crunchy + creamy

Warning: 

this dish is not for anyone on any sort of diet. It is high in fat, sugar, cheese, carbs and pan-fried to optimal deliciousness.

It's probably best if you just look away now because i think i took a year off of my life by consuming this, but it was so frigging delicious, i'm probably going to make it again, next year.

So what is it? 

Cornflake-crusted, Ricotta-stuffed French Toast, with Caramelized Bananas.

Enough said right? 

So how did this ridiculous concoction come about? Well I happened to see two recipes for french toast within a few days of each other.  And one night, left to my own devices, I decided to combine the two.

The crunchy inspiration came from this recipe for crispy french toast from a beautiful mess (a blog i read daily).

The creamy inspiration came from this recipe for ricotta stuffed french toast with caramelized bananas from our eyes eat first. 

Clearly, it was a no brainer to combine the two and tweak accordingly.  

Here's what I did:

Sliced one banana and tossed in a teaspoon of sugar and 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon:

Combined 1/4 cup of ricotta cheese with 1 Tablespoon of sugar and 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract:

Prepared an assembly line of: one slice of bread, ricotta mixture, a dish with 1 egg, 2 Tablespoons of whipping cream, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, and a dish with crushed cornflakes:

Step 1: take the slice of bread (I had the sandwich variety at home) and top with a hearty dollop of the ricotta mixture:

Fold ever so gently and dip into the egg mixture.  Let it soak for about 30 seconds on each side:

Transfer to the cornflake dish and press in said cornflake pieces all around.  

Remember to be gentle! This a fragile endeavor people.

Finally, melt some butter in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and gently place this delicate piece of 'toast' into the pan, and then surround with banana slices. 

Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side until golden brown (and delicious) 

Then, a very important last step: take bananas and toast out of the pan and onto your plate.  Return to your skillet and add the remaining egg-cream mixture to it and scramble up.

My dad always did this after making french toast and it was always so good - the sweet and salty in the egg is a needed contrast to the sugary toast. 

But don't worry, that will take less than a minute, and then you can add it to your plate and feast on something that looks like this:

and this when you crack into it:

o.

m.

g.

really people. it was as good as it sounds.

i apologize in advance for the pounds this might add.

xoxo