clickinmyheels

Oh yes, you read that right! Baked French Toast with Caramel Banana Sauce! This recipe just kind of came together one evening when I didn’t really feel like making some elaborate dinner. Breakfast for dinner is always an easy dinner and my kids love it. Pancakes or Pancakes with Blueberry Sauce are usually my go to for breakfast at dinner time, in fact that’s just what we ate last night. That reminded me of this little Baked French Toast recipe that I concocted several weeks ago, but hadn’t posted about it yet. I don’t want you to miss out on this tasty recipe. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if this one would be in my “Keeper” file when I made it. I had bananas that needed to be used up, frozen, or thrown out to the critters. I had bread that needed to be eaten before it had green and blue fuzz spots appearing. I’ve made baked french toast before and it turned out fine, plus it was super simple to make. I like bananas, but I wasn’t sure if I’d like them caramelized in this. I especially wasn’t sure if my girls would like the bananas. I told myself I wasn’t going to waste my time taking pictures, writing down all my ingredients since it probably wouldn’t be a family favorite and one I would want to share with you. That happens to me, you just don’t see those non keepers! Well, after one bite of this dish, I kicked myself for not taking those pictures.  This one was definitely a blog worthy Keeper of a recipe! My girls loved it, especially my oldest who isn’t a huge banana fan. My husband loved it as well, and he’s not really into fruit on french toast! So, I quickly went ahead and made a second smaller batch of this stuff so I could document it all in pictures. I wrote out the recipe and knew I’d get around to posting about it one day.  Well, here it is!

Baked French Toast with Caramel Banana Sauce

Makes around 10 pieces depending on size of bread. I fit mine into a 9 x 13 inch glass pan.

My pictures are of my second smaller batch that I made in a smaller pan, but the ingredients and amounts are for a 9 x 13.

Ingredients for the french toast:

french bread, cut into 1 inch thick slices. I was able to do 10 slices in my 9 x 13.

7-8 large eggs – beaten

2/3 C Milk

1 teas vanilla

1 teas cinnamon

4 TBS Butter – melted

optional: chopped pecans or walnuts

Ingredients for the Caramel Banana Sauce

3-4 ripe bananas – sliced

4 TBS Butter

1/4 C light brown sugar

1/2 C maple syrup

1/2 teas cinnamon

1/2 teas vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 x 13 x 2 pan.

Combine Eggs, Milk, 4 TBS melted butter, 1 teas cinnamon, 1 teas vanilla together.

Pour a small amount (1/3 C) of this egg mixture into the bottom of the 9 x 13 pan. Tilt the pan to put a thin coat of egg mixture over the bottom of the pan.

Dunk each slice of bread into the remaining egg mixture and then lay each piece of bread flat into the pan. Repeat this until all bread is done.

Pour remaining egg mixture over the top of the bread in the pan. Gently flip each piece of bread to make sure it’s well coated with the egg mixture.

Optional: top with chopped pecans or walnuts.

Bake at 425 degrees for around 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and slightly toasted.

In the meantime, make your sauce.

Melt 4 TBS butter in a large skillet and add in banana slices. Saute for a few minutes, flipping each banana slice or stirring gently on medium heat until bananas begin to brown a bit.

Add in the vanilla, maple syrup, cinnamon, and brown sugar and gently stir until sugar is dissolved. Reduce heat to low and cook for 3-4 minutes until sauce begins to thicken and turns a nice brown caramel color. Keep on very low simmer until ready to serve.

Once french toast is done baking in the oven, serve each slice or two with a spoonful of caramel banana sauce on top. We didn’t need any butter or syrup – it is delicious without that.

My husband on the other hand has always smeared his french toast with peanut butter. This is how his family always served french toast and when I first made it for him when we were newlyweds, he was wondering why I didn’t have the peanut butter out on the table. Silly me! What was I thinking? I’m not sure if it’s a southern thing, since his grandma grew up in Tennessee, but it’s definitely a tradition he keeps alive. He thought the peanut butter complimented the caramel banana sauce wonderfully. Maybe he’s a distant relative of Elvis or something! Give his peanut butter on french toast a try if you are interested in that flavor combination.

Enjoy!

“Rock and roll music, if you like it, if you feel it, you can’t help but move to it. That’s what happens to me. I can’t help it.”

Elvis Presley