French toast with caramel rum bananas

Whenever we travel to America from Australia one of my favourite things to do is go to diners for breakfast. The more retro the diner, the better. If we are seated in a red leather booth I am in hog heaven. I love everything about American diners, especially the enormous, decadent breakfast items you are unlikely to see in Australia.

French toast is one such item. Amazing how dunking a slice of bread in a just a few basic ingredients then frying it can elevate it to delicious brunch fare. I often opted for French toast in America, marvelling at the behemoth bread slices.

Back home, I had in my possession a loaf of unsliced white bread and decided to make French toast. Wanting to luxe it up a bit I decided a side was in order. Originally I was going to do something with strawberries but then the idea of rum bananas came to me. And what an idea it was.

These easy, caramalised rum bananas are good enough to eat with a spoon straight from the pan… not that I would do anything so uncouth. But theoretically speaking, I could definitely imagine someone doing that. Talk about heaven in a mouthful. Next time I think I will double the rum banana quantities and serve on top of good quality vanilla ice cream. They are so rich and gooood. Use a dark spiced rum if you can. Kraken is my rum of choice and it was a perfect match for this dish.

This French toast with caramelized rum bananas is the ideal weekend brunch recipe – quick and easy, with big wow factor.

GATHER:

For toast

4 extra thick slices white bread – the type of loaf you slice yourself

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup milk

For rum bananas

50 grams butter

1 medium banana, sliced diagonally into coins

1 tablespoon butter

2 teaspoons packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons dark rum (I used Kraken)

LET’S GET TO IT:

For French toast:

In a shallow bowl whisk the egg with cinnamon then beat in the milk. Briefly dip one slice of bread in mixture then dip in the other side.

Place a non-stick pan over a low heat and spray with cooking spray. Fry bread for one minute / until lightly golden and flip over, then fry for another minute. Set aside.

Repeat with remaining bread then serve with caramelised bananas.

For rum bananas:

In a non-stick pan melt butter until foaming then carefully add bananas. Cook for one minute then gently flip over and cook for another minutes. Remove from heat, add in sugar and rum, then return to heat and cook, swirling pan until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and serve immediately with French toast.