A Sweet Delight

As I flipped through the ingredients section in the beginning of Raw Food Real World, I noticed that there is a raw bread. What? Bread? There is bread? How did this elude me? Well, technically it is mostly raw but whatever - I am in. I quickly flipped to the first recipe I could find with this "Manna" bread - Cinnamon Date French Toast. Alright, let's do it.

At first I couldn't find the bread at S&S Produce where I normally shop, but I stumbled upon in in the refrigerator section a the Co-op, Chico Natural Foods. Just so we are clear, this isn't really bread. It is more like a dense fruit, nut mash - but admittedly it is yummy. I bought the Cinnamon Date Manna bread to make the french toast the next day.

I got up early in the AM before my BF was up to make the french toast as a nice Saturday Brunch. However, I had apparently not read the recipe all the way through, shocking I know, so I didn't realize that the bread had to soak for an hour and then dehydrate for 4 to 6 hours. Uggg, no french toast for us. I shelved it and decided I would come back to it that night and have it for Sunday Brunch. Then, when I went to make it later that day, I opened the bread only to find it was starting to mold even though I had just gotten it - welcome to raw food. Somebody did not want me to make that recipe. I powered on though and got it all worked out.

I whisked together liquid to soak the bread and then set it to soaking. The recipe says get 12 slices out of the bread, but I say more like 9 or 10 because the thin slices can fall apart a little during the soaking. After soaking, I set the bread on a tray in the dehydrator and starting enjoying the yummy french toast smell.





We didn't want french toast for dinner, so I decided to save it for later. I should have just eaten warm because I think it would have been best that way. Be careful not to over dehydrate this sweet, sweet dish. I image it would be so yummy right out of the dehydrator as a brunch. Just add champagne.

Rate this dish:

I give this french toast a 3. It is yummy buy very sweet. Plus, I would like to enjoy it for brunch but because of the time to prepare it, it seems unlikely that I will ever enjoy it for brunch right out of the dehydrator. Also, the maple syrup that goes into this baby is pretty expensive. I see this being a treat every once in a while.

I had some milk leftover from soaking the bread, so I soaked some almonds and then dehydrated them. These should be a nice sweet treat for the week.

Learning Curve:

I started this raw food journey without a dehydrator. I just got an Excalibur 2400 with four trays from Amazon and today was my first big day of dehydrating. I need to learn how to schedule the dehydrator time a little better so there is room for what I am making. How do you optimize the space in your dehydrator?