Peanut Butter Banana Stuffed French Toast

So this ended up as a blog post by accident. My mom came home form the grocery store with a delicious loaf of apple cinnamon brioche that was discounted to $1.90 since it was day old. Buying delicious things at a discount is definitely our zone in my family. The only thing that can take something amazing and make it better, is knowing that it came at a steep discount.

I had seen stuffed french toast recipes floating around, but I had never tried to make it myself. This tasty surprise inspired me to go ahead and give it a try. Also, I have to warn you that it kind of ended up being “kitchen sink” french toast because I added everything but the kitchen sink. I was on a serious sugar kick when I made this, so every sweet thing in my house made it into this recipe.

Confession time: I had never actually made french toast before. As a kid, my mom and grandma always made it, but I was never a huge fan of it since it was always the classic french toast recipe. You are witnessing my first attempt at french toast. Also, I didn’t look up a recipe. I decided to just wing it. I had watched them enough times to feel reasonably confident in the simple process and I have to say I did a pretty good job.

I definitely didn’t want the egg wash to taste like egg so I used vanilla almond milk instead of regular milk and I also added a dash of vanilla extract and cinnamon. I can vouch that no egg was tasted in the eating of this dessert….I mean “breakfast.”

While I am almost always craving peanut butter and banana, some other off the wall craving often sneaks in. Today, it was obviously caramel. I adore caramel in my coffee, but today, I decided I needed it in my french toast….along with the peanut butter and banana I always crave. So I decided that they would share the spotlight equally. I layered peanut butter on one slice of bread and my homemade condensed milk caramel sauce on the other side. I only put the banana on one side so it would be easier to close, but I sliced the banana a little thicker and I saved the other half for garnish.

I closed this sugar-palooza and dipped it in my egg wash before placing it in the hot pan. I was so afraid that it would end up either not cooking through or getting too brown, but I kept a watchful eye on it and it cooked nicely on both sides.

Of course it looked so plain when it was finished that I had to start adding toppings. My choice of toppings were sugar free syrup (ironic, I know this.), whipped topping, banana, and more caramel! I think my only regret is not finding the sprinkles. I made this a couple more times with the brioche loaf and once I decided to go with peanut butter on both sides instead of the caramel too. It was awesome each time.

I would encourage you guys to try different breads for this and different spreads too. There are so many cool stuffed french toast recipes out there! I even found one for s’mores french toast. This has to happen!

I’m super glad I tried french toast for myself and I discovered that french toast doesn’t always have to be plain. I would love to see your french toast creations and see some new combinations!