my favorite french toast

these are perfect to have before a big day of cold adventures. make some of our hot chocolate to go with it! i made mine with some quickly toasted hazelnuts and thinly sliced pears.

sure, everyone has made french toast with great success. but vegan french toast is a whole different kind of operation. since there are no eggs involved, it’s easier for them to come out soggy and limp. there are many ways of making vegan french toast (using pumpkin, banana, applesauce, etc), but i like this way best because it doesn’t require any extra ingredients other than what i always keep in my pantry. hopefully it will turn out well for you!

prep:

• choose your bread wisely. i like using a thick, hard-crusted stale italian bread that can stand up to being dipped in liquid. (plus, it’s easier to slice without crushing the whole loaf!)
• slice the loaf into 1/2”-1” pieces. thinner, and the liquid might soak into the bread too much; thicker, and the inside of the bread won’t be adequately cooked through.
• in a wide, shallow bowl, whisk together (or fork together) 4 cups almond milk (or another dense non-dairy milk like soy), 1/4 cup coarse cornmeal, and 2 tbsp flour. pour on cinnamon until it’s coated the top and whisk again. the mixture should be pretty thick by then, but don’t worry if it’s not.

cooking:

• take out a flat, wide pan and turn the heat on medium-low. take a stick of earth balance (non-dairy butter) and coat the pan. (i sort of hold it like a glue stick, it’s just easier.)
• coat a few pieces of bread with the liquid, just lightly dipping each side into the bowl. place a few on the pan and let cook for a minute or two.
• here’s my secret to great vegan french toast! (and a crucial part of making this meal.) while the first side is cooking, sprinkle sucanat (sold as sugar in the raw, basically it’s unbleached coarse granules of sugar) over the uncooked tops of the french toast. 
• then flip the bread and let the other side cook for a few minutes, checking halfway through for doneness. sprinkle the side that’s now on the top and flip again. do this until the bread is crispy on the outside and no longer wet on the inside.

to make the hazelnuts, just take some blanched & peeled hazelnuts and place them in a pan that’s on low heat. cook for up to three minutes, continuously shaking the pan so the nuts don’t burn. keep the pear slices sprinkled with lemon juice to keep them from turning brown while you wait.

per person, have enough to make about 4 slices of french toast, 3 pear slices, and 5-10 hazelnuts.

serve with or without maple syrup/sugar, as the sprinkled sucanat makes these just perfectly sweet. enjoy!