milk (1/2 a can)
- 1 Large Banana
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ teaspoon Cinnamon
- 1 Tablespoon Maple Syrup (plus more for serving)
- Vegan Butter, Canola Oil, or Coconut Oil for frying
- In a food processor or blender, add your coconut milk (shake can before opening), banana, vanilla, a bit of maple syrup, and cinnamon.
- Pulse, and whizz that up until you have a thin smoothie like consistency. If it is too watery, add more banana and blend again.
- Heat up your pan to about medium and add a pat of butter. Pour your French Toast dip into a shallow bowl that will fit your slices of bread. When pan looks ready, dip your bread in and coat both sides.
- Fry the bread up just like you would any French Toast.
- *Note Sometime the sauce ventures around the pan and burns, just scrape it out and add a new pat of butter between batches.
Bon Appetegan!
Sam.
This is delicious, but we are having problems with the bread sticking to the pan, no matter how much canola oil/coconut oil/vegan butter we put it the pan. Any advice?
When we go to flip it, it leaves a small layer on the pan, which is the really good crunchy part 🙁
Ah yes, it is very sticky. You want to make sure you use a very non-stick pan. Either a super well-seasoned cast iron pan, or a new scratch free non-stick coated pan. It’s also important to make sure the pan is hot before adding in the bread. If the pan is cold, then the sauce will fuse to the pan. Hope that helps a little!
Who needs eggs!! This recipe is BANGIN!
Woohoo! So glad you think so 🙂
I’m loving your recipes so far! Quick question… I detest bananas so do you have any ideas for a substitute, perhaps applesauce? Thanks
Thank you Jessica! Hmmm… bananas help make it thick and creamy. You could try applesauce, but if you do I would reduce the amount of non-dairy milk used. Not sure if it would work, I would have to do some experimenting myself! Sorry I can’t be more help!
How about some canned pumpkin that might work
I don’t know why I waited so long to try this! It’s so easy and delicious, I will definitely be making this more often.
You should try and figure out a baked/casserole version of this for feeding a crowd at brunch.
P.s I tried to rate it 5 stars but I don’t know if it’s my device or the website
Thanks so much Ashleigh, yea… there are some glitches with the star rating on mobile I believe. It’s being worked on 🙂
I actually will have a baked french toast in my cookbook when it comes out, so stay tuned for that! So happy you enjoyed the recipe!
I love this bread, comes close to grandma’s from Sicily. I rise at room temp, be aware time is temp dependent, so learn to judge by size not time. After second rising I split in two, roll each piece out and twist around my index finger to make a circle. I then pinch outside piece to hold shape, and razor 3 cuts , one down each side a third of the way around,about 1inch deep..while still holding on your finger. I make these ( as grandma did) to make a round loaf with several “rolls” that can be broken off while steamy hot. This prevents compressing the hot bread if you try to cut it hot. Please note round loaves take 10 min more to bake. You can also do away with the cornmeal and pizza stone if you use well seasoned bread pans( I have my grandma’ s 50 year old heavy pie tins that she had someone drill holes in the bottom). I place the loaves in them for the second rising after making the razor cuts above, and cover with dishcloths. Grandmas were made out of flour sacs….
When I became a vegan, I was sure I’d never experience my breakfast favorite ever again because of the eggs in the regular recipe… THANK YOU AO MUCH FOR THIS PEARL OF WISDOM!!!!! I just tried it and my family and I LOVE IT! The hubby was satisfied, my princess is all syrup-y from digging her hands in the bowl and going full fledged, and my soon to be son (still in gestation) is doing flips of delight! A+ recipe! I only used almond milk because we were out of coconut milk can’t wait to try it with coconut milk next time!
Yay! So happy you and your family love the recipe so much Melanie! 🙂
I am new to Vegan. My husband has an autoimmune disease and we are going vegan to see if it helps. Can you please clarify something for me that I may have missed… is butter vegan or are you referring to a butter substitute of some kind? Thanks and can’t wait to try this as a french toast bake!
Congratulations on your new vegan adventure Marisa! Butter is not vegan, I am referring to a vegan butter substitute. There are many different brands but my favourite is Earth Balance. Hope that helps and let me know if you have any more questions or need any support 🙂
Any way this could be turned into a French toast bake? I’m lazy and want throw everything in the oven!
I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. If you give it a try, let us know how it turns out!
Hi Sam,
I want to start by saying that I HAVE NEVER BEEN A FRENCH TOAST PERSON, there, I said it. But since I have changed over to a plant based diet, I am constantly on the hunt for vegan recipes, and when I LOOKED at yours it was speaking to me, very loudly I must add. So I took a leap of faith and tried my hand at making the Vegan French Toast, it was ok, that’s cause I over cooked it, but it was good enough to make a second time, and OH MY… It was just awesome! The batter was almost a smoothie for me. Thank you so much for coming up with and posting such an easy, healthy and tasty recipe. I am craving more as I speak. By the way, my husband loved it, too.
Awww Yvie, that’s awesome!!!
So happy I have made you into a french toast person! 😀
Here is my UPDATE: I have been making this recipe for several Saturdays becuase its awesome. However I am always left with extra “batter”. So I experimented and froze it to see if it would. ..and it does…really well! Also I’m a perfectionist so I now make a double batch freeze in ice cube trays. One cube for one piece of bread!! So now you can make it for how ever many pieces you want! YATZEE!
That’s awesome!!! Thanks so much for updating us Jessica, I love the ice cube tray idea 🙂
I love this recipe!!!i have been using it every Saturday. Quick question…have you ever frozen the leftover batter for another day? Do you think it would work??thanks again
Aww that’s great!
I haven’t tried that, but I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work. If you give it a go, let us know how it turns out for you 🙂
Can we just use regular milk in
substitution of almond? And Pam instead of butter in the pan?
Hi Nat,
You can use any kind of milk such as soy milk, rice milk, and cashew milk. If by “regular” you mean cows milk, I haven’t tried that because it isn’t vegan. You could try a Pam spray (check that the ingredients are vegan), you could also just use a light oil such as canola.
mine are coming out a but sloppy and gooey. i am using a cast iron and lightly dipping my bread into the mix. However i am using regular honey wheat bread… does it have to be thick bread?
thanks in advance.
I often use day old or stale bread for french toast, that way the bread is dry enough that it doesn’t get soggy. I hope that helps!
We made it and loved it but it was gooey in the center. What do we do wrong??
Hi Nikki,
There are two things that could be the problem. The first is you may have soaked the bread in the banana coconut mixture too long. If it sits in there for too long it can get soggy. If you don’t think that was the problem, than it’s likely you cooked them at a bit too high of temperature. If you lower the temperature it will have a chance to cook all the way through without burning on the outside. Hope that helps! Glad you liked the recipes anyways 🙂
I made today for breakfast and they were great! I used fresh oat-nut bread and just put a thin layer on – added almond milk, flour and a pinch of baking powder to the leftover batter and made crepes for dessert tonight! Am pinning now so I don’t lose the recipe!
Oh I love your idea for crepes Margaret!! Genius! Will have to try that myself.
Just made this with my mother, Incredible! We had coconut cream on hand so I added hemp milk to adjust consistency and we cooked them in coconut oil. It is the best french toast I’ve ever had. Served with lots of fresh fruit. Delicious
Hi adam! Yay! I am so glad you loved this recipe and were able to adapt it with the ingredients you had. Now you are making me want french toast and lots of fruit!
Best French toast I’ve EVER tasted!! Kudos!!!!
Awww yay! Thanks Gawanda! So glad you loved it so much. Thank you for making my day! 🙂
Delicious! Thanks for the recipe. Loved it.
You’re welcome! So glad you enjoyed it Chase. Thanks for the coming back and leaving a comment 🙂
I fixed my french toast this morning, but fried it in virgin coconut oil and it was the best!
Did you use full fat coconut milk or the light version?
Hi Chloe,
I used full fat. It makes it super luxurious and creamy. If you prefer light tho, you could use that.
Is it just me that found weird that butter is used for frying the pancakes which are supposed to be vegan?
Vegan butter! You can buy different brands, but my fav is Earth Balance.
I used that VEGG product to make french toast and holy guacamole— it was the BEST! I tried another recipe before that with bananas and i didn’t love it. If Vegg wasn’t so expensive I would definitely have that more often. You ever used it?
Hi Raquel,
I haven’t tried vegg yet. I generally like to use whole foods that are easy to find and have on hand. That being said, earth balance is definitely not a whole food! So I’m not that picky about it. Would love to try vegg tho. Always into new vegan things, I will pick some up the next time I see it! Thanks for the recommendation!
It was the consistency of pudding or mousse because I probably put too much coconut milk in it. Also, I can’t have butter, so it was lacking that flavor, however, I would make it again!
Hi Amber,
Was it the dip that was the consistency of pudding, or the finished French toast? If it was the dip, that’s perfect consistency. If it was the finished toast, try using a dryer bread (stale bread), and don’t let it sit in the dip. Just a quick dip, and shake off excess. Hope that helps!
The dip was like pudding.Thanks!
i used to enjoy french toast way back when so I tried an egg replacer and it wasn’t the same 🙁 so i decided rather then try and copy eggy bread exactly I’d try your recipe!
I’m afraid I couldn’t bring myself to use stale bread though :O and I didn’t have any cinnamon either. AND i used vegetable oil instead of vegan marg…. but it was still pretty darn tasty!!! I’ll have to try and make it again ‘properly’ sometime…
Hahaha! Awesome! The stale bread will just suck up the juices better, but it is isn’t mandatory, and vegan butter will just help get that buttery flavour on the outside. So glad you liked it!!
Holy cinnamon!
Haha! Nah, it’s just a shake. Probably no more than a teaspoon. But I also know that I like cinnamon more than you! haha