I cooked a heck of a lot of French toast when I had my cafe, but it wasn’t until I made this version that I understood why it’s such a popular dish. At the cafe I used a brioche loaf but since such things aren’t that readily available I tend to make French toast at that time of year when Italian pandoro’s and panettone’s are everywhere: the “Christmas” season, which is from October onwards.
Served with maple syrup, good quality ice cream, and caramelised fruit, it also makes for a pretty indulgent French toast.
If serving adults feel free to de-glaze the pan you fry the fruit in with some brandy or marsala. I would have done it but alas, the only alcohol apart from wine in my pantry is of the hard and clear variety and not very kid friendly.
😉
what you need
- pandoro or panettone, thickly sliced
- for the dipping mixture: 2 eggs, 100 mL milk, 1 tbsp caster sugar, a splash of vanilla extract, and a pinch of cinnamon
- to caramelise the fruit: banana sliced lengthways, brown sugar, unsalted butter
- butter for frying
- maple syrup
- vanilla ice cream
- icing sugar for dusting
what to do
- In a large bowl whisk all the ingredients to dip the bread in, and set aside.
- In a small fry pan melt a knob of butter, sprinkle some brown sugar on the flat side of the banana and place sugar side down in the hot melted butter. Sprinkle some more brown sugar on top, and after a minute or two, when the bottom is golden and caramelised, turn over. When both sides are caramelised turn off and set aside.
- Melt a knob of butter in a fry pan, and dip each piece of bread in the egg mixture. Fry on a medium-high heat until golden on both sides. Transfer to a plate when it’s done.
- Top with bananas, drizzle with maple syrup, add a scoop of ice cream, and dust with icing sugar. Enjoy!
what ana cooks 
Oh my gosh, French toast is one of my FAVORITE foods & I love caramelized banana too.
The picture you took looks SO good. Super indulgent is right, YUM. Such a good recipe you posted.
I’m starting to see boxes of Panettone out already!!! Cripe!
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I know, can’t believe the Christmas stuff is already out. I actually never really got the fuss around French toast, the cafe version had fresh strawberries and mint instead of bananas. It was a touch too indulgent for my son so I finished it off!
Getting excited at the food experiences waiting in NYC too!
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I don’t like vanilla ice cream so I’d skip that but I’d do the bananas and syrup, I’m all about indulgence!! I have to ask because I am nosy, what’s your favorite breakfast food(s)? Waffles, French toast and pancakes (the American & Canadian style of course) are HUGE here and I actually just made the strangest little gasp out loud when I read “I actually never really got the fuss around French toast” haha! I’m ridiculous.
OH MY GOD. I forgot you’re coming to NYC! Isn’t that soon?? I hope you blog about it and I HOPE it’s a positive experience with delicious food. I wonder what you’ll miss from Australia, it’ll be interesting to find out. Are there little things or dishes/food that you miss when you’re in France or Croatia?
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OK, believe it or not I’m not a huge breakfast person. Smashed avocado and feta or sautéed mushrooms on nice toasted bread are probably my favourite. Not a big egg lover. Pancakes are always good too but very rare I have them.
NYC is just after Thanksgiving so very soon! I doubt I’ll miss anything for the short time except maybe coffee? I’ve heard that Australia has some of the best coffee, so we shall see. To be honest my daughter and I are probably going to pay homage to our favourite TV shows and will be eating foods we’ve heard of through those. Cringe but it’ll be fun.
When we travel I don’t think I miss things bc I’m big on appreciating where you are and what’s good in that place. So even though you might not be able to get something in particular there’s usually lots of good local stuff.
And yes, I’ll probably blog all about it! Would love any recommendations too, either nyc or just US in general in terms of must eat. 😉
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Your plan to do the TV show stuff is actually so so fun! Don’t cringe! I’m not astranger doing the same…I went to Astoria, Oregon just to see all the sites from The Goonies, so no judgement!
This is terrible but as far as your “Would love any recommendations” for food to try in NYC goes, I DON’T KNOW!!
The reasons I do not know: I haven’t been to NYC in several years and the last time I went I spent the day at a museum so I just ate in the museum cafeteria.
There are so many food trends and I don’t know if I’ve tried any there (I can’t remember the last time I did!) & I can’t recommend some of the famous things like a NY hot dog/Gray’s Papaya because I don’t eat that and I’d be repeating other peoples’ recommendations. The last time I got a hot dog from a cart was 5-6 years ago and of course I forewent the actual hot dog. I got a bun with the works & a small bag of chips and the hot dog vendor was oddly amused at my order of a hot-dog-less hot dog and gave me a free can of Coke. I do not know what this means but my points is that I am not going to recommend you get a hot dog with the works from a hot dog cart in NY minus the hot dog because what the hell?? Besides the one chick in the one Crocodile Dundee film said something like “tastes like shit but you can live off it” so who wants that!
My only ideas are to look for things that are like really American or seasonal…pumpkin & squash filled ravioli and stuff like that, traditional pumpkin pie (especially in November! perfect time), try weird looking candy at the store or American snacks, vegetarian Thanksgiving-inspired dishes (or not vegetarian), trendy novelty coffee beverages, Milk Bar Bakery, Sprinkles Cupcakes, Dylan’s Candy Bar (I guess) and if you’re not into those flavors or foods, then F-it! There’s a restaurant (maybe more) in NY that supposedly carry the Impossible Burger now (are you familiar? It’s a non-meat burger that is supposed to taste so much like the real thing) so if I was in the area, that’s something I’d make a point to try.
If you end up missing Aussie coffee, there are Australian coffee shops in NY. You can get nearly anything and everything there so that’s a huge plus. I’m sorry my suggestions suck but I’d be lying if I pretended to know every amazing restaurant or the place of the month or whatever the big whatever is now haha. I’m sorry!!
I hope your trip is a BLAST. I hope you get to do everything you want and eat delicious food and just have fun with your daughter.
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Ok, I am jealous that you did a Goonies inspired trip because that would be so cool, it’s one of my favourite movies ever.
And I would so take a recommendation for a hot dog-less hot dog because I’m still mostly vego and would feel no shame in asking for exactly what you did. And we will definitely be in some museums, so we’ll check out the food there too. And what you said: all those uniquely American flavours and snacks that we just don’t have here is exactly what we are going to be trying {and probably Instagramming every bloody thing much to everyone’s annoyance}, and hopefully we get to bring some of it home too. My youngest is a potato-chip demon.
I think I’ll be ok without coffee as long as I can have tea instead, or even a hot chocolate or similar hot winter beverage.
Your suggestions do not suck because we probably won’t really end up at many restaurants, we’re both pretty casual and open to eating almost anything for dinner so I think we’ll have some of the cringe-y stuff over the fancy gourmet stuff.
The closer it gets the more excited we get, and I started on the itinerary but there’s so much to see and do, we’ve narrowed it down by neighbourhood and plan to spend all day every day just hitting the pavement and walking our way into exhaustion.
It’s gonna be a blast!!!
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The Goonies thing was so much fun. We went to the state park where some of the bike riding & beach scenes were filmed (the haystack rocks), saw the house from the movie, and a bunch of other locations and it was SO fun! Plus, there were sea lions outside our hotel window and I’d never seen a wild one in person before!!
“Potato chip demon” is a hilarious and amazing term.
Weird foreign foods is one of the highlights of travel! I’m so glad you’re with me on that. Even in Canada I can never not stock up on new candy bars or weird potato chips. I might feel like barfing from eating it all but it’s worth it!
Have SO much fun!!!! You’ve got a perfect plan, just go see the things you’re really interested in together, walk and walk and walk, eat wherever, try weird stuff & keep a sense of humor about it. =)!!!
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If you haven’t already you should google the Housewife sighting-areas (I’m tired forgive me for the sentence “housewife sighting-areas) & stake them out!!
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