Banana Berry Baked French Toast is a delicious and easy way to get a healthy breakfast together for one or a crowd! A family friendly dish that will appeal to all tastebuds. This recipe is part of a series of healthy kids’ recipes created in partnership with Australian Eggs.
A delicious stack of French toast topped with warmed berries and banana is a pretty awesome way to start the day. Wouldn’t it be even better if you could just slide a tray of it into the oven and not worry about standing over the stove? Well, you can!
This Banana Berry Baked French Toast layers all your essential elements into a casserole dish, soaked in a classic eggy custard, and cooks in the oven. It’s the easiest way to prepare multiple serves of French toast at once – perfect if you’re feeding a family.
While French toast may not pop to the top of your mind when thinking of a healthy breakfast, there’s a lot of goodness in my Banana Berry Baked French Toast. Made using your favourite milk and plenty of Australian eggs, the recipe is naturally high in protein. The protein in eggs is a complete protein, meaning you get all of the essential amino acids your body needs to repair and replenish.
The recipe also uses wholemeal bread (you could use a seedy/grainy bread if you prefer that) and there’s only a small amount of sweetener used. The fruit baked into the dish adds sweetness as well as additional nutrition. When serving, you can add a drizzle of honey or maple syrup as needed, though it really won’t need much I promise!
Get the kids involved in making this Banana Berry Baked French Toast
There are plenty of opportunities to involve kids in putting together this recipe:
- Using a child-safe knife, get the kids to cut the bread into triangles and arrange them in the dish.
- Kids can help crack the eggs and whisk together the custard mixture.
- Ask kids to help choose the fruit, measure it out and chop it up. Once it’s ready they can help layer this into the dish as well, before finally helping to pour the custard mixture over.
Banana Berry Baked French Toast is easy, convenient and perfect for kids and parents too! This recipe keeps well in the fridge so you don’t have to eat it all at once, either. Portion out just what you need.
Let me know if you make them by tagging @nourish_everyday on Instagram and use the hashtag #EggFam!
Banana Berry Baked French Toast
Ingredients
- 8 slices wholemeal bread – I used gluten free wholemeal bread
- 2 cups milk
- 6 eggs
- 3 tbsp honey or maple syrup
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cinnamon plus extra for dusting
- 2 cups frozen berries any variety or use mixed berries
- 1-2 bananas
- butter or olive oil for greasing baking dish
- Greek yoghurt to serve
- honey or maple syrup to serve
Instructions
- This recipe is best started the day/night before, to allow for the bread to completely soak up the egg mixture.
- Lightly grease a large baking dish (pictured in a rectangular baking dish measuring approximately 32cm x 22.5cm). Scatter 1 cup of the frozen berries across the base of the dish.
- Slice the bread into triangular quarters and lay them evenly across the dish, overlapping them slightly.
- Slice the bananas into rounds and tuck the banana slices in between the bread. Scatter the remaining cup of berries over the dish.
- Whisk together the eggs, milk, honey/maple syrup, vanilla and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Pour the mixture evenly over the baking dish. Very gently, press the bread into the liquid to help it soak in.
- Cover the dish and place in the fridge, and ideally let it sit overnight. (You can speed up the soaking process a little by more aggressively pressing the bread down into the egg mixture. Try to let the mixture soak for 2 hours at least).
- Preheat the oven to 180 C. When the dish is ready, sprinkle over a little extra cinnamon and bake for approximately 35 minutes, or until the bread on top is starting to brown and crisp up at the edges.
- Serve warm with a dollop of Greek yoghurt and a drizzle of honey/maple syrup, if desired.
Notes
Easy to assemble and keep in a covered bowl overnight. I just poured it into a prepared baking dish the next day and put it in a preheated oven. I added almond extract with the vanilla, and that gave a great pop of flavor. I have a similar recipe, but like the ratios in this one better, and love the addition of fruit in the dish rather than using it as a topping. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Thank you for this really lovely and detailed review, Anne! I have never tried the recipe with almond extract but I love using it in other dessert recipes, I will definitely have to give it a go. 🙂