Gingerbread Caramel French Toast (Vegan Gluten-Free)

This Gingerbread Caramel French Toast is the dream brunch dish: light and fluffy sourdough soaked with gingerbread flavours and served with a creamy vanilla coconut cream and gingerbread caramel filling. This brunch dish is vegan, gluten-free and easy to make.

It’s been a little while since I’ve had French toast for brunch, but this recipe has changed that as it’s too good not to have on repeat. It’s light and fluffy, packed with gingerbread flavours and has the dreamiest homemade caramel and coconut cream filling. While it sounds and looks impressive it is actually very easy to serve up and makes a great festive brunch dish to serve to friends or family this holiday season (and beyond).

What makes this Gingerbread Caramel French Toast so special?

One taste of this French toast and you’ll be hooked. It is:

• Light and fluffy
• Packed with gingerbread spices
• Crispy, golden and buttery outside
• Tender and sweet inside
• Served with the best cheat’s gingerbread caramel
• Stuffed with vanilla coconut cream
• Easy to make in batches and prep ahead of time
• Quick to make
• Impressive for brunch/breakfast throughout the holidays

If you are already convinced that you need to make this French toast right now, skip ahead to the recipe card, or, let’s see what goes into this recipe first.

What ingredients does this French toast need?

The batter is really simple, and you would never tell there are no eggs in there.

• Plant-based milk: use your favourite brand and variety of plant-based milk here.
• Apple puree or mashed banana: this acts as an egg replacer as it thickens the batter and also adds a lot of the sweetness.
• Molasses: for a true gingerbread flavour, I like to use molasses but you can also use maple syrup or another sticky sweet syrup.
• Ground chia or flaxseed: this also acts as an egg replacer to bind the batter and make it lovely and thick. You can grind your own chia or flaxseeds by blending them to a fine powder.
• Ground ginger and cinnamon: for the classic gingerbread flavours.
• Vanilla essence: this also adds to the lovely sweetness and gingerbread flavours.
• Salt: this heightens all the flavours.
• Bread: this is the key component for French toast. I used a white sliced sourdough but any bread will work. White softer loaves tend to work best.
• Butter: for frying off the French toast, butter is better because of the lovely rich flavour but you could use coconut oil or vegan margarine, too.

As for the gingerbread caramel, it’s based on my go-to recipe for caramel which uses a few basic ingredients simply stirred together. This one has some added gingerbread elements, too:

• Almond butter: or any other runny, smooth nut or seed butter is great here. Almond or cashew butter or tahini are my favourites for this one.
• Coconut oil: melted coconut oil makes the texture of this caramel just right. It’s pourable as you make it and will set firmer over time. I would not suggest swapping this.
• Maple syrup: this adds the lovely sticky texture to the caramel. Other syrups like agave, golden or date will also work.
• Ginger: ground ginger adds the gingerbread taste to this caramel.
• Salt: this adds a salted caramel element to this caramel which is so delicious.

That is almost it for the ingredients, just a few serving suggestions:

• Vanilla coconut cream or yoghurt: any thick yoghurt will work and I love to use vanilla yoghurt for the delicious flavour.
• Fresh fruits: redcurrants and/or pomegranate add a pop of colour. You could also use fresh berries.
• Gingerbread biscuits: although not essential, these are so perfect on top of this Gingerbread Caramel French Toast and you can use homemade ones (see my Gingerbread Shapes recipe here) or shop-bought.

That is it for the ingredients and method-wise it’s very easy.

How do I make perfect French toast?

There are no tricks to this recipe, it’s an easy one to follow:

• Make the batter: whisk together the milk, apple puree, molasses, chia/flaxseed, ginger, cinnamon, salt and vanilla and leave it to thicken for 10 minutes. Watch the recipe video on my social media.
• Dip in the bread: coat each side of the bread with the batter.
• Fry until golden: prepare a non-sticky frying pan (it does help to have a good non-stick pan) with butter and once hot, add one slice at a time and fry until golden and then carefully flip to cook on the second side.
• Stack them high: sandwich together with the gingerbread caramel and vanilla coconut cream and top with your desired toppings.

Can I prepare this ahead of time?

Yes, one thing I love about this recipe, is, once fried off, the French toast will keep in the fridge for 2-3 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month in a sealed container. To warm back up, pop in a dry frying pan and fry off until warmed through.

Is this Gingerbread Caramel French Toast gluten-free and nut-free?

This is easily gluten-free as long as you use your favourite gluten-free bread. As for nuts, simply swap the almond butter for a seed butter like tahini or sunflower seed butter.

Can I swap the flavours?

You can definitely play around with the flavours. If you don’t want to make these gingerbread-y, skip the ginger in the batter and change the molasses to syrup and you have sweet and delicious French toast that you can top and stuff with whatever toppings you like.

What other brunch recipes can I make?

If you love brunch like I do, then how about my:

• Chunky Monkey Pancakes
• Vanilla Berry French Toast
• Apple Streusel Parfait Jars
• Blueberry Streusel Cake
• Peanut Butter Blueberry Chocolate Chip Courgette Baked Oats

I look forward to hearing what you think of this Gingerbread Caramel French Toast so please let me know in the comments below. If you do make this French toast, please share your photos with me by tagging me – I’m @nourishing.amy on Instagram and use the hashtag #nourishingamy. I’m also on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest  – please say hello!

With gingerbread French toast love x