French toast and an iconic New Orleans dessert collide in this dish that features a caramelized banana topping and a rich Challah french toast. This Bananas Foster French Toast is a decadent, luxurious spin on classic french toast.
After a trip to New Orleans, I was anxious to get home and recreate a dish that was featured at every restaurant I visited--Bananas Foster.
Bananas foster is simply bananas that have been sauteed with butter, sugar, and a little bit of rum. It is simple, yet the flavors are spot-on.
I was not only inspired to prepare Banana Foster but to also incorporate the classic dish into other dishes--like a topping for french toast.
This recipe for Bananas Fosters French toast topped with caramelized bananas is decadent, over-the-top, and down-right delicious. It is the perfect breakfast or brunch to make when you want to indulge or dream about New Orleans.
Key Ingredients
- Challah bread: I prefer a rich eggy challah bread for this recipe, but a french bread or Italian bread will work as well. It is best for the bread to be a day old so it is a bit dried out and will absorb the egg custard better.
- Egg Custard: The french toast custard is made with eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, and milk just like a traditional french toast.
- Bananas Foster Sauce: Bananas foster is made with slightly under-ripe bananas, butter, brown sugar, and rum. The rum is completely optional and should be omitted if preparing for children.
How to Prepare Banana Fosters French Toast
Begin this recipe by making french toast.
- Make a custard with eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, and milk just like a traditional french toast.
- Soak thick slices of bread lightly on both sides in custard.
- Saute quickly on a buttered skillet
- Finish cooking in the oven. By cooking the french toast in the oven, you create evenly cooked french toast, that is creamy, yet still crispy.
As my french toast bakes, I use the same skillet to make the bananas foster sauce for stopping the french toast.
- Melt butter in a skillet over low heat.
- Add brown sugar and stir until sugar dissolves.
- Add bananas and cook for 1 minute on each side.
- Remove bananas from pan to a serving dish.
- Bring sauce to a simmer and carefully add the rum, if using.
- If the sauce does not immediately flame up, carefully ignite sauce with a stick lighter.
- Cook until the flame dies out, approximately 1 to 2 minutes.
More Delicious Breakfast Recipes
- Hash Brown Breakfast Casserole
- French Toast Casserole
- Easy Skinny Overnight Cinnamon Rolls
- Whole Wheat Pancakes
Bananas Foster French Toast
Ingredients
- 1 16 ounce loaf of challah bread cut into 1 inch thick slices (about 12 slices)
- 6 eggs
- ½ cup half and half or milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoons of butter divided
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 2 underripe bananas sliced in 1 inch slices on a bias
- ¼ cup dark rum optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
French Toast
- Whisk eggs, milk, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla together. Dip each slice of bread into egg mixture and flip and soak other side.
- Preheat skillet (do not use a nonstick skillet if flambeing rum later) over medium heat and add in 1 tablespoon butter.
- Once butter is melted, brown each slice of french toast for 1-2 minutes on each side. Remove from skillet and place on baking sheet and place in oven while making the bananas foster sauce for 15 minutes.
Bananas Foster Sauce
- Melt remaining butter in same skillet over low heat. Add brown sugar and stir until sugar dissolves. Add bananas and cook for 1 minute on each side.Remove bananas from pan to a serving dish.
- Bring sauce to a simmer and carefully add the rum, if using. If the sauce does not immediately flame up, carefully ignite sauce with a stick lighter. Cook until flame dies out, approximately 1 to 2 minutes.
- To serve, place 2 slices of the french toast on a plate, top with a few slices of bananas and then a bit of the syrup.
Jen
Doubled the recipe for a family of 10 on vacation and it was a huge hit. Didn’t have rum, but bourbon made a great substitute!😋
Kristen Chidsey
What a treat for your family. Glad you all enjoyed. And nothing wrong with bourbon😉
Lynette Owens-Muhammad
The recipe was great. However I knew that the brown sugar wouldnt make enough so I adjusted to 3/4 instead. I also added 1/2 cup maple syrup once the brown sugar dissolved. Also I used heavy cream instead of milk. I eliminated the rum totally. I didn’t remove the bananas. Thank you. I was well pleased
Kristen Chidsey
I am glad you enjoyed Lynette even with the adjustments 🙂
Jacquelin Powers
This recipe came out AMAZING! I make French toast a lot, because it's easy and has protein and my little one doesn't realized it's made with eggs (we say we dip it in milk.) My whole family fought over this. I didn't have Challah bread so I used brioche and it was really good. A 14oz loaf fed 4 of us. I also only had clear rum and I used a 1 1/2 tablespoons because my kids don't like when it tastes a bit boozy. It lit on fire nicely which the younger one, went nuts over. Thank you so much for this recipe, it's most definitely going in my recipe box!
Kristen Chidsey
OH I love hearing how much you and your family enjoyed this! I hope it brings your family smiles for years to come.