Vegan French Toast, it's like pancakes but for lazy people. Don't worry, I don't judge I'm that lazy person too.
If you are looking for a classic tasting vegan French toast recipe, I recommend checking out my Heavenly French Toast recipe in my cookbook Fuss-Free Vegan. But if you are looking for something a little more unique, then stick around here because this vegan French toast is made with bananas and coconut milk, with a touch of cinnamon for a very special treat. This rich fruity combination takes French toast up several notches to make you feel like you're feasting on the most luxurious dessert for breakfast. But the best part is: it's so easy to make!
No really, this recipe requires just 7 ingredients, likely things you will have hanging around in your kitchen, and can be whipped up in no time. Just blend the batter, dip the bread, fry, and enjoy the most decadent French toast ever!
My vegan French toast recipe isn't new to It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken, I originally posted it way back in 2013 when I first started my blog and used the above out of focus, badly lit, phone photo. Ahhh back in the days when I had no knowledge of photography. Regardless of the ugly photo, this recipe became a fan favourite. So I decided it was time to give this old recipe some love and update it with new photos and tips.
To make vegan French toast: in a blender or food processor add the banana, coconut milk, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and cinnamon. Blend to a smoothie-like consistency.
Pour the mixture into a shallow wide bowl that will fit a slice of bread.
Tips for the bread: I like using a day-old or slightly stale bread. The is dried out a bit, so it will help hold its shape. I also recommend dipping the bread quickly on both sides and then placing directly into the hot pan. Letting it soak will just make it soggy. 
Heat the vegan butter in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Now I'm not gonna lie, the sugars in the fruit make the mixture very sticky, so I highly recommend using a very good non-stick pan such as this one. Even my well-seasoned cast iron pan wasn't ideal, so I'm definitely putting that pan on my kitchen wish list. Regardless of the sticking, this French toast is SO worth the trouble.
When the pan is hot and the butter is melted, dip a slice of bread into the batter and coat both sides. Place the bread in a hot pan and fry for a couple of minutes per side until golden brown.
Serve hot with maple syrup, vegan butter, fruit, or any toppings of choice.
Bon appetegan!
Sam.
Vegan French Toast made with coconut milk and banana. 7 ingredients, quick and easy to make, and tastes so much better than regular French toast!
- 1 large banana
- ¾ cup full-fat coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup (plus more for serving)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon vegan butter or light oil, for frying (more if needed)
- 4 - 6 slices day-old bread (gluten-free if preferred)
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In a blender or food processor add the banana, coconut milk, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and cinnamon. Blend to a smoothie-like consistency. Pour the mixture into a shallow wide bowl that will fit a slice of bread.
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Heat the vegan butter in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. The sugars in the fruit make the mixture very sticky, so I highly recommend using a very good non-stick pan such as this one. When the pan is hot and the butter is melted, dip a slice of bread into the batter and coat both sides. Place the bread in a hot pan and fry for a couple of minutes per side until golden brown. Serve hot with maple syrup, vegan butter, fruit, or any toppings of choice.
Tips for the bread: I like using a day-old or slightly stale bread. The is dried out a bit, so it will help hold its shape. I also recommend dipping the bread quickly on both sides and then placing directly into the hot pan. Letting it soak will just make it soggy.
Pan selection: now I'm not gonna lie, the sugars in the fruit make the mixture very sticky, so I highly recommend using a very good non-stick pan such as this one. Even my well-seasoned cast iron pan wasn't ideal, so I'm definitely putting that pan on my kitchen wish list. Regardless of the sticking, this French toast is SO worth the trouble.
Nutrition
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Best French Toast ever! They were so good. Just a hint of banana. We served them with fresh raspberries and of course some more real maple syrup. Your recipes never disappoint us. Thanks for sharing.
Wonderful!!! Thrilled you loved them, Doug!
Thanks for making our Sunday mornings so much more pleasant! Unless it's for a good cause, I usually swap coconut milk for something less fatty, but in this case, the fat was for a very good cause!
Haha! Amazing 🙂
I had to use almond milk because that’s all I had due to shortages related to the pandemic. I will probably try using only 1/2 cup next time. The bread I had was fresh so I did a light toast to crisp them up a bit without changing the color. I also chose to bake them instead. 350° for 30 minutes flipping halfway through. They came out quite good. Like a cross between banana bread and French toast.
My family loves this recipe! It’s the best!
Yay! So happy to hear that 🙂
This is so much tastier than conventional French toast! I loved the caramelization. Between this and your “egg yolk” dipping sauce, why did I ever think I needed eggs in the first place?
Hahaha! I love it! Thanks so much, Andrea 🙂
This was SO unbelievably easy to make and so delicious!! 10/10! I used all the ingredients as you listed them & will definitely be making this a staple at my house. Thanks for the amazing recipe!
So thrilled you loved it so much, Cindi!! Thanks for the review 🙂
We are not specifically vegan but I use vegan recipes a lot because of food issues. All 3 of my kids don’t tolorate dairy and my youngest can’t have eggs so this recipe was just what I was looking for. I only had oat milk on hand even though we typically have coconut and oat worked well. I did not add maple syrup to the “batter” but I did add 2 bananas. We only have cast iron pans and it worked ok they just have to be really really hot & I used coconut oil. My kids loved these!!
So happy your kids loved them 🙂
I used a nonstick pan and plenty of butter and ruined several slices before calling it quits. I wouldn't recommend this recipe.
Oh no, sorry you had a hard time, Chris! It is a bit sticky, but the key is to let one side cook before trying to move it, then it should release a little easier.
Way to recycle content from a long time ago! I am impressed (since I do marketing for a living, this is an excellent thing to do). I read the response from the person saying she was trying fat-free (no oil) vegan, but that you have to "cheat" sometimes. I was wondering, has anyone tried cooking this recipe in an air fryer? Sounds like a delicious recipe and I just bought an air fryer but so far have only made sweet potato "fries" and brussel sprouts in it.
Thanks, Allison! I haven't but hopefully, someone else can help you with that. 🙂
Just a thought about reducing the sogginess. Dip one side and cook until firming up, remove from pan and dip the other side, cook that. Then less batter will be soaking into the middle. You can then flip a few additional times to get the toast exactly as you like it. This has always worked for me with other french toast batters using a tofu base.
Thanks Ann! I don't find there is a problem with sogginess in this recipe as long as you use day-old bread and just do a quick dip on both sides, but glad you found a technique you enjoy 🙂
what if you don't have a day-old bread is it still ok to go ahead with the recipe and just use less batter for the sogginess.
I used normal loaf bread and the first round was definitely too soggy so for the next couple rounds I toasted the bread first. Best results were toasting to a golden color then dip and cook normally.
Hi, my rating is for the French toast recipe in your book, which is similar to this one. I'm excited to try this one next! I'm doing fat-free vegan but have to cheat on the fat once in a while. LOL. (I used Pam and a non-stick pan instead of any vegan butter.) This recipe's really good, and I'm not missing the eggs at all. (Actually I think it smells amazing while it's in the pan, while traditional egg-based French toast always smells sort of off-putting while it's frying.) My young daughter thought it was a little too soggy (even though she ate it all, ha ha), so next time I'll try a crustier bread or something stale since this time I used a regular shelf-stable wheat bread. Thanks for the great recipes!
So thrilled you are enjoying my recipes so much!! Thanks for coming and leaving a review. 🙂
I'm not one to ever comment on recipes, but this one I just had to! The banana taste is so dreamy, this is by far the best French toast I have ever made (vegan or not!) And has made it to the keepers hall of fame with my carnivore hubby and 3 kiddos! Delicious!
Amazing!!! So thrilled you love it so much, Cassie 🙂
I added 1 tsp nutritional yeast and thinned it with 4 oz almond milk and it was still quite thick, next time I will scrape off more of the batter. I may also try pumpkin purée since I am not wild about the banana taste. The edges were better than the soggy middle. Appreciate your recipe and like the suggestion about using leftover batter for crepes...
I also have a banana free french toast recipe in my cookbook if you are interested 🙂
The french toast tasted amazing! But I did have a problem with how soggy it made the bread. I even tried drizzling the sauce instead of drenching it, and it still was supper dense. Do you have ay recommendations for this problem?
I recommend trying bread that is a bit stale! It will hold it's shape better and not become soggy. Enjoy!
I'm referring to vegan butter, such as Earth Balance brand.
There’s vegan butter.
I tried this for breakfast this morning. It was really tasty! I'll be doing it again. There were two problems, though. The first was that some of the coating stuck to the pan. I'll try cooking it a little hotter next time and maybe using a different pan.
The second problem was that I ate too much.
Thanks!
Hahaha! Yes, the coating can stick to the pan. Make sure to use your best non-stick pan to help. 🙂
This easiest and tastiest french toast I've ever made!! Thank you! 😀
Awesome!! You're welcome, Anne 🙂
Sam, are you tired of me singing your praises yet? I had been struggling with French Toast since becoming vegan. Tried this recipe this morning and it was magnificent! My house still smells amazing! This will definitely be a staple in my home. So easy to make and amazingly delish! Thanks again!
Haha, never!!!!! Thrilled you enjoyed it so much, Nikol 😀
This looks like the perfect french toast! Amazing!
Thank you so much!
I found this recipe when I was trying to find vegan breakfast ideas for our Thanksgiving company since one of them is vegan. I needed something the non-vegans would enjoy too, which can be a challenge.
This french toast is so good that I will be making it this way from now on even though we're not vegan ourselves. I used a loaf of homemade vegan bread for it and we all agreed that it was the best french toast any of us had ever had.
Sam, thank you. This breakfast was a huge hit and one of my guest's favorite memories of their trip to our house!
I'd rate it ten stars if I could! 🙂
Aww that's amazing! So thrilled it was loved so much 😀
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