Sweet Potato French Toast

I was able to use this recipe as a demonstration at the Livingston Sweet Potato Festival and it was a hit! All the samples I gave out disappeared and then folks in the audience even asked for the leftover scraps as I was cleaning up.

Ingredients

French Toast:

6 slices of sweet potato bread

2 Tbsp. cooked sweet potato puree

4 eggs

1 cup milk

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Butter (for skillet and for serving)

For the filling:

1 c cooked sweet potato puree

1/4 c finely chopped walnuts (reserve some for topping)

1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Directions

To make the batter, whip together milk, eggs, brown sugar, sweet potato puree and cinnamon.

Dip bread, one piece at a time, in the batter and coat both sides of bread. Place coated bread on a buttered skillet.

While dipping the toast pieces, be sure to stir the batter between dips – sometimes the sweet potato and spices settle at the bottom.

Repeat with other pieces of bread until the skillet is full. Work in batches until all of the French toast is made.

To serve, place one piece of French toast on the plate and spread a layer of filling. Place second layer on top. As a serving suggestion, top with a pat of butter and place a few walnuts on top for a decorative effect.

Variations

If you don’t have sweet potato bread, you can use regular toast. Texas toast makes a good substitute.

Top with maple syrup or powdered sugar makes a traditional French toast topping.

Why I would Make This Again

French toast was originally named pan Perduu meaning “lost bread,” because you can use the recipe to recover stale bread that you might otherwise have to throw away. At our house, we usually don’t have the problem of leftover bread, and if we do, it’s because it’s gone moldy, not stale. If, however, you have leftover stale bread, this works. Using sweet potato bread gives it a boost in texture and flavor.

I would make this again because not only is there a lot of flavor, you can double the batch and either freeze or refrigerate the French toast in plastic zip bags for use for quick breakfasts during the week – just pop the slice out of the bag and put it in the bread toaster.