This Berry French Toast Recipe Calls For Breakfast in Bed
It requires minimal cooking.
Weekend breakfasts are a thing to savor. Enjoy lazy mornings, the bounty of the berry season, and minimal cooking with this deliciously simple berry French toast recipe.
French toast actually has its origins in Italy – not France. The earliest reference to this sweet breakfast hails from 4th century Rome in, of all things, a cookbook. Using stale bread, milk, eggs, and butter, Roman cooks would create fried toast to make the most of day old bread.
I prefer to use stale bread in my berry French toast recipe as well. Apparently, so do the French, who call modern French toast pain perdu, which translates to “lost bread.” Using day old or stale bread not only is a resourceful way to use up a delicious loaf, it provides better texture and crispiness to the final product. Too soft bread can easily get mushy and greasy, creating a less than desirable toast breakfast.
Berry French Toast Ingredients
The beauty of this berry French toast recipe is its simplicity. A handful of refrigerator staples are easily transformed into a comforting and nourishing breakfast, in less than 20 minutes. Add a drizzle of maple syrup and a handful of fresh berries and you’ve got breakfast perfection.
The batter for this berry French toast is made from organic eggs, a non-dairy milk of choice, vanilla extract, spices, and mashed raspberries. The mashed raspberries are the secret ingredient to this French toast and provide a lovely and sweet flavor to the mixture. When cooked, the French toast can also have a hint of pink to it – thanks to the raspberries.
When choosing both frozen or fresh berries, go organic. All berries are heavily sprayed crops. Consult the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen guides for more info. What’s currently on the top of the list of pesticide-ridden fruits? Strawberries.
When fresh berries are in season, even organic berries can be very inexpensive. Visit the farmers market, stop along the road at a farm stand, or grow some in your backyard. Even better, make a day of picking berries and save them for cooking and baking (and eating!) all summer long.
This berry French toast recipe can be made nut-free and gluten-free to fit dietary modifications. Use gluten-free bread to keep the recipe gluten-free and swap out almond milk with coconut milk to go nut-free. Feel free to also use coconut oil in place of butter or ghee to make the recipe dairy-free as well.
Breakfast in bed anyone?
Ingredients
Preparation
- Melt ghee, butter, or coconut oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
- Place frozen raspberries in a small bowl and gently mash with a fork, until berries are broken down. You may need to let them sit out at room temperature before mashing.
- Whisk together almond milk, eggs, mashed raspberries, vanilla, and spices. Pour mixture into a shallow baking dish. Place slices of bread in egg mixture and allow to soak up egg mixture on both sides.
- Cook bread in heated skillet until golden brown, about 4-5 minutes per side.
- Serve French toast with fresh berries and maple syrup. Enjoy!
