No, that’s not vegan girl friend’s French toast… but, hey, that works too. Gluten-free always for me babes.

This recipe is specifically for the batter to replace making French toast with eggs. Delicious, nutritious, yummy nostalgia. You can use any bread you’d like, it doesn’t have to be vegan or gluten-free. I use the ancient grain gluten-free vegan bread from my Superfresh! Organic Café. But if you’re looking for an egg-free plant-based French toast option, make sure to try this out! I love the seemingly strange addition of nutritional yeast to the batter, as it gives it a bit of a cheesy taste. You can also sub other flours in place of garbanzo or millet (those are just the two I most frequently use), I’m sure almost any flour will work… this isn’t at the mercy of very specific baking chemistry, so there is much more wiggle room. The flour is simply a thickening agent helping to create the backbone of the batter.

French toast was one of my favorite childhood breakfast treats that wasn’t had all that often. It felt like a special occasion and I always loved helping my mom when we’d make them at home. I have such vivid memories of the milky white china plates we used with the specific shade of blue (that I’m struggling to find words to describe right now) stripe around the edge and the distinct ridges and outlines of the forks we used for flipping (and ate with at every single meal, even still).

Food does that to us (for us). So many senses awakened, memories that we didn’t even know that we forgot or that we would ever remember. Especially not for such a kind of random reason… what a wonderful gift.

Enough of my rambling for now… now, go get your brunch on!

VEGAN, GLUTEN-FREE, SOY-FREE FRENCH TOAST BATTER

Yields approximately 4 servings

INGREDIENTS

1 cup Coconut Mylk (or any plant-based milk of choice)

1 tbsp Maple Syrup

2 tbsp Millet or Garbanzo flour (or any flour should work, see note above in description)

1 tbsp Nutritional Yeast

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/4 tsp Nutmeg (optional)

pinch Salt (I use Himalayan pink fine ground)

DIRECTIONS

Whisk or blend all ingredients together (no clumps wanted).

In a flat or shallow bowl use this batter to soak slices of bread, flipping bread to soak both sides thoroughly. The more dense and whole grain the bread, the longer it takes to fully soak through and have optimal French toast effect.

Heat 1 tbsp of coconut oil in a frying pan on medium heat. Cook soaked bread slices until golden brown on both sides. Add a little bit more coconut oil if need be. The oil will help the cooking and goldening of the toast for French toast perfection.

Serve with any toppings you desire. As simple as maple syrup and / or a fruit compote.

Pictured here my French toast is topped with Forager Project unsweetened cashew yogurt, a drizzle of VT maple syrup, cinnamon, blueberries, banana, and crushed rose petals.