Every so often, I see a recipe that really makes me go “hmmmm”. I’m not quite sure why I’m in such a pancake/French toast/waffle mode, but I am. Maybe it’s the weather vacillating between spring and winter. Maybe it’s almost spring. Maybe I just love all things pancakes and French toast. Whatever.
These look as good as they taste. They are about the size of a golf ball and bake up brown and toasty. A couple on the plate with bacon or sausage and you have a meal.
Ginger Butter:
8 ounces butter
1 to 2 tablespoons syrup
1 tablespoon ground ginger
French Toast Puffs:
Nonstick cooking spray, for the baking sheet
2 ripe bananas
3 cups milk
1 cup toasted coconut flakes
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch salt
1 to 2 loaves bread cut into crouton-size pieces
Maple syrup, preferably from Vermont, for serving
Directions
- For the ginger butter: Place the butter, syrup and ginger in a food processor and process until smooth. (If no processor is available, you may use softened butter and whisk all ingredients instead.) The butter should have a smooth consistency, ready to be dipped into.
- For the french toast puffs: Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Spray a large baking sheet with cooking spray.
- Put the bananas, milk, coconut, sugar, cinnamon, turmeric, nutmeg, vanilla and salt in a blender and blend until smooth. If there are a few small chunks of banana, don’t worry, it will add to the texture of the puffs.
- Put 1 loaf’s worth of bread chunks in a large mixing bowl, followed by the batter. With a spatula or fingertips, gently fold everything together. Take care not to overmix. Homogenous is boring, so we are looking for the bread to be mostly intact, moistened by the batter. Let sit for 5 minutes. The texture should now be soft and wet, not soupy (if it’s soupy, add more bread).
- When the correct texture is achieved, it will be easily scoopable with a golf-ball-sized cookie scoop. Scoop out all of the bread-batter mix onto the prepared baking sheet. Keep it funky and scoop larger amounts than the scoop can hold, like a scoop of hard ice cream. Bake until golden brown and crispy on the outside, 10 to 15 minutes. (Browned and slightly crunchy on the outside, and soft on the inside, is our goal.) Eat with hands, dipping into Vermont maple syrup and ginger butter.
*****from the Recipe Box
This recipe is from a vegan restaurant in Vermont called Pingalla. I am not making it vegan. Don’t care. It looks amazing.
I did not make ginger butter. I made creamed honey butter instead.
My puffs flattened out a bit too much this time. They should be spherical.
and remember this Norwegian saying: It is better to stand and fight. If you run, you will only die tired. Those Vikings were very smart. Big kiss, Lynn
From the Recipe Box 