Caramelized Banana French Toast

I promised in my first post that I would not be the blogger who puts their full life story into recipes, and I intend to keep that promise. VERY BRIEFLY, Charles and I are both on diets, but he's working on losing weight and I'm working on gaining weight, so we have exceptionally different meals at the moment. It's odd to not make meals together, and I definitely feel a little selfish and rude making the delicious things for myself while he eats carefully weighed and portioned, low-cal meals, but here I am with the most decadent breakfast/dessert/snack I've (ever?) had. Obviously, I don't feel that selfish or rude.

Anyway, my selfish breakfast of the week is caramelized bananas on French toast. Any bread technically will do, but I highly recommend a brioche or other soft, slightly sweet bread.

Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 2 teaspoons cinnamon

• 2 tablespoons milk*

• 1-2 thick slices of Brioche**

• 1 banana

• 1/3 cup brown sugar

• 1/3 cup maple syrup

Directions:

1. Whisk eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, and milk together in a small dish (you'll want the dish to fit the bread and mostly cover it)

2. Put brioche into your egg mixture - ideally, it will be mostly covered by the mixture. If it doesn't totally cover your bread, flip the bread so none of it is dry.

3. Put into the fridge and let soak for as long as you can - overnight is best, but if you can only wait 20 minutes, I understand. It just needs to be soaked all the way through, if possible. It will be less delicious if it isn't!

4. Cut banana into slices about an inch thick.

5. Add brown sugar and maple syrup to a small pan over medium heat. Stir together, and then add your bananas.

6. Cover the pan and let bananas cook for a few minutes. Flip them over to be sure they're coated, uncover, and cook until you get large bubbles and the sugar has totally dissolved. Dip a spoon in and taste it (it's hot, let it cool a sec!) or rub a bit between your fingers. If it feels grainy, keep cooking.

7. While your bananas are cooking, heat another pan to medium and add a tiny bit of butter or cooking spray. Add your soaked bread, cover, and cook for a few minutes, then flip and cook the other side. Keeping the pan covered keeps your bread moist and tender - you want to brown the French toast but you don't want it to get crispy.

8. Once the toast is cooked, pour the banana/sugar/syrup mixture over it and enjoy!

Notes

*I'm trying to eat less dairy, so I used almond milk. Any milk will do here, and heavy cream would make this deliciously rich.

**Any bread can be used (stale bread included! That was the original reason people made French toast - to not waste bread that had gone stale.) but the Brioche is the best, in my opinion. Fluffy, slightly sweet, and absorbent are the qualities I'm looking for in my pre-toast bread.

You can adjust how much banana you would like, I personally like a lot of banana. Your bread to banana ratio is easily adjusted, and I had extra egg mixture left over to keep in the fridge and make the next day's breakfast with.

Cooking the Bananas

Make sure to stir the syrup and sugar together before adding your bananas to get a somewhat uniform texture across it. It's okay if it's not perfect, you just don't want to accidentally burn a dry chunk of sugar!

When you have big bubbles like this and your sugar/syrup mixture doesn't feel grainy anymore, your bananas are done! It really takes about the amount of time it takes to cook the French toast, so I like to start them right before I put the toast in the pan. Once you've put this over your toast, get some hot water in your pan right away. Cleaning the dried sugary mess from a cooled pan is a horribly annoying way to spend your post-breakfast bliss.

Cooking the Bread

Going in, you don't want to lose any of the soaked egg mixture, but you don't need to ensure you scoop it out and get all the extra (unless you really love eggs, in which case, go right ahead and pour that in too!). I'm not a HUGE egg fan so I tend to leave the extra behind when I can.

Before/After shots - I flipped my toast just a tiny bit late, and I'd recommend trying to stay a little bit lighter colored than my cooked photo. It's still tasty, but overcooking the edges gives your French toast a tiny bit of a crust, and it's best when it all has roughly the same fluffy texture!

I'd recommend a bowl or a plate with raised edges for eating, since the syrup/sugar/banana mixture tends to go wherever it pleases, and I like to be able to scoop up the extra in each bite. I have no idea how many calories are in this, but I'm going for "a lot". This recipe is not for the "Charles"s of the world trying to lose a few holiday pounds, and from experience, I'll tell you that it's a little cruel to make when your dieting companion is in the room, because it smells HEAVENLY. Enjoy!