Nature’s Pride 12 Grain Tropical Fruit French Toast Breakfast Bites

Last week a large package was in between our screen and front door.  Inside the box were two loaves of bread from Nature’s Pride!

I love getting to try free food items simply because I’m a food blogger.  I have to be honest that there are some things I’ve tried that I wish I hadn’t, and I don’t bother to write about those.  But when I get a food product that I love, and am able to do something really spectacular with it, it’s so exciting and I can’t wait to post it.  Today I finally got to play around with the bread and man am I glad I did.

I am a huge fan of french toast, there’s something so comforting and hearty about a slice of good french toast.  I could tell as soon as I opened the bread bag and took a whiff that this bread would make an amazing french toast, but I didn’t want to stop there. Eating healthy is so important to me and I was thinking that since this is such a healthy bread I could really add to that by using fresh fruit, and when it comes to breakfast fruit, I always think tropical.  I love mango, papaya, banana, pineapple, all fruits I used to eat for breakfast daily in Hawaii.

I had a mango and some bananas that I thought would be perfect.  I decided that the flavors of the egg mix for the french toast would be totally enhanced with cinnamon and ginger in addition to the typical nutmeg I use in regular french toast.  For the syrup, I went with an old favorite of mine, coconut syrup!  I love it on pancakes, waffles, french toast, even for dipping fruit in.  It’s so simple to make and contains WAY less sugar than maple syrup, or even worse, fake syrup.  These are fantastic for breakfast, but I actually made them as an afternoon snack and discovered they’re tasty hot or cold.  What’s your favorite way to eat french toast?

Tropical French Toast Fruit Bites

makes 12 bites

Ingredients

1/4 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup milk (I used whole)
1 TBS powdered sugar
1/2 TBS butter
2 slices Nature’s Pride 12 Grain bread
2 eggs
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
2 TBS milk
small dab of butter for pan
1 mango cut into chunks (get instructions here)
1 banana peeled and sliced into 24 pieces
12 toothpicks

Instructions

Put coconut milk, 1/4 cup whole milk, powdered sugar and butter in a small saucepan.  Heat on medium for 10 minutes stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, trim the crust from the bread slices (you can save them for bread pudding or bread crumbs) and cut each slice into 12 one inch pieces.

Mix eggs, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and 2 TBS milk in a bowl and whisk well with a fork.  Stir bread squares into the egg mixture, turning them to make sure they’re coated and absorbing it.
Coat a frying pan with the dab of butter and heat on medium high.  Place soaked bread squares into the pan and cook about 3 minutes on each side (until golden brown).  Remove from heat.

Layer a bread square, a banana slice, a mango chunk, then a banana slice, and a final bread square onto a toothpick.  Arrange on a plate and drizzle spoonfulls of coconut syrup over each bite.

Approximate cost/serving: This would be a really affordable treat to serve at a fancy brunch.  Although mangoes are $1.50-$2 here in Washington, I only used half of one to make the 12 bites, and bananas are really cheap.  It cost $1.67 to make 12 bites, and we found that 3 bites was the perfect snack or appetizer amount.  It’s 14 cents per bite or 42 cents per serving.

Vegetarian/Gluten Free: It’s completely vegetarian, and although the bread I used is not gluten free, I bet this would be delicious with gluten free bread.