Chantelle Nicholson’s Caramelised Banana French Toast

Welcome to City Harvest Cooking

City Harvest Cooking is a series where guest chefs and cooks join City Harvest in its London food rescue warehouse to create amazing dishes from surplus food. It’s all about being resourceful and getting creative with whatever might be in City Harvest’s food redistribution depot on the day of cooking. The beauty of food redistribution is its unpredictability, although having a network of fresh produce suppliers means that we often see seasonal goods come through our depot doors.

Our second series of City Harvest Cooking features chef-owner of Apricity, Chantelle Nicholson. Nicholson is a member of City Harvest’s Food Council, a collective that works with City Harvest to achieve its overall aims – Rescuing Food, People and the Planet – through thought leadership, engaging with decision-makers and more.

Ingredients  (serves 2)

Prep time: 5 mins, cooking time: 10 mins, total 15 mins

• 25g salted butter

• 2 eggs 

• 100 ml whole milk 

• 2 slices wholemeal / seeded bread 

• 1 tbsp cup of sugar 

• 2 ripe bananas, sliced

To top: 

• Raw banana, sliced (save 1/2 of the total bananas for this recipe)
• Chocolate of your choice (we used Maltesers Truffle), crushed
• Zest of 1 lime

Method

1. In a bowl or measuring jug, whisk the eggs and milk together until pale yellow and fully combined.
2. Soak your slices of bread (stale or fresh) in the egg mixture/custard.
3. In a hot frying pan, caramelise your sugar by pouring and spreading it in the pan and leaving it until it turns golden brown.
4. Slice your bananas lengthways and place them flat-side down onto the caramel in the pan. Turn the heat down a little for this step.  
5. Add a pinch of salt to the caramelising bananas.
6. Add butter to the pan with sugar and banana. Let the butter brown.
7. Allow bananas to soften and fully caramelise in the sugar mix.
8. Mash up Malteser truffles or chocolates of your choice for a fun topping. 
9. When plating up, start with the slices of toast, then layer on the sliced banana. Then top with extra raw banana, chocolate, and zest of 1 lime to cut through the sweetness. Enjoy!