Normally, I shy away from eating a sweet breakfast as I really enjoy having my eggs in the mornings.  Eggs, any style, with a side of greens (asparagus, chards, brocolini, spinach, etc.) and maybe some prosciutto or whole grain toast.  When I’m not having eggs for breakfast, I am having a bowl of Greek yogurt with homemade granola and fresh fruit drizzled lightly with raw honey.  As you can see, the picture above is a far cry from eggs or yogurt.  What you see is a plate of Challah French Toast with Caramelized Bananas and Maple Syrup.  I made this dish this morning specifically for my boyfriend, who is a lover of French Toasts and went out of his way this weekend to purchase Challah bread from the Farmer’s Market.

To describe how I made this dish in accuracy would only confuse you if you were to try it at home.  So I’ll just provide a loose recipe and you can tweak it whichever way you want.  Since I was cooking for one person (my boyfriend), I simply used 3 eggs and whisked in a splash of whole milk, 1 teaspoon of raw honey and about half a teaspoon of clementine zest.  I mixed all the ingredients together with a whisk.  I then sliced up 3 pieces of the challah bread and dipped it into the mixture.  I kept the bread soaking in the egg mixture for 5 minutes (turning them over once to make sure each slice gets an equal amount of egg mixture).

With the oven preheated at 250 degrees, I’m ready to begin cooking the french toast.  I heat up a tablespoon of unsalted butter and about 1 teaspoon of almond oil.  When I see the skillet seems sufficiently hot, I plop in two of the bread slices and cook for 2 1/2 minutes on each side.  I then put the cooked pieces to a small baking pan and transfer it to the preheated oven to keep them warm while I cook the last piece of bread.  In the meantime, in another skillet, I caramelize thinly sliced bananas in butter on a medium low heat.  Now, I am ready to plate the dish.

Above is a picture of the Challah French Toast with Caramelized Bananas sans the maple syrup and confectioner’s sugar.  Once you plate the french toast, you can top it off with the caramelized bananas and lightly drizzle with maple syrup (sprinkle confectioner’s sugar if you really want to indulge!).  We didn’t have any strawberries or whipped cream, which would have been a nice addition to the meal while adding color to the photo….but for my boyfriend, this was just perfect.  Brooklyn, EAT your heart out!