- We are sorted. A group of mates from
London, exploring the newest and best in the world of food, whilst trying to have a
few laughs along the way. (laughing) We've got chefs, we've
got normals, (bleep) and a whole world of
stuff for you to explore. But everything we do starts with you. Hello, I'm Barry and this is Ben. - And today we compare
three completely different French toast recipes. - Bonjour, in front of us are
three different French toasts. - Now if you stick around,
we're going to show you how to make each and every one of them and then we're gonna
compare them at the end. - First up is my classic,
yet not completely classic, banana French toast. But with banana (laughing). to start with my custard. And for that, I'm gonna be using eggs, cream, sugar, cinnamon, lemon zest, and a banana. And I'm gonna be blending it all up. All of that Oh la la. Give it a woosh with a triblade. Keeps it easy. Once my custard is uber-smooth I'm gonna pour it into this
pan and soak some slices of brioche in it. I'm going for nice,
chunky slices of brioche that're gonna go into the custard for about five or six minutes
and I'll flip 'em over halfway through so they
get a nice, good soaking. I don't know any French
to add into there, sorry. Now it's time for some more banana action. I'm gonna take two firm bananas, slice them, toss them in sugar, and then we're gonna fry
them in some frothing butter so they get nice and caramelized. (speaking in French) Once the bananas begin to caramelize I can whisk up some mascarpone,
along with icing sugar in a bowl, using, well using a whisk. What else, what else would I use? Last thing I need to do
is fry my French toast in a pan over medium heat because I want my custard
to cook right through, get all the banana-y goodness in there, but also a nice, rich, brown color. brun colour. brun? Or is that German? To construct, I'm gonna take
one slice of my brioche, some bananas, little bit of cream, icing sugar to finish off. Voila. Ahh! - It looks good. - It is. - It's not vegan. - Of course not, why would
you want vegan French toast? - I'll tell you exactly why. Here's a sentence
containing a series of words that have never been said together before. I'm making vegan French toast. It's creamy without the cream, it's buttery without the butter, it's coated in seeds, and it's the best of
the three, hands down. I'm gonna be making an
oat milk custard using oat milk, corn flour, sugar, orange zest, cinnamon, and turmeric. Coating my French toast
and frying it in seeds and coconut oil. Topping it all with some
fresh fruits and maple syrup. I'll need a bloomer loaf. And of course to do the whole thing, I'm gonna be assisted by this guy. So start with the oat milk custard, I need to make a little bit of a paste using a little bit of oat milk, some corn flour, which
is gonna thicken it, and my cinnamon and turmeric. Once you've stirred that
to a smooth consistency, my oat milk is going into a pan. You can use any dairy-free
milk that you want. You whisk your lovely
mixture over medium heat. Bring that to a simmer,
it will start to thicken. And meanwhile, I'm adding my brown sugar, and orange zest. Couple of thick slices
of the classic bloomer. Obviously no butter. Pour my vegan custard into a dish. Look how thick that is, that's as thick as Jamie's. And then same as before, my
chunky bread goes face down into the custard for five
or six minutes, each side. In the meantime, let's get seedy! Sesame, sunflower, poppy, and chia seeds into my chopper, and I'm
gonna blitz those all so they're the same size. It may not look the
same as a normal custard when you come to flip it, but it tastes absolutely amazing
and it does exact same job. Then gonna pour my
seeds into another tray. And next thing to do is pané your bread in that seedy mixture. And I'm able to call this pané-ing because all the French
people stopped watching in the first recipe. My lovely, custardy, seedy bread then gets fried in coconut oil for a couple of minutes
each side, 'til the seeds go nice and brown. Flip it, do the same again. In the meantime, I'm gonna
chop up some fresh fruits. Slide that onto a plate. Strawberries, raspberries. Throw some blueberries on the top, cover in maple syrup. And to make it look like
I know what I'm doing, a dusting of icing sugar. Vegan. Hee ho, hee ho, hee ho! - I see that's a bit different, but this one is super different. - It's got veg. on it for a start. (laughing) - Now, this version is different again because it's savoury. All French toast great for brunch, this is good for brunch, lunch, or dinner. I'm gonna oven-dry some tomatoes. I'm gonna caramelize some red onions. And the French toast is made with a savoury custard with cheese. Plus this. First up, a real flavor explosion. Little plum tomatoes. I'm gonna half them, season
them with salt, pepper, and a little bit of dried thyme, and they go into an oven for about three hours, at
just 110 degrees, Celsius. What comes out is so full of flavor,
you won't believe it. That's one topping for my French toast. The other is caramelized red onion. So two red onions peeled and sliced using
the thin slicing disk of food processor, then
into a pan with olive oil, brown sugar, and cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes. With most of the sliced
red onions scooped out and into our pan, we can now
make the custard in this. So replace the thin slicing disk for the extra fine grating, and cheese goes straight in. And then that disk comes out and in goes our whisk attachment,
along with eggs and cream. So very similar to Jamie's, except instead of banana, we've
got the cheese in there. Smoked paprika, dried
oregano, and garlic powder. Plus some seasoning, salt, and sugar. And just like the other
two, into our custard a nice thick slice of bread. This is bloomer. And I would say, for French toast it's not a problem if
it's a day or two old. Stale bread is sometimes better for this. Another point of difference here, but delicious because it's savory. Jamie cooked his in butter, Mike cooked his in coconut oil, I'm cooking mine in olive oil, with a couple of whole cloves of garlic just begin to infuse into that olive oil. (danceable music) And to cook the bread, all we need to do is scoop out the cloves of garlic. They've done their job. Add in butter, and once that's foaming in with a slice of bread. Couple minutes on either side. (sizzling) Take the gorgeous,
golden brown French toast and drain it on kitchen paper. And then serve it up with
the oven-dried tomatoes, fresh watercress,
mozzarella, and of course those caramelized onions. Little bit of fresh Parmesan, and a sprig of basil. There we go! - Feels like you and I
have swapped recipes. - Yeah, you've gone sweet
and you've gone savoury. - Yeah. - Let's eat this one first, c'mon. - I like the depth of brioche. - Cheers. - Cheers. - Bon appetit. - Bon appetit. It does the job, that's
for sure, doesn't it? - To me, that is classic French toast but with an--
- But not classic. - But not that classic,
because of that extra twist of banana in the custard. You get the flavour all the way through. - I thought you were calling
it not classic French toast so that the French wouldn't lynch you. (laughing) Okay, okay, okay. Right, while we still got that in mind, honestly open your minds and eat some of this. - Before you even cut into it this is beautifully different. - Cheers.
- Cheers. - Cheers. - What have you done to that? - I've made it textural.
- Mmm! - Half sweet, half bagel,
half Polish pastry, all in one. - Three halves. (laughing) I love that. - That is really good. - It's so different. It's mind blowing, I would say. - As a French toast alternative, that is crazy good. - I don't think when you eat that you would know that's
not a regular custard. Because it's still got that
kinda silky custard texture on the inside, and
you've got the sweetness from the maple. - And the seeds make it really-- - That you don't get from brioche. Plus you get that nuttiness,
it's almost tahini, crunchy, seedy, nutty, delicious-- - That fatty, isn't it? It gives you that same sensation
that you're looking for. Should we try your Italian toast? - Now we've had two sweet ones. - Make sure you
get a bit of everything if you're going in there. Onions, tomato, cheese. - I will. - Oh you can smell it already. - Cheers. - Cheers. - I didn't know that I needed French toast as a lunch and dinner option. But that does both of those, suddenly. French toast, any time of the day. Now the challenge here is, with the exception of the tomatoes, which you half and just
leave for several hours to oven roast, they
all take a very similar length of time. - I think we approach it like this. French toast, classic breakfast. If that turned up on your
table, would you be happy? - Absolutely.
- 100%. - Okay, now if that turned up in exactly the same circumstance, not knowing it was vegan, would you be happy? - I would be happy 'cause I think that is an alternative to French,
it's almost like a homage to French toast. - Yeah, I like the fact that
that is deliciously obvious. Like banana, caramelized
banana French toast. In order to make that vegan, the thought process behind each bit actually means it's been
so well constructed, that I think it actually
delivers more than that. Whereas this one, I feel like this plays into the trends of bottomless brunch, and
actually awesome, savoury dishes at brunch time. 'Cause obviously brunch
is sweet or savoury. But this is the savoury one. And I think that is awesome. - I feel like you've
made French toast lunch. Or dinner. I feel like that's now
any time of the day. Well they are our thoughts. What do you think? Also, keep on commenting
with what we should be comparing next. And we will get right on it. - We could do English toast next time. - Three toasts, compared. - Three toasts, compared. - If you want to give
one or all of them a go, the recipe links are downstairs. - Yeah and please make
sure that you're subscribed and that you've got the bell switched on so you get notifications every time we release a video. That's Wednesday and Sunday at 4:00 p.m. We'll see you on Sunday. - We'll see you on Sunday. - Cheerio!
- Goodbye. - [Barry] As we've mentioned, we don't just make
top-quality YouTube videos. We've built the sorted club where we use the best things we've learned to create stuff that's
hopefully interesting and useful to other food lovers. Check it out if you're interested. Thank you for watching, and we'll see you in a few days. (grunting) if you-- Don't use that shot. 'Cause that is the worst
way to open a banana I've ever seen.
