Vegan French Toast Recipe (With Apples)

Probably the best weekend breakfast is vegan French toast. Actually, not just for weekends but for any day of the week. Try to change my mind. I am quite confident you will share this opinion after having this caramelised apple-topped version. Vegan French toasts are what I like to make as a Sunday treat, and they are just so criminally tasty. They also never get boring to eat, as there are so many things you can top them with. But in style with the cold months, nothing beats having tons of caramelised apples on them. Combined with a good mix of spices, tang, and this vegan coconut vanilla cream, you are in for a ride! Let’s get into this vegan French toast recipe.

Ingredients for Vegan French Toast

• Stale bread
• Chia seeds
• Oat milk
• Flour
• Cane sugar
• Cinnamon
• Ginger
• Lemon
• Apples
• Banana
• Salt
• Optional: Nutmeg

What bread to use for French Toast: 

Traditionally, French toast is often made with Brioche bread. I found that pretty much any bread works well as long as it has a sturdy crust and the ability to soak up the batter. Also, Brioche is not vegan, so choose any other plant-based bread that you like and that fits these characteristics. Another convenient fact is that the French toast gets better the dryer the bread is, as dryer bread soaks up even more of the batter. Therefore, I love French toast as an option to upcycle stale bread should I crave something sweet rather than fantastic croutons. But enough talking, let me quickly walk you through what ingredients you need, and then let us jump right in. 

Ingredients for the Caramelised Cinnamon Apples: 

As apples are the key ingredient for this dish, choose good quality apples. I would recommend using one big, firm apple per person. Various kinds of apples could work well here. Today, I believe I used “Golden Delicious” apples, but Booskop and the like work fantastic too. Secondly, you will need a lemon and ginger. Pick an organic lemon, as we will be using its zest. Next, you will need cane sugar, a pinch of salt, and cinnamon. Optionally, you can also add a touch of nutmeg. Lastly, have a bit of coconut oil on hand. As an additional topping, I also can recommend having maple syrup on hand.

Ingredients for the vegan French Toast Batter: 

Traditionally, French toast batter is made with a few key ingredients: While variations exist, egg and milk are essential. To make our vegan French toast with caramelised apples, we need to find some substitutes for each. Substituting milk is easy nowadays, using store-bought oat milk works fine. 

To get the characteristics of the egg for our batter, we will tap into the magic of chia seeds. The seeds can absorb lots of liquid and work amazingly to get egg-like consistencies when crushed. Furthermore, they are a great source of omega-3 fatty acids and protein. Finally, you will need a ripe banana, flour, and a pinch of salt. The banana will introduce some natural sweetness to the batter.

Vegan French Toast with Apples Recipe: 

Time to get into the French toast recipe. Firstly, let us get started with making the batter. The chia seeds need a few minutes to unfold their magic, so you should make the batter half an hour ahead and allow it to chill. It also works great to make the batter the evening before and let it rest in the fridge overnight. Add your chia seeds and flour to a blender, and blitz them until the chia seeds are crushed.

Take a bowl, add your ripe banana, and mash it using a fork. Add your chia seed & flour mix, combine the ingredients and slowly add your plant-based milk. Mix well, season with a small pinch of salt, and allow to rest for at least half an hour. 

Making the Caramelised Cinnamon Apples:

Don’t worry, you won’t get bored while the batter turns all nice and battery. We can get started making these caramelised apples in the meantime. Chop up your apples into equally sized cubes. Make the cubes a bit larger than how you would like them on your final toast, as they will shrink in size while sautéing. Take a fine grater, and grate the zest of your lemon and the ginger. Heat a tablespoonful of coconut oil in your pan, add the ginger, and allow it to infuse its flavour for a minute. Add your apple, followed by brown sugar, cinnamon, and lemon zest, and sautée over medium heat. When the apples are still a few minutes shy of being cooked through, take them from the heat. You want to finish the cooking process just shortly before plating so you have a nice hot topping!

Making the Vegan French Toast: 

Slice your stale bread into equally thick slices, and dip them in the batter. Put your pan on the stove, and heat some coconut oil. Next, sprinkle brown sugar on the battered slices, and toast them until caramelised and brown. Gently move the toast in the pan after the batter had time to toast to prevent burning and sticking to the pan. Once equally toasted on both sides, place them on a plate and keep them warm in the oven while finishing toasting the other slices. 

Assembling the Vegan French Toast with Apples: 

Before plating, finish sautéing the caramelised apples. Squeeze the juice of half a lemon to the apples to balance the sweetness with tanginess.

Once the apples are ready, plate 2-3 slices of the toast per person. Give them a generous sip of maple syrup, the hot apples, and optionally a few spoonfuls of coconut vanilla cream. And that is all there is to this vegan French toast recipe. Time to indulge.

I hope you enjoy these vegan French toast recipe as much as I do! Let me know in the comments and tag me on Instagram when you recreate it! 

Some More Recipe Inspirations:

• Do you like more apple dessert recipes? Check out these German stuffed apples, they are a treat!
• This vegan banana bread is a delicious classic for a reason.
• To stick with the apple theme: This simple vegan apple crisp is the perfect autumn dessert.
• These fluffy banana pancakes are perfect for a slow Sunday morning.
• If you look for a hot winter drink, check out this hot spiced apple juice.
• These vegan peanut butter overnight oats are perfect meal prep breakfast.
• Vegan Schmalzgebäck is my mum’s spin on our classic Christmas puff pastry, it’s so delicious!
• This sweet rice porridge is a fantastic sweet breakfast.