Have an awesome Valentine’s day with these quintessentialAlmond French Toast Hearts!By creating these toasts you are going to start your day with so much fun. These eggless and adorable heart-shape french toasts have rich almond, vanilla and cinnamon flavours. A perfect way to say ‘ I love you’ to your loved ones!
The Valentine’s day is looming on us and I bet you are looking for Valentine theme recipes? That’s brilliant because I have created this wonderful recipe that is not only you’d want to have it on this special day, but you’ll have cravings for it every day! But I think a special treat like this almond french toast hearts which are fluffy and tender inside and golden crisp on the outside and that too loaded with crème fraiche plus refreshing mixed berry compote and honey should be kept for special days like Vday, Mother’s day and Father’s day to enjoy with pleasure – creating recipes like this for a special day we all cherish those special memories with loved ones. Are you with me on this thought?
More Valentine’s Day recipes:- Pistachio Shortbread | Bombay Ice and Golden Halwa | Chocolate and Salted Peanut Shortbread | Non-alcoholic Green Apple Martini
CLASSIC FRENCH TOAST
Classic french toast recipe is a hugely popular, easy and delicious breakfast or brunch dish. The classic french toast is prepared with stale white bread slice, dipped or soaked in the mixture of eggs and milk or cream, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Then soaked bread is fried in butter or olive oil until golden brown and cooked through. Then the cooked french toast is served with fresh or stewed fruit, sugar or honey and crème fraiche.
WHAT IS ALMOND FRENCH TOAST
There is no such classic almond french toast recipe out there, but I just experimented a recipe when I had leftover white bread and a half tin of custard. We all wanted to indulge in french toast, being a Lacto vegetarian myself I wanted an egg-free french toast with a bit of protein punch, thus here we have OH-SO-DELICIOUS almond french toast.
In this recipe instead of egg custard, we have a custard prepared with readymade egg-free custard, cream, vanilla, cinnamon and almond flour. Then fried on a pan with butter and served with mixed berry compote (I had plenty frozen mixed berries laying around in the freezer) crème fraiche and honey with generously sprinkled icing sugar.
VEGAN ALMOND FRENCH TOAST
Good news for vegans, this recipe can be adapted for vegans by switching over with some ingredients. To make a vegan custard, replace readymade custard with vegan custard or make vegan custard at home. Mix custard (most of the brands are egg and dairy free) powder in dairy-free milk, add sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and almond flour. Fry the toasts in flavourless oil and serve with fruit, vegan cream and maple syrup or agave syrup.
WHAT GOES IN ALMOND FRENCH TOAST
Readymade eggfree Custard Bread – A thick sliced white loaf, a day old bread is even better for this recipe as stale bread holds together better for the custard soak. Milk or Cream – Choose either or both. Almond flour Cinnamon powder Vanilla extrac t Mixed berries (Blueberry, Strawberry and Raspberry) Honey Icing sugar or Powdered sugar
HOW TO MAKE ALMOND FRENCH TOAST
First place mixed berries in a saucepan with little water and let it cook for 8-10 minutes. In a shallow dish or bowl combine custard, cream, milk, vanilla, cinnamon and almond flour. With the heart cookie cutter cut the bread slices or include your little ones to create freestyle heart cutouts that can be even more whimsical and interesting. Heat butter or oil in a frying pan, dip the cutout bread slices in the custard mixture less than 30 seconds each side. Fry the toast in heated butter until golden brown both side. It will take 4-5 minutes. Serve HOT.
SERVING SUGGESTIONS
Once these are prepared with so much care now serve with lots of love, also I bet you won’t be able to decide that you should serve as a Valentine breakfast or dessert…whenever you serve but I am sure this will be your favourite, creamiest and delicious french toast ever.
Have fun in serving this, pile the hearts around the plate or stack them high. Place the hearts, berry compote and creme fraiche wherever they look right to you. Let your imagination run away, then let it snow with a sifting of icing sugar.
Almond French Toast Hearts
ingredients
1/4 cup readymade custard*
4 TBSP. single cream
4-5 TBSP milk
1/2 TSP. cinnamon powder
1/4 TSP. vanilla extract
2 TBSP. almond flour/meal
8 thick bread slices
2-3 TBSP. butter or flavourless oil
1 cup mixed berries- fresh or frozen
Creme fraiche
Icing sugar
Honey or maple syrup
Shallow Dish
Balloon whisk or spoon
Saucepan
Heart shape cookie cutter
Non-stick frying pan
Spatula
instructions
Combine everything with the whisk in a shallow dish and leave it aside.
Place the berries in a pan add just a couple of tablespoons of water and cook on low heat for 8-10 minutes.
Leave it aside for later use.
Cut out 8 large and 8 small hearts from 8 slices of bread white bread.
Heat some oil or butter in a frying pan, keep heat low to medium at this stage.
Dip the bread in the custard mix not more than 30 seconds both sides.
Then fry for 1 minute each side until lightly golden.
Serve hot with creme fraiche, icing sugar, berry compote and honey or maple syrup.
NOTES:
Don't have readymade custard? No worries, just mix custard powder in milk and cream.
For a guilt-free Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Day make these Eggless Amaranth Pancakes which are packed with goodness like amaranth flour and banana and topped with exotic mango. They also have no added refined sugar. No need to stop your vegan streak either as these pancakes can also easily be made dairy free.
I recently just came back from uni for a short break, so naturally, I brought back far too many things. One of the perks of having a car! Mostly laundry… but also any uneaten food from the fridge.
I also brought back two pretty ripe bananas that were only a few hours away from going black. I didn’t want my mum to notice all this food that I obviously hadn’t been eating so I had to make use of it fast!!
One of the ways of university halls bonding is to make pancakes together on Shrove Tuesday! Que snapchat and Instagram stories of failed flipping attempts, and the occasional successful one!
One of our favourite breakfasts at home is banana pancakes that are made with various flours such as buckwheat or amaranth. So the easiest way to destroy the evidence (uneaten bananas) was to crush them into the batter.
Through this, we do not need to add any sugar and simply serve with any fruit that is lying around the house.
Recently, mangoes have started cropping up in UK supermarkets so served the pancakes with them. I do like to treat myself and drizzle a little date syrup on top to give that extra sweetness.
WHAT IS SHROVE TUESDAY/PANCAKE DAY – UK?
Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday, also known as the start of Lent. Traditionally, fatty ingredients such as milk and eggs were used up before the Lenten fast. One of the best recipes for this is the pancake.
This year, 2019 , Pancake Day falls on the 5th of March .
Eggless Pancake Recipes
Tres Leches Pancakes
Mango Pancakes
Buckwheat Pancakes
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF AMARANTH?
Amaranth has a high proportion of protein compared to many other grains – making it a great flour option for vegans and vegetarians. It is also high in fibre and is gluten-free.
INGREDIENTS
The main ingredient is Amaranth flour . In India, this flour is called rajagro flour and is often used during fasting.
Ripe bananas have also been used in this recipe. The banana adds sweetness and also acts as an effective substitute for egg.
I have used skimmed milk here but you can also use any non-dairy milk.
Small amount of plain flour , whole wheat flour or oat flour. To keep these pancakes gluten-free add rice, gram or buckwheat flour.
Oil
HOW TO MAKE EGGLESS AMARANTH PANCAKES
Simply add the flour, banana and milk to the blender and blend until you get a smooth runny batter. For British/European pancakes, keep the batter runny enough to get a thin pancake. For American style pancakes, keep the batter a little thicker.
Heat a non-stick flat bottomed pan. Add a little oil and when the oil is hot, ladle a spoon of the batter into the middle of the pan. Quickly spread the batter thin using the back of the ladle. In around 1/2 minutes, the pancake will begin to bubble.
Now flip the pancake (showing off your skills here is not necessary) and cook the other side. When the pancake is lightly brown, it is ready.
The pancakes can be served with a drizzle of date syrup and any fruit to your liking. We like to change it up depending on the seasonal produce!
MORE AMARANTH RECIPES:- Amaranth and sesame seeds doughnuts | Cashew and Amaranth Cookies | Farali Amaranth Fudge | Amaranth Pudding (rajgaro siro)
EGGLESS AMARANTH PANCAKES
Eggless Amaranth Pancakes
ingredients
250g Amaranth flour-Rajagaro no lot
2 tablespoon flour
200ml Skimmed milk – to get desired consistency
Few drops of vanilla extract
2 Ripe bananas
Any flavourless oil
Pinch bicarbonate of soda
2 Mango peeled and cut
1/2 cup blueberries
Date syrup
Icing sugar (optional)
Blender or Hand Blender
Flat frying pan
Spatula
instructions
- Using a food blender, blend together amaranth flour, bananas and milk.
- Add vanilla extract and soda, mix well.
- Heat a flat frying pan and add a teaspoon of oil.
- When the oil is hot, ladle batter onto the middle of the pan and very quickly spread using the back of the ladle.
- As the pancake begins to bubble and can lift off the pan, it is ready to flip over
- Cook the pancake for a minute or two on the other side
- Remove from the heat and remove.
- Fold the pancake and serve in a serving plate.
- Top it up with mangoes, blueberries.
- Drizzle date syrup and sprinkle some icing sugar if using.
- Serve straight away.
NOTES:
If preparing for on a fasting day, omit vanilla extract.
For a vegan option use plant-based milk.
Use any seasonal fruits for toppings.
Don't have date syrup? use maple, agave or honey syrup.
