This buttery amaretto french toast has the perfect amount of almond flavor and is amazing topped with a caramelized strawberry banana sauce. — it will quickly become a weekend breakfast staple!
This year’s brunch season deserves a French toast dressed up with the MOST!
Not that it isn’t always brunch season, but there’s something about May that just makes me want to host fancy brunches, eat stack after glorious stack of this French toast, and cap it off with a peach bellini.
…and then probably go back for another round of French toast with extra strawberry banana sauce on top, let’s be honest.
The best part about this French toast is that it FEELS super fancy with the amaretto custard and fresh fruit sauce, but this is easy-peasy brunch prep we’re talking about here!
And the flavors…this is like something you’d pay $15 for at Sunday brunch. Only we’re at home where it’s cheap to make AND you can go back for that second plate.
This French Toast features…
- Amaretto-soaked French bread slices
- A sweet caramelized strawberry banana sauce
- Lots of powdered sugar and toasted almonds on top
- Less than an hour to make and a weekend breakfast favorite
Making the Amaretto French Toast
(scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe)
Ingredients You Will Need
- Strawberries
- Bananas
- Granulated sugar
- Unsalted butter
- Eggs
- Amaretto
- Honey
- 2% or skim milk
- Bread
- Powdered sugar and almonds for topping
Choosing Your Bread
Good French toast starts with good bread! We recommend using a loaf of rustic French bread or sourdough for this recipe.
If you want a milder flavor, you should go with the French bread, but if you want that signature sour flavor in some French toasts, give the sourdough a try! We’ve tried both breads for this recipe and it’s honestly delicious either way.
Whatever bread you decide to go with, we recommend you purchase a whole loaf, rather than pre-sliced. This way you’ll be able to control how thick the bread slices are cut. Ideally, you want your slices cut about 1-inch thick.
Tips for Perfect French Toast
- Cut fruit in uniform sizes – hull and halve the strawberries and cut the bananas into 1-inch thick slices. You want all the fruit roughly the same size so it cooks evenly in the sauce.
- Use firm bananas – ideally you will want to use bananas that just turned yellow with a slight hint of green. You don’t want to use overripe bananas otherwise they will lose their shape and disintegrate in the sauce.
- Don’t overcook sauce – simmer the sauce just until the strawberries and bananas are softened and the sauce is slightly reduced. Overcooking the sauce will lead to the bananas turning mushy.
- Whisk eggs in custard well – we don’t want any egg chunks when we go to cook the French toast! Whisk the eggs with the amaretto until smooth before adding the milk.
- Cook French toast on griddle or stovetop – if you have a flat-top griddle, this works great! Otherwise a big pan on the stove will also work perfectly fine.
Recipe Variations
Try these ideas for a different twist on this French toast!
- Substitute a different fruit – you can skip the bananas if you don’t care for them or use a different fruit such as blueberries, blackberries, or raspberries in their place.
- Skip the alcohol – for an alcohol-free version of this French toast, feel free to use 1 teaspoon almond extract in place of the amaretto.
- Top with maple syrup – you can skip the fruit sauce entirely and top French toast with maple syrup instead! This pairs especially well with the amaretto.
The almond flavor from the amaretto really shines through in this French toast! The toast slices are golden and buttery and the fresh strawberry banana sauce brightens everything up perfectly.
Don’t forget the toasted almonds and dusting of powdered sugar on top either! Brunch is won.
Save this recipe using the ‘save to recipe box’ button below. If you make it, please let us know! Leave a comment + star rating below, or take a photo and tag it on Instagram with #wholeandheavenlyoven.
Watch this French toast made step-by-step on Google web stories.
More sweet breakfast ideas to try next!
Amaretto French Toast with Caramelized Strawberry Banana Sauce
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Ingredients
Caramelized Strawberry Banana Sauce
- 2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and halved
- 2 medium firm, yet slightly ripe bananas, sliced into 1-in thick rounds
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Amaretto French Toast
- 3 large eggs
- 1/3 cup amaretto liqueur
- 1 cup 2% or skim milk
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter + more as needed
- 10 slices (1-inch thick) French or sourdough bread
- Toasted sliced almonds and powdered sugar for serving
Instructions
Caramelized Strawberry Banana Sauce
- In a medium bowl, toss strawberries and bananas with sugar until evenly coated.
- Melt butter over medium heat in a medium pan. Arrange strawberries and bananas in a single layer and allow to cook 3-4 minutes on first side until softened. Flip fruit and cook on opposite side an additional 3-4 minutes until fruit is bubbly and reduced.
Amaretto French Toast
- In a large shallow bowl, whisk eggs and amaretto until eggs are completely smooth. Whisk in milk.
- Melt butter over medium heat on a griddle or large skillet. Working in batches as necessary, begin dipping bread slices into egg mixture and place on griddle or skillet. Cook 3-5 minutes on first side, flip, and continue cooking french toast until golden brown. Repeat cooking with remaining french toast, adding more butter as needed.
- Arrange french toast on serving plates and top with strawberry banana sauce, toasted sliced almonds, and a dusting of powdered sugar. Serve warm and enjoy!
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