Day one of the Thug Kitchen 21 Day Challenge is here! I am pumped to make 6 recipes a week for the next 3 weeks, and post my reviews of each recipe. I am excited to have you along for the ride. You can follow along by viewing my free PDF of the week here.
Today I will be reviewing the Apricot French Toast, which is on page 9 of the Thug Kitchen Party Grub cookbook. I was so curious to see how a vegan French toast would hold up, I haven’t had much luck with vegan pancakes or waffles before, so wondered what this would be like. Flax seed I find is great for baking but not the best for flipping, it doesn’t bind as well as egg does in a frying pan or griddle.
This recipe has 7 ingredients, all of which are very easy to find in any grocery store. I used unsweetened almond milk in my recipe, instead adding my own vanilla and sweetener as I am not a fan of the additives they put in sweetened almond milk.
I also added a bit more apricot as I love apricot, and it was hard to measure out ¼ cups of it. I wasn’t sure if that was diced prior to measuring, or if it was whole apricots. When I made the batter it got quite thick, and I wonder if perhaps I added too many apricots…
I think I may have because the batter made the bread really moist and had a hard time sticking to the bread when flipping. I found that I ended up cooking the bread for about 5 minutes on each side, at 375 degrees on my griddle. Next time I would try just using a frying pan as the batter got in all the grooves of the griddle.
Taste wise I really enjoyed it, however my boyfriend said the bread was a little too heavy on the apricot side. So I would probably just add 6 apricots at the max, (I used about 10). I think it may help with the thickness of the batter as well. I also would have added more cinnamon and perhaps some nutmeg or cardamom as I find those spices go very well with apricot.
The toast was filling, I added greek yogurt, chia jam and some maple syrup to mine. Each piece is around 121 calories on its own, and although it is quite low in fat (4.3 g), it is higher in carbohydrates (16.5 g). I think it is also a lot lower in protein than a non-vegan variety, so adding greek yogurt will up the protein content (if you are a vegetarian). If you are a vegan, I think a tablespoon of almond butter would be a nice source of added protein.
Would I make this again? Most probably but again I would add less apricots, and try a different pan. I really am determined to make it work as French toast is one of my favorite breakfasts! Overall I rated this recipe a 81% – pretty good overall!
Make sure to look at my snapchat this morning before it disappears! I am wfoodchallenge. I go through all the steps of making these bad boys. Hope you enjoy.
