Banana & Cinnamon French Toast Strips
Allergen lists cover the priority allergens in the recipe as written. Always check your own ingredient labels, and introduce each new allergen on its own first.
Ingredients
- 2 thick slices wholemeal bread, day-old, lowest-salt loaf available (aim for under 0.3 g salt per slice)
- 2 medium eggs
- 60 ml (4 tbsp) pasteurised whole milk
- ½ very ripe banana, mashed completely smooth
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- 5 g unsalted butter for the pan
Method
- 1. Whisk the eggs, milk, mashed banana and cinnamon in a shallow dish until smooth — no lumps of banana and no streaks of egg white. No sugar and no honey is needed; the ripe banana supplies all the sweetness, and honey must never be given under 12 months because of the risk of infant botulism.
- 2. Cut each bread slice lengthways into 3 strips roughly 2 cm wide.
- 3. Dip each strip for about 20-30 seconds per side. Day-old bread soaks without collapsing; fresh soft bread turns pasty and can ball up in the mouth.
- 4. Melt the butter in a non-stick pan over medium-low heat and cook the strips for 3-4 minutes per side.
- 5. Check the centre of one strip is fully set and dry — no wet or glossy egg — then cook a further minute if needed.
- 6. Cool on a rack for 5 minutes so the outside is not hot, then serve or cut smaller.
How to serve by age
6–8 months
Serve whole strips the full length of the slice, about 9-10 cm long and 2 cm wide — long enough to be gripped in a whole-hand palmar grasp with the end poking out of the top of the fist for your baby to gnaw on.
9–12 months
Cut the cooked strips across into 1-1.5 cm bite-sized squares, roughly pea-sized, for the developing pincer grasp of thumb and forefinger.
Paediatric note
Soaking bread in egg custard turns an ordinary carbohydrate breakfast into a meaningful choline and protein source, but bread is one of the biggest contributors of salt in a young child's diet, so choose the lowest-salt loaf on the shelf and never add salted spreads. Infant kidneys cannot excrete a sodium load, and the maximum for under-12-months is under 1 g salt (0.4 g sodium) per day. The cow's milk here is fine because it is cooked into the dish — milk in cooking, yogurt and cheese suits babies from six months, but cow's milk should not be given as a main drink until 12 months.
Source guidance: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/weaning-and-feeding/
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