Banana Love: Banana Coconut French Toast

Banana-stuffed Coconut-crusted French Toast with Chocolate Sauce

Guilty pleasures … we all have them. One of mine is Steven and Chris: a weekday tv show on CBC. Whenever I get the chance to steal an hour in the afternoon, I like to put my feet up and watch Steven Sabados and Chris Hyndman and their guests as they cover the latest in design, health, beauty, relationships, entertaining and, of course, cooking. It’s a light, fun show and I always learn something new. On one show a while back, their guest Chef Voula presented some recipes for weekend cooking and, because of my boundless love of bananas, I had to try making banana-stuffed French toast. It was so good I made it two weekends in a row. 

Here’s my version of Banana-Stuffed Coconut-Crusted French Toast with Chocolate Sauce. FYI - This is not the time to use those ugly, slightly squishy bananas in the freezer. Use them instead for Sweet-topped Banana Muffins or Good Ol' Banana Bread. For this delicious treat, use ripe bananas that are still nice and firm.

MA’s Banana-stuffed Coconut-crusted French Toast

Preheat oven to 350º F.

Lightly oil or butter a baking sheet.

1 loaf French bread, unsliced

3 bananas

1 – 398 ml tin coconut milk, well shaken, separated into ½ cup and 1 ¼ cup

5 eggs

½ tsp vanilla

1 ½ cups milk

2 cups desiccated, shredded or flaked coconut

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Banana slices stuffed into bread pocket

Cut bread into six slices, each about 1” thick. With a sharp knife, cut a slit into the middle of each slice to make a pocket.

Peel and slice bananas into rounds, each about ½ “ thick. Divide into six portions. Stuff the bananas into the bread pockets. Gently press down on filled bread. Place stuffed slices onto a large baking dish (use two dishes, if you need more room).

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, ½ cup of coconut milk, milk and vanilla. Pour mixture over stuffed slices, covering bread evenly. Let soak for 10 minutes, turn slices over gently and let soak for another 5 minutes.

Cover soaked slices with coconut

Spread coconut onto a large plate. One at a time, gently place slices into coconut, turning to coat each side evenly. 

Ready for the oven

Place each slice on prepared baking sheet.

Bake for 15 minutes, then turn each piece over, and bake for another 15 minutes or until nicely golden.

Chocolate and coconut milk for the sauce

Chocolate Sauce: In the top of a double boiler or in a bowl fitted over a sauce pan, put the chocolate chips and the 1¼ cup coconut milk. Warm over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate melts and combines with the milk. The sauce will be smooth and shiny. 

Note: If you don’t use all the sauce on the French toast, put it in the fridge and melt it down to use it later. Keeps about a week.

Serve warm stuffed French toast topped with chocolate sauce. Garnish with more sliced bananas. Enjoy!

Makes six servings.

Printable Recipe for MA's Banana-stuffed Coconut-crusted French Toast

Hospital Food

It's been over three weeks since my last post. May took an unexpected turn with my eighty-one year old mom ending up in hospital for eighteen days. I was there with her for most of them. No one is happier than she is to be back home.

The hospital time provided me another perspective on food. For my mom and most of the patients sharing her room - and over the course of her visit she had several different roommates in the other three beds - meals became the hands of the clock, the cue for conversation and, from time to time, the source of some griping and grumbling. In fact, we could tie Mom’s recovery to her complaints about the food: the more she talked about the dried out sandwiches (there was one during the first week, which she ate anyway) and how they served her cauliflower at every meal (they didn’t, of course), the more we could see her progress.

For a few of the patients, food was problematic: either they were too ill to stomach anything at all; too weak or unsteady to lift the lid off their soup or peel the plastic wrapper from a tea bag; or completely unable to recognize the tray’s contents for the sustenance it offered.

The meals I saw delivered to my mom and her fifth-floor neighbours all had that nutritionally balanced, dietician-approved look. I am not sure exactly how they managed it, but the food arrived with the hot stuff still quite hot and the salad still cool and crispy. Must be some kind of hospital magic.

While the hospital food certainly did its job, Mom was very happy to get “outside” food. There were bananas and watermelon, some home baked goodies, and even fries and gravy brought to her as a Mother’s Day treat.

In most of the hospitals in my area, there is a Tim Horton’s outlet where visitors, staff and patients can buy beverages and baked goods. There was one on the main floor of the hospital my mom was at. We took it as a very good sign when, after almost two weeks in hospital, Mom chose to put on her own clothes and go with her visitors to Tim Horton’s for an iced cappuccino.

I do hope it will be a while until my next hospital visit. I look forward to spending more time in my kitchen and getting back to the blog.

Thanks for reading.

Onion Soup from Darcy in the Kitchen

Darcy's Onion Soup

My husband did the shopping the day we made Darcy’s Manitoba Cheesesteak Sandwiches. If you know him, you’ll know that once in a while, he tends to overdo things and so it was we ended up with a lot of leftover deli roast beef, submarine buns and provolone cheese. Making some regular roast beef sandwiches would have been easy enough, but Darcy had an idea to serve the sandwiches with homemade onion soup. She made great use of the extra submarine buns turning them into giant croutons and used the leftover provolone.

It’s been a long time since onion soup has been made in my kitchen (and a long time since those onion soup bowls came off the top shelf). The aroma as the onions cooked was fantastic and Darcy’s combination of ingredients was right on the money. So good! Oh yes, and here’s a tip from Darcy to remember as you get ready to enjoy your first spoonful: The bowl and the soup are very HOT, and the cheese is rubbery so use the edge of your bowl to cut the cheese strings. 

Darcy’s Onion Soup

Preheat oven to 375º F.

The main ingredient

5 or 6 medium onions, halved and sliced thin

¼ cup butter

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

splash of water

1 tsp thyme

½ cup port

8 cups beef broth

4 submarine buns or 4 slices bread

½ lb provolone cheese, sliced thin

Making the croutons from submarine buns

In a large soup pot over low heat, melt butter. Add olive oil to melted butter. Add onions and a splash of water. Cover and let cook for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove cover from pot continue cooking for about 45 minutes. Stir with love at regular intervals to prevent onions from sticking.

Add thyme, port and beef broth to onion mixture. Bring to a boil, then turn down heat and simmer the soup for about 20 minutes.

Float the crouton on top of the soup

While the soup simmers, use a biscuit cutter to make large round croutons out of buns or breads. The rounds should be able to fit into the soup bowl. (Darcy used the largest Pampered Chef biscuit cutter.) Place the rounds onto a baking sheet and toast them in the oven. This happens quickly so keep an eye on them.

To assemble: 

Place the soup bowls on a baking sheet. 

Fill each bowl with soup, float a toasted round on top of the soup, and place a slice of cheese on top of the round.

Top with provolone

Broil until browned and bubbly

Set oven to broil. Place the tray of soup bowls under the broiler and cook until the cheese is browned and bubbly.

The bowls and the soup will be very hot, so allow a little cooling time before digging in.


Printable Recipe for Darcy's Onion Soup