Chocolate Vegan Babka French Toast

Turn our delicious chocolate vegan babka into the french toast of your dreams.  Easy to prep ahead and made with our vegan everything dough.

If you have never heard of Babka before, the hold on to your seat, because you’re in for one of the most delicious recipes. Chocolate vegan babka tastes just as delicious without milk and eggs, but this chocolate vegan babka french toast takes it to any entirely different level. 

Babka is a braided sweet bread that is of Jewish decent. 

You can learn more about the history and importance here. 

We wanted to take the dough and turn it into something really special and with that you get a delicious vegan babka french toast recipe.

Honestly, it’s not even hard once you get the babka made. At that point you let it stale out a bit, slice it and then make the less than 5 minute french toast mixture, grilled it on both sides and bam done. 

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What ingredients do you need to make chocolate vegan babka french toast?

The ingredients that you need for the vegan babka are: 

Full amounts listed in the printable recipe card below

• Flour 
• Instant yeast
• Salt
• Dairy Free Milk (we like Oat)
• Maple Syrup
• Vegan Butter
• Brown Sugar
• Vegan cane sugar
• Cocoa Powder
• Vegan Chocolate Chips, optional

And then for the french toast mixture you need: 

• ripe banana
• ground flax seeds
• non dairy milk 
• vanilla
• cinnamon 
• nutmeg
• lemon zest

I know the list may look intimidating but promise it’s not. 

DOES IT MATTER WHAT VEGAN MILK I USE?

It doesn’t. Any vegan milk will work in this recipe.

From oat milk (our choice) to almond, cashew, flax or even banana milk, it will all come together nicely.  

HOW DO YOU MAKE CHOCOLATE VEGAN BABKA FRENCH TOAST?

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, yeast, and salt.  Then, add in the dairy free milk and maple syrup. 

Using a spatula, fold until mostly combined.  Sprinkle a little more flour if you need to not be sticky and form a ball.  

Once your ball is formed, you will want to grease the same bowl you mixed in and place the dough ball back into the bowl. 

Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let sit for 60-90 minutes in a warm, draft free place. 

In a small bowl combine the sugars and cocoa powder together.

Once doubled in size, lightly flour a surface and roll dough out until approximately 12×15 rectangle.

Brush the butter across the entire surface and evenly sprinkle the cocoa sugar mixture across the dough.  If adding, sprinkle chocolate chips across. 

Starting on one side, roll the dough into a log. Cut the log length wise carefully so you have two long pieces. 

Starting at one end, pinch the ends together and then braid the two pieces together and pinch together again at the end.  

Carefully place in a well greased loaf pan.

Preheat oven for 350 degrees

Place in oven for 35-40 minutes or until done.

While baking, add sugar and water to a small pot and bring to a boil.  Stir and let boil until all sugar is dissolved.  Set aside. 

When the bread is done, brush the simple sugar syrup onto the bread. Let cool. 

Once cooled, slice the bread and then let it sit out, covered overnight (up to 3 days) to turn stale. 

Then add all the french toast mixture ingredients to a blender or hand mix in a bowl. 

Pour it over your bread slices (or dip in). 

Heat a skillet over medium low with a little spray oil or vegan butter. Add your bread and let cook for 2-3 minutes or until golden brown. 

Flip and cook other side for another 2-3 minutes or until golden brown.

Repeat with remaining pieces. 

Top with maple syrup and any favorite toppings. 

HOW DO I GET STALE BREAD?

Stale bread is just bread that has been allowed to be exposed to air and hardened. 

It allows for the bread to soak up the french toast mixture better without creating a soggy mess that will never cook properly for you in the oven. 

In order to get stale bread for this vegan french toast casserole, you will cube up your bread and then place on a baking sheet for 2-3 days.

We lightly cover with a towel so it’s not exposed to anything in the air. 

IS THERE A QUICKER WAY TO GET STALE BREAD?

Absolutely!  If you don’t have time (or maybe you forgot) to leave bread out for a few days to harden on it’s own, you can place cubed bread on a baking sheet in an even layer. 

Cook for 15-20 minutes in an oven, preheated to 350 degrees.  

You are looking for the bread to be pretty hard, almost like a crouton. 

Can you make this a Top 8 Allergen Free Babka French Toast?

We do not currently have a gluten free dough recipe to recommend, although we are working to create one. In all honesty, you could use a GF flour but the ones we’ve tried are just too dense to want to recommend. 

For the remaining ingredients, yes you can.  We recommend oat milk which is allergen friendly. 

And ensure that you are use a soy free, dairy free butter.  We use Earth Balance Soy free that comes in a red tub. 

If adding optional chocolate chips, use one like Enjoy Life that is Top 8 Free. 

Nothing else included in the recipe contains a Top 8 allergen.

I’m allergic to bananas, what else can I use?

We know bananas are not a Top 8 Allergen, but many people may not like or may be allergic to them. 

If you want you can swap the banana for applesauce or you can add another 2 tablespoon of flax seeds.

If using the extra flax seeds or an unsweetened applesauce, add this in where the directions call for bananas along with 1 tablespoon to ¼ cup of brown sugar since you are replacing sweet bananas. 

Flax seed does have a nuttier taste than bananas, but the french toast casserole will still come out delicious. 

Can I prep vegan babka french toast ahead of time?

The vegan babka bread itself can be made and stored in an air tight container for 5-7 days. 

Once the french toast is made, it can be stored in an air tight container for up to 4-5 days in the fridge. 

Also — when making the dough, once you put cover the bowl to rise, Instead of leaving in a warm place, you can place the bowl in the fridge up to 2 days before you plan to use it.  

Just make the recipe as written, cover and place in fridge until ready to use. 

Can this dough be used to make other recipes?

For this chocolate vegan babka, we are using our vegan everything dough recipe. The possibilities are really endless for this dough.  Some recipes that we have created are: 

• Vegan Raspberry Cinnamon Rolls  (pictured above)
• Vegan Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread (some places call this Monkey Bread)
• Easy Vegan Soft Pretzel Bites

Get even more ideas using our vegan everything dough by seeing more than 15 recipes we’ve creative with it here. 

Let’s see your creations!
Share to Instagram and tag us @makeitdairyfree so we can see and share it!