Gluten Free Vegan French Toast Recipe

Its funny that, though my mom did most of the cooking in my house when I was a kid, most of my food memories involve my dad and the various things he cooked. Sunday mornings we would all sit around the kitchen table while my dad made something delicious- either pancakes from the New Settlement Cookbook or homemade waffles. But more often than not, he'd make us french toast.
Leftover bread, dipped in an eggy milky batter with a touch of cinnamon, and fried to perfection.
If there's any childhood breakfast foods I'd been missing lately, it was french toast.
But as someone who doesn't eat gluten, eggs, or dairy... I thought french toast was an impossibility.

Recently, though, my neighbor has been giving her kids french toast on a regular basis, and my kids see them eating french toast and asked me if I could make some for them as well.
Since they asked.... I decided to see how I could make french toast.
First I took some gluten free bread that I had left over, and made them french toast with egg and milk, etc... and my kids loved it! Only I couldn't eat it, and I'll admit, I was getting a little jealous.
So I tried to see if there was a way for me to make my own egg and dairy free French toast, so I could also partake in the awesomeness that is French toast.
Google helped me discover that you can make vegan French toast- with banana. But since I had no bananas at the time, since bananas weren't in season, I tried figuring out a way to make it with no bananas. I had great experiences using ground flax as an egg replacement- even for making mayonnaise, so I decided to try that for making my French toast- with tahini in it to make it more nutritious, higher in protein and calcium, etc...
It was amazing.
Seriously.
My kids said it was their favorite food ever.
Asked me to make it again and again.
French toast is typically made from leftover, stale bread (if you don't want to make homemade bread crumbs, bread crumb cookies, bread pudding, stuffing, or a whole bunch of other stuff with it), but my kids like this French toast so much that I've made fresh gluten free bread just to be able to make French toast with it... Though feel free to use whatever leftover bread you have.

While this recipe is gluten free, if you aren't gluten free and are just looking for a vegan, dairy free, or egg free French toast recipe, feel free to use regular gluten bread for this. It works just as well.

Gluten Free Vegan French Toast Recipe

Ingredients:
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
1 cup water, divided cup water
1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup liquid sweetener- honey, date syrup, maple syrup, jaggery syrup, etc...
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 pinch salt
1 pinch vanilla
1 tablespoon all purple gluten free flour mix (or regular wheat flour if you don't need it to be gluten free)
1 small loaf gluten free bread, sliced (I usually use this recipe, since that's what I make most often, but any bread will do)
Oil, for frying

Instructions:
1. Mix your ground flax seeds with 1/2 cup of water, and then heat it up in a pan, mixing constantly, until it thickens into a runny paste.

2. Mix the flax paste with the tahini, the rest of the water, sweetener, cinnamon, salt, vanilla, and flour. Whisk well to ensure there are no clumps.

3. Dip your slices of bread into the mixture, turning it over, so it is saturated with the mixture. Pick up the slice and let it drip the excess off into the container, and then place in a hot, oiled, non stick frying pan. (I use my cast iron skillet. If you don't have a non stick pan, consider using this technique to make a regular pan be non stick.)

4. You have to leave your French toast, not moving, for a few minutes, for it to crisp up. Once browned and the bottom solidifies, then flip over the French toast and cook on the other side.

5. When fully cooked, do this with the remaining slices.

6. Serve hot. Or cold. Or room temperature. Any way is fine.

Enjoy!

Are you a fan of French toast? How do you make it? How often do you make it? If you're gluten free, dairy free, or egg free, how do you make your French toast, or did you want to make it but not know how? 
Which person in your life do you have more "food memories" with? What was your best food memory?

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