This Elvis French toast recipe has all the ingredients loved by the King of Rock n’ Roll: peanut butter, banana, and bacon–and yes, it gets even more decadent when you top it all off with a little powdered sugar, maple syrup, and maybe a little whipped cream—just to make sure this brunch dish is just as over the top as Elvis himself.
(Of course, if you’re currently on a diet, you might wanna bookmark this for a rainy day.)
In our last road trip post, we stopped by New Orleans, where we got the inspiration for our classic Shrimp Étouffée. From there, we then pushed onto Texas for a long and peaceful visit and rest with our friends in Austin. From there, we were getting homesick and pushed on to Memphis, Nashville, Ashville and made a beeline to Philly to pick up little Barley from Kaitlin. For our sixth and final post from Judy and Bill’s Road Trip series, we’ve got a seriously over-the-top, you-may-feel-a-little-chest-tightness-just-from-looking-at-it Elvis French toast recipe!
I don’t make French toast very often, let alone an Elvis French toast, but we had to celebrate Elvis in some way, since we did drive through Memphis without visiting Graceland. I grew up with Elvis, subjected to viewings of Girls Girls Girls and Blue Hawaii on our RCA black and white television, which my oldest sister controlled on Sunday afternoons!
All you Elvis fans are probably gasping that we skipped over Graceland, but Judy and I were ready to head home, sleep in our own beds, and wake up to our own coffee with some homemade peanut butter banana toast sitting at our breakfast table.
So let me share this Elvis French Toast we had the first Sunday we got home and properly sunset this road trip series. Don’t forget to keep scrolling at the end of the recipe for some of our pictures from the last leg of our trip. Here’s to Elvis!
Elvis French Toast: Recipe Instructions
Beat together the eggs, milk, half-and-half, and cinnamon in a shallow dish. Spread one tablespoon peanut butter on one side of each slice of challah.
Slice the bananas into ½-inch thick slices, and arrange them around the edges of two pieces of challah, leaving a circle in the middle. Fill each little well with 2 tablespoons of peanut butter…
And place the remaining two slices of challah over the top of each banana covered-slice (peanut butter side down). Set aside any remaining banana to top off the French toast after it’s been cooked.
Dip all sides of the challah sandwiches into the egg mixture, making sure to coat the entire sandwich evenly. For this recipe, you want the egg and milk mixture to saturate the bread, but be careful not to let it soak too long. Otherwise it will fall apart, and you’ll have a soggy mess on your hands.
Heat a cast-iron or non-stick skillet over medium heat, and melt a tablespoon of your butter. Carefully place the first sandwich in the pan. Brown the French toast on all sides (including the edges), making sure to keep the heat at medium or medium-high (this process takes about 5 minutes). Once all sides are browned, you can set it aside and repeat these steps with the second sandwich.
Once the second piece of toast is cooked, return both pieces to the skillet at low heat and cover for about 3 minutes. Then flip and cook covered for another 3 minutes. This method allows the French Toast to bake in the skillet. It gets cooked through, and the peanut butter gets all nice and gooey! Good stuff.
Cut each French toast sandwich in half (this recipe serves four). Top with the reserved banana slices and the crispy bacon along with maple syrup.
If you feel particularly decadent, you can top with a light dusting of powdered sugar and a dollop of whipped cream.
We did.
Elvis French Toast
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup milk
- ¼ cup half and half
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 8 tablespoons peanut butter (smooth, chunky, natural—the world is your oyster!)
- 4 slices Challah bread (cut 1-inch thick)
- 2 ripe bananas
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 4 strips bacon (fried until crispy)
- maple syrup
- Powdered sugar (optional)
- Whipped cream (optional)
Instructions
- Beat together the eggs, milk, half-and-half, and cinnamon in a shallow dish. Spread one tablespoon peanut butter on one side of each slice of challah.
- Slice the bananas into ½-inch thick slices, and arrange them around the edges of two pieces of challah, leaving a circle in the middle. Fill each little well with 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, and place the remaining two slices of challah over the top of each banana covered-slice (peanut butter side down). Set aside any remaining banana to top off the French toast after it's been cooked.
- Dip all sides of the challah sandwiches into the egg mixture, making sure to coat the entire sandwich evenly. For this recipe, you want the egg and milk mixture to saturate the bread, but be careful not to let it soak too long. Otherwise it will fall apart, and you'll have a soggy mess on your hands.
- Heat a cast-iron or non-stick skillet over medium heat, and melt a tablespoon of your butter. Carefully place the first sandwich in the pan. Brown the French toast on all sides (including the edges), making sure to keep the heat at medium or medium-high (this process takes about 5 minutes). Once all sides are browned, you can set it aside and repeat these steps with the second sandwich.
- Once the second piece of toast is cooked, return both pieces to the skillet at low heat and cover for about 3 minutes. Then flip and cook covered for another 3 minutes. This method allows the French Toast to bake in the skillet. It gets cooked through, and the peanut butter gets all nice and gooey! Good stuff.
- Cut each French toast sandwich in half (this recipe serves four). Top with the reserved banana slices and the crispy bacon along with maple syrup.
- If you feel particularly decadent, you can top with a light dusting of powdered sugar and a dollop of whipped cream.
Tips & Notes:
nutrition facts
***
From New Orleans, Judy and I headed to Austin, where we hunkered down with our old friends, formerly of New Jersey, for a few days. We prepared our own happy hour practically every day, ate some Texas BBQ, and got to know the city of Austin. We went to the first ever Whole Foods store and explored some cool neighborhoods, but, most importantly, cooked some good food and had some good laughs with old friends.
The Oasis is a huge restaurant overlooking the Lake Travis reservoir, part of the Colorado River. Although the water was quite low, the lake was still a sight to see! The Tex-mex food was good, but the views and scenery were spectacular. We also visited Mount Bonnell (Covert Park) and walked along a small path that had some beautiful views of the mansions built along the Colorado River.
We also made sure to take a relaxing stroll through South Congress (also known as the SoCo area), the quirkier and hipper side of Austin with plenty of shops and dining options. And what’s a visit to Austin without dropping by the LBJ Presidential library, situated on the campus of the University of Texas? (According to TripAdvisor, anyway!) Jokes aside, the library had a lot of interesting exhibits and information, and Judy and I enjoyed the exhibit where you could hear some of his actual phone conversations with press and other politicians.
After saying goodbye to our friends in Austin, our next stop was Little Rock, Arkansas, where we continued our tour of presidential libraries. The Bill Clinton Presidential Library was also a treat, and, like the LBJ library, there was a replica of the oval office and a timeline of his presidency. Quite interesting was a “State of the World” exhibit that showed changes from 1992 to 2002. What caught my eye was the growth of the internet from 130 websites in 1992 to a whopping 27.5M by the year 2000! In 2000, Judy and I never thought that we would have our own website let alone a food blog!
From Little Rock, we zipped over to Nashville, where we stopped by Antique Archeology, of American Pickers fame! We didn’t see anyone famous, but it was pretty cool seeing as we’ve spent our fair share of nights passed out on the couch after long days of blogging watching them dig through dusty barns.
From Nashville, we headed over to The Biltmore, the highlight of Ashville. Unfortunately, we can’t share any photos, since cameras were not allowed inside but we highly recommend it. It’s like an independent town of its own, with a winery and plenty of restaurants. We ate at the Stable Café, which was converted from a horse stable into a restaurant. It smells more like heaven than horses now! Ashville’s downtown was also a vibrant place to spend an afternoon, so if you’re ever in town, be sure to spend some time there as well!
We were in the home stretch of our trip—the last stop was to Kaitlin’s apartment in Philadelphia, where Barley had been hanging out for the past few weeks. We were expecting our scruffy little puppy, but, to our horror, we got this:
That’s the last time we have her groomed in Philadelphia!
