Believe it or not, I never ate French toast growing up let alone anything really sweet for breakfast! I grew up with a Filipino mother where we ate a traditional rice and meat type of breakfast or scrambled eggs, fake bacon, and sliced banana. The closest thing I ever had to French toast was those frozen EGGOS with 4 mini French toasts that were connected and you had to heat them up in your toaster. I don’t think they even make those anymore, so I might be dating myself. Since becoming a vegan the idea of French toast with a eggy batter was just never really an option. About a year ago my husband and I discovered Follow Your Heart’s VeganEgg and it is a great substitute for your traditional egg. The package for the VegEgg suggests you can either whisk the liquid with the powder or you can use a blender. I highly recommend using a blender so the consistency is so much fluffier and more like scrambled eggs. I love to sneak in extra nutrients wherever I can, so I’ll always add a tablespoon of nutritional yeast to the mixture, which has always worked well.

This recipe will give you the nostalgia of your childhood mixed with a little sophistication. With its eggy sweet/savory bread mixed with the warm blueberry compote, pumpkin or apple butter, and hints of cinnamon and sweet syrup. I hope you love this recipe as much as I loved making it!

Ultimate Vegan French Toast with Pumpkin Butter and Blueberry Compote

Serves 2-3 people

French Toast Batter

*4 Tablespoons Follow your heart egg powder

*½ cup water

*½ cup oat milk (or other non-dairy milk)

*1 Tbsp nutritional yeast

*1 Tbsp maple syrup

*1 tsp cinnamon

*¼ tsp Himalayan sea salt

Bread: 4 Pieces of thick rustic bread such as a Durum or bread of choice. Used Durum round from my local Seven Stars Bakery.

Tablespoon of vegan butter (My favorite is Miyoko’s)

½ cup Frozen blueberries

½ Tbsp fresh lemon juice

Optional: Pumpkin or Apple Butter, Date syrup or Maple syrup, powdered sugar. I used pumpkin butter from Jansal Valley and Just Date Syrup.

In a high-speed blender add the water and oat milk followed by the rest of the ingredients. Blend on high for about a minute until well incorporated. Transfer to a shallow baking dish or pie pan.

Start your compote by adding 1-1 ½ cups of frozen blueberries to a small saucepan. Squeeze in 1 Tbsp of lemon juice and heat on medium heat. Stir occasionally until blueberries are soft and warm. Leave on low to stay warm until ready to serve.

Heat up a large skillet or griddle pan on medium heat and add 1/2 tbsp of vegan butter to the pan. One by one dip the bread into the batter. The batter should be slightly thick and not runny. Flip bread over and repeat. Once battered transfer to your preheated skillet or griddle. Repeat this process with the rest of your bread.

Let bread cook on the skillet for 3-5 minutes on each side. It should be lightly browned.

To serve place a slice onto your plate and layer on a spoonful of apple or pumpkin butter. Place your second slice on top and ladle on some blueberry compote. Drizzle with date syrup or maple syrup and if you want, sprinkle on a little powdered sugar to make it feel like when you were a kid.