Hong Kong Style French Toast Stuffed with Banana & Peanut Butter
For breakfast, brunch, or afternoon dessert, french toast is a good choice. Hong Kong style french toast, especially, is my favorite. It is a deep-fried milky, buttery, and sweet sandwich stuffed with banana and peanut butter.
I love this type of french toast since I was a kid. It is such an indulging dish from Cha Chaan Tengs (Hong Kong-style cafes). I love pairing it with hong kong style milk tea or an iced lemon black tea.
What Do You Need to Make Hong Kong Style French Toast?
Just like making regular french toasts, the main ingredient for Hong Kong Style Stuffed French Toast is bread. However, what’s special about HK french toasts is that the bread is usually very thick and soft. So far, I have tried using different types of bread, and the one that makes the best texture is brioche. Being light and puffy with a decent thickness and it is rich sweetness, brioche works great for tenderly delicious HK style french toasts.
Besides the bread, the ingredients for the stuffings are crucial to create a sweet and nutty flavor as well. For the stuffing, I usually prefer to use banana and peanut butter. It’s even better if the peanut butter is crunchy with some crushed peanuts. It will add some nice crunchiness to the french toasts.
Of course, we also need cooking oil for deep frying, egg, and milk for the egg mixture.
How to Make a Perfect HK Style French Toast
I have tried a few different methods to make Hong Kong French Toast and I found out that only deep-frying can make it crunchy on the outside and soft inside. I know, deep flying can sound a little intimidating, but I am going to share some tips and make it easier for you.
Step 1: Stuffing
The first step is very easy. You just need to spread the peanut butter on the bread and put a few thin banana slices on the bread. Then, put two pieces of bread together and give it a gentle press to make sure they stick together just like a sandwich.
Step 2: Soak the Bread in Egg Mixture
After making the sandwiches, we need to soak them in the egg mixture. We will need to beat three eggs and mix with two tablespoons of milk. Next, we will dip the peanut butter sandwich in the mixture. In this step, the important thing it’s to make sure the bread is nicely coated with the mixture, but not too soggy, otherwise, your french toast would fall apart very easily.
Step 3: Deep Fry in Cooking Oil
When deep-frying, there are a few things we should pay attention to:
- Make sure your sauce pan is dry before putting in cooking oil. This is something we need to remember when deep frying because hot oil and cold water are a dangerous mix. I am not going to explain the chemistry part of it but It could catch on fire. As long as you make sure everything is dry, you are good to go! Don’t worry it’s not as difficult as it may seem.
- Ok, now we pour the cooking oil into the pot and heat it up over medium-high heat. Before we fry the bread in the oil let’s make sure the oil is hot enough. If the oil is not at the right temperature, it could either burn your bread or make your bread too soggy. So how do we do that? You don’t have a food thermometer at home? No problem, me neither. What I do is to put a wooden stick/chopstick in the hot oil, once you see there are bubbles gather around the stick, the oil is hot enough. Wait no more and just put your french toast in the oil.
- Fry the french toast one side at a time for about 30 seconds until golden and crispy then turn it over and fry the other side. Then put the french toast on a paper towel to soak the extra oil.
Hong Kong French Toast Topping Options
Let’s get some of your favorite fruits perhaps strawberries or raspberries to make a delightful topping for your french toasts. I like to put the rest of the banana slices or strawberry and drizzle condensed milk on top. You could top it with any fruit, ice cream, and any syrup you like.
Can I Make It with Other Stuffing?
Now you know all the secrets about making a perfect Hong Kong Style French Toast! If you get bored of peanut butter and banana, you can surely make the french toast with other stuffing. My other favorite stuffing combo is Nutella and strawberry! Let me know how you like your Hong Kong French Toast!
Recipe
Hong Kong Style French Toast – Peanut Butter and Banana Stuffing
Ingredients
- 4 Pieces Brioche
- Peanut butter chunk style
- 1 Banana sliced
- 2 cups Canola oil for deep frying
- 3 eggs
- 2 tbsp milk
- condensed milk to taste
Instructions
- Spread the peanut butter on the bread and put a few thin banana slices on the bread. Then, put two pieces of bread together like making a sandwich.
- Beat the eggs and mix with milk in a bowl. Dip the bread in the egg mixture.
- In a sauce pan, heat up the canola oil and deep fry the sandwiches one by one for about 30 seconds per side until golden.
- Take the french toast out of the pan and use a paper towel to soak the extra oil.
- Top the french toast with banana or fruit at your choice. drizzle condensed milk over the HK Style French Toast.