French Toast Sticks

I have been seriously craving french toast. Like every time I see bread, I want to buy it, and make french toast out of the entire loaf.

 

So this morning, I woke up with the idea that I would just make my own loaf of bread, and then turn in into french toast. And I did exactly that.

 

I made a SUPER simple coconut and tapioca flour bread. It didn't fluff like some breads do, so it turned out to be perfect for french toast sticks!

 

Which, in my opinion, are even more delicious.

 

I wish I would have taken a picture of the bread before I turned it in to french toast, however, I did not. So you will just have to take my word on it, and the fact that it was perfectly golden and delicious.

 

Once the bread was done, I let it cool for about 10 minutes before slicing it into sticks. Then I prepared the custard for the french toast.

 

Preheat your oven to 350.

 

Dip each stick into the custard, for 30 seconds on each side. Then place them onto a greased cookie sheet.

 

 

Once each stick is dipped, place it on the sheet, and put it back in the oven for about 10 minutes until crispy!

 

I also made a homemade syrup to go on top because I was out of my usual maple syrup. It was also super easy. I'll hook you up with the recipe below.

 

Enjoy. I promise these are the bomb.

 

 

Coconut-Tapioca Flour Bread recipe can be found here.

I subbed lemon juice for the apple cider vinegar, and baking soda for the cream of tartar.

 

French Toast Custard:

1C Vanilla Almond Milk

3 eggs

1-2 T Cinnamon

1t Vanilla

2T raw honey (melted in microwave)

 

Let sit for a couple minutes, and then begin the french toast process.

 

Sprinkle with cinnamon and powdered sugar.

 

Maple Syrup:

1/4C Molasses

1/2C Coconut Palm Sugar

1t Vanilla

6-8T of water

 

Let come to a boil over medium low heat, and stir until all ingredients are combined. Take off heat and stir in 1T of grassfed butter.

 

Oink, oink. Haylea

 



Donut Holes & Engagement (eek!)

I know. I have seriously been slacking getting this post up, and giving you all the amazing recipe from the donut holes I made on Easter morning. 

BUT, I have an amazing reason why!

While on Spring Break, I GOT ENGAGED! 

Ever since, it has been a crazy whirlwind of excitement and wedding talk, therefore leaving me no time to blog and hardly any time for baking *sad face* 

Although, I do love talking wedding. 

Almost as much as I love to cook. 

I had booked us a hotel in Chicago for a night, and had planned on spending two days walking around beautiful Chicago and eating at some tasty restaurants. My boyfriend (now finace :D ) had other plans. (And so did the weather)

*Here begins my engagement story...If you just want the recipe, scroll WAY down*

I always joke, but it never fails, whenever I plan to go somewhere in advance, the weather always turns out to really suck. Last week, it was beautiful in Chicago on Monday, but on Wednesday and Thursday, the forecast was a warm (joking) 45 and torrential downpours all Thursday. Awesome. 

So as we drove up, I was so bummed. Like trying to make the best of it, but on the inside I was bummed. I wanted to be able to walk around the beautiful parks without freezing. 

We had talked about going to some museums, but ultimately we chose to bundle up and walk through Millennium and Daley Park. 

Yup, I'm so glad we did this. 

Side rant: If you haven't seen or been to the new Daley Park and Playground, you are missing out on life. Go. Now. 

Fast-forward to us playing on the playground, and walking on the sidewalks along the park. We were just discussing how beautiful the skyline was at the spot where we were standing, when Marc asked if I wanted to make a memory.

Another side note: He has a history of joking about getting engaged and fake proposing. 

So, of course, I was like "hell no!" Let's keep walking. 

*He kneels down* 

"OMG. This is for real. Like you aren't joking?"

*Pull out ring box*

My inner self was screaming hysterically at this point, and I'm pretty sure I blacked out, and the world went silent, and whatever beautiful words he said, I didn't hear any of it. Not one word. 

I said, "YES!" 

And it was awesome. 

It turned out to be a really fun trip. We ate at Mercadito (best Mexican restaurant EVER, seriously), and had breakfast at Wildberry (again, amazeballs). And just like the weather forecast predicted, there was terrible thunderstorms Thursday morning, so we just hit the road. 

After all, I was engaged, and had to get home to start planning (not joking).  

And all of that, is why I am just now getting around to posting this DELICIOUS recipe. 

I found a version of this on a Keto Diet blog, but adapted it so that I didn't have to go to the store, and it turned out perfect! I can't wait to try some more donut holes in the future. 

Apple Fritter Donut Holes

• *1/2 cup coconut flour
• *2 tsp baking powder
• *2 Tbsp of UMP Vanilla Protein Powder (or any sort of vanilla protein you like)
• *1/2 t Chia Seeds 
• *10-15 drops of Sweet Leaf Drops 
• *2 tsp ground cinnamon 
• *1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• *1/4 tsp kosher salt
• *2 eggs (if you are allergic to eggs, you could also use applesauce, which would be perfect in this recipe)
• *2/3 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• *1 Tbsp Grass-Fed Butter (or coconut oil) 
• *About 1 1/2 Apples diced into small pieces 

For the cinnamon sugar, I combined 4-5 Sweet Leaf Sweetener packets (not drops) with about a tablespoon of cinnamon.

Mix all the ingredients (except the apples) together with a hand mixer. The dough should be slightly sticky and firm enough to roll into a ball. Fold in apples. Roll into balls, slightly smaller than a golf ball. In a deep pot, heat coconut oil to approximately 275 degrees, so it is slightly bubbling. Drop balls into oil, cooking each side for about 2 minutes, then flip!

Take them out of the oil when they are golden brown, Toss them onto a paper plate lined with paper towels to soak up any excess oil. As soon as they are slightly cooled, roll then in the cinnamon sugar mixture. And enjoy!  

Oink, Oink! Haylea.