Baked Coconut Crusted French Toasts. Vegan Refined Oil-free Recipe

Happy Monday people! Lets start the week with this easy but amazingly delicious Baked French Toasts. This is no ordinary French Toast. These are crusted with coconut and sugar. And served up warm with strawberries. 

Make the batter, layer Coconut flakes on the bottom, layer french toasts, sprinkle liberally with more coconut flakes and some sugar and bake. The toasts bake up quickly and beautifully, are mildly sweet, chewy and coconutty, and are a must must make. Each ramekin serves 1. There is no added Oil and the french toast batter is gluten-free. Use gf bread for a gf version.
Serve these with Strawberries on top. The toast warms up the berries and the flavors work perfectly together. Perfect for Father's day Brunch!

I am planning to spend some time updating resources and links section. What are your favorite online Vegan forums or support groups?

More Sweet Breakfast options here. 




The other day someone left me a bunch of hateful comments on a very old post on the blog. I have been blogging for years now and a few old posts are non-vegan. Whenever I find time, I make a vegan version and either put a link on the old post directing them to the new vegan post or delete the old post altogether. Even though they are non-vegan, they are good recipes that I created and would be delicious vegan-ized as well. I guess it is time to remove or convert all non-vegan recipes from the blog.

This incident reminded me of a post by Steffi about Vegan Community needing more Teachers and Sales people.  

At some point or the other, every one of us has been yelled at on social media or on the blog, questioning our commitment. Like Hey you cant be Vegan, because you use chocolate(if you forgot to mention you used vegan chocolate), palm oil butter(because of the deforestation and Orangutan killing associated with Palm oil), Coconut products(because in some countries monkeys are enslaved to pick coconuts) and so on.
I have accepted the fact that I cannot be vegan enough for someone or the other. I can relate to the anger too, because I went through the anger phase for a few months as a new vegan as well. Getting angry at people giving up on their plant-based diets, at flexi-tarians, at proud vegetarians who dont see where dairy comes from and so on, but not necessarily calling them names. I would be angry alone and try to work my way out of it. 

The only thing that is created from all that anger is negativity. As Steffi mentions on her post, what we forget about the core of Vegan-ism, is compassion. Being kind to each other, to human humans, especially those who are already on your side. Everything can be mentioned kindly. Passion is a great thing to have and we can use that passion to do more. There are shelters and rescues which always need volunteer help, There is activism, support activist groups in their events in the neighborhood, Vegan outreach like helping restaurants label already vegan options, giving them ideas on adding some other easy vegan versions of things, encouraging talks and discussion about our choices at social/school etc events. Holding fund raisers to help all the sanctuaries and rescue who work tirelessly on the front lines taking care of so many animals.

There is so so much more to do than bash someone, who already knows the meaning of the term Vegan, and is trying their best to embrace it in as many ways as possible.



On that note lets eat sweet. 
Make this!

Steps:
Sprinkle Coconut flakes on the bottom



Mix the batter and add bread to it.



Layer the bread in the ramekin



Top with coconut flakes and sugar. 



Bake and serve hot with Strawberries.



Baked Coconut Crusted French Toasts.
Allergen Information: Free of Dairy, egg, corn, soy, refined Oil

Makes 2 4.5 inch shallow Ramekins
Ingredients:
French Toast Batter:
3/4 cup Coconut milk
2 Tablespoons Oat flour
2 Tablespoons raw Cashew flour (or Oat/spelt/sorghum flour)
1 Tablespoon flax meal
1 Tablespoon Coconut flakes
3 Tablespoons Maple syrup
a generous pinch of salt and cinnamon(or other spice of choice)

2-3 Slices of multigrain Bread or day old regular Bread chopped or torn into 1-2 inch pieces

1/4 cup Coconut flakes
1 Tablespoon ground Raw sugar

Method:
Mix everything under batter. Let the batter sit for 5 minutes.
Add bread to it. mix well to coat.
Sprinkle coconut flakes at the bottom of the Ramekins. about 1 Tablespoon per ramekin.
Layer the bread in the ramekins. I used shallow ramekins, so made 1 layer of bread.
Top the bread with coconut flakes. about 1 Tablespoon.
Then sprinkle 1-2 teaspoons ground sugar on top. Or use maple syrup.
Bake at preheated 400 degrees F for 15-17 minutes until the top is golden.
Serve hot with strawberries and maple drizzle.

Tips:
To make Cashew and Oat flour, put raw cashews and equal amount oats into a blender and blend till evenly powdered. Use 1/4 cup(2+2 Tbsp) of that mixture. 

Variations:
You can also use 1/4-1/3 cup pancake mix, 2 teaspoons flax meal, 3/4 cup non dairy milk to make the french toast batter for a nut-free version. Or use any of your favorite vegan french toast batter recipes.
Add sliced strawberries or blueberries between 2 layers of the bread, in a deeper ramekin and bake for a stuffed French Toast. 
Drizzle melted chocolate on top instead of maple for a Samoa cookie effect.
Add other spices, vanilla extract or rum extract.



This chewy coconuty goodness is being shared at Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays, allergy Free Wednesdays, Rickis wellness weekend