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š Why you’ll love this recipe
Simple, easy to make, and can be prepared ahead of time: This croissant French toast bake is a great overnight breakfast dish that you can get ready while you’re having your morning coffee! If you’d prefer to make something quicker, check out my brioche French toast or the air fryer French toast instead!Great for a casual brunch or any special occasion: I love making this dish for Easter as well as Christmas morning! The flaky croissants create an awesome texture within this family favorite dish. Just needs 10 simple ingredients (most of which you probably have at home!) This is a great way to reuse day-old croissants or stale croissants!
š Ingredients and notes
To make this dish, you’ll need butter, croissants, eggs, heavy cream, milk, brown sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg, and kosher salt.
Notes and Variations
Make it vegan: To make this vegan, you’ll want to replace the butter with plant butter, and pick up vegan croissants. You can replace the eggs and heavy cream with an egg replacer (my favorite is Just Egg) as well as any type of plant-based milk (almond milk works great!) Type of milk and cream: I tend to use whole milk and heavy cream here for a more decadent breakfast, but I will sometimes mix it up with almond milk or skim milk to make it delicious but not as indulgent. Additional mix-ins: I keep the custard quite simple in this recipe, but you can totally take it up a notch, for instance, by adding more warm spices like cloves or more citrusy components like orange zest. To take it up a notch, you can use a chocolate croissant or a maple pecan croissant, instead of the traditional, buttery croissants!Mix up your toppings: I’ve used some simple toppings - mainly fresh berries (or berry compote!) and some maple syrup. You can also add sliced nuts, powdered sugar, whipped cream and many other toppings to your liking. Honestly, this dish is like an incredible crossover between French toast and bread pudding, so the topping options are limitless!
š Make croissant French toast bake!
Grease a 9x13 casserole or baking dish with 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter. Using a sharp serrated knife (I absolutely love this one and use it all the time), cut the leftover croissants into half lengthwise (like you’d do for a sandwich). Place them in a single layer until you cover the base of the baking dish. Set aside the remaining croissant halves while making the custard. In a large bowl, whisk eggs along with brown sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg, and kosher salt until they are well combined. Then, whisk in heavy cream and milk until it’s a smooth custardy mixture. Pour half this egg mixture evenly over the croissant pieces in the prepared baking dish. Use a flat spatula to push the croissant into the custard so it soaks it up. Then, place the remaining croissant halves on another even layer on top. Pour the remaining custard on top. Cover with aluminum foil or plastic wrap, and let it rest in the fridge, for at least 30 minutes but ideally overnight. Then, next morning, set the oven rack to the center position and preheat the oven to 375Ā°F. Bake for about 45 - 50 minutes. If it starts to brown too quickly, you can make a loose tent with aluminum foil. Cool for a few minutes minutes and top with maple syrup, powdered sugar, berries (or this delicious berry compote), fresh fruit, nuts or toppings of choice before serving. My favorite? Add a nice scoop (or two!) of vanilla ice cream, some pure maple syrup and some fresh berries. Noms.
Crumble topping (optional)
Sometimes, when I want to take this up a notch, I’ll just mix some cinnamon and sugar, and sprinkle that cinnamon sugar on the croissants before I bake them. If you want an even nicer crumble: in a medium bowl, combine all purpose flour, brown sugar, and unsalted butter along with cinnamon and kosher salt. Use a fork to mash up the butter so it’s all evenly mixed. You can also use a hand mixer if you’re feeling adventurous! Sprinkle crumb mixture this on the croissants right before you bake. Delicious!
š“ Serving and storage suggestions
Once it’s cooled sufficiently, you can transfer the leftovers to an airtight container and store in the fridge for 2 to 3 days. I don’t recommend freezing this dish (plus, it’s super simple to just soak the croissants in custard overnight and bake this in a jiffy anyway!) A few other French toast recipes you’ll love:
Brioche French ToastĀ Air Fryer French ToastĀ Savory French Toast (Bombay Toast) Air Fryer Frozen French Toast Sticks
If you’re looking for other great brunch recipes, check out: If you tried this recipe, don’t forget to comment and rate! āāāāā
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