Wow that name is a mouthful but let me tell you you are going to want to eat every last bite of this french toast recipe. If you are looking for a quick breakfast I will say this recipe is not for you. Traditional french toast is pretty quick, just dip the bread in the egg mix and then fry it up. This version is baked and it takes about thirty minutes to cook but it is SO WORTH IT for the best tasting french toast of your life. This is a Mixed Berry Baked Croissant French Toast recipe.
The first step in making this mixed berry baked croissant french toast is to rip up the left over croissants into small bite sized pieces. Actually scratch that, make sure to butter your casserole dish first. Then do the breaking up of the croissants.
You can definitely use fresh croissants but generally when I am making this I use week old croissants. I have even used extra stale hard croissants. They taste delicious again with the egg mixture and fruit. Buying a 50% off pack at the grocery store or bakery would be ideal to make this croissant french toast recipe.
In general I use 3 or 4 croissants to make this mixed berry baked croissant french toast recipe. I have made it with as few as two croissants. Heck I have even made it with some leftover poppy seed buns and it also worked but I prefer the buttery taste of the croissants.
The next thing to add is the mixed berries to the broken up croissants. If you are in Canada I like the perfectly imperfect frozen mixed berries from No Name. There fruit pieces are broken up and tend to be smaller than the full fruit which actually works really well with this croissant french toast bake.
I am not shy about adding the mixed berries but I would say add them to your liking. If you just want a taste of fruit you could add less than I do. I generally don’t measure it out I just try to add enough to cover the whole french toast bake in fruit. The fruit can fall into the voids between the broken up croissants. Also when the fruit is baked it will go from being frozen and very rigid to soft and smushy so it doesn’t seem like as much once cooked. If I had to approximate I would add a cup to two cups of fruit.
The next thing to add is the egg mixture. When making regular french toast the rule of thumb is one egg per person, which is similar to what I do with this casserole version. I usually end up using 5 or 6 eggs which is reasonable as our family of four usually gets more than one serving each out of this dish. Our egg mixture is eggs, milk and vanilla. I never measure it out I just go by feel. Whisk the egg into the mixture and once mixed pour on the egg mixture evenly over your croissants.
Now in other similar recipes this would be where they tell you to leave the recipe overnight. I have never once left this to sit over night and it always tastes fantastic. The idea behind leaving the mixed berry croissant french toast over night is two fold. One it allows you to prepare it ahead of time, which you totally can. But the second idea behind this is to make sure the croissants fully soak up the egg mixture.
The second one you can force. What I do to ensure that all the egg mixture is absorbed is to use a fork to push down on the croissant bits to make sure they are fully coated and absorb the egg. Much like you would when you are dunking the bread in the egg if you were making traditional french toast.
Taking the time to do this also highlights any areas that might be a bit dry. Now dry areas won’t stay dry because once the berries start to cook they add loads of moisture. But if you feel like there is an area missing egg this is when I would quickly make a small one egg batch of the egg mixture, whisk it together and pour on the dry spot.
Usually when I use 5 -6 eggs I don’t have any dry spots but if I try to get away with fewer eggs I can come up a bit short.
The next thing to do is bake the mixed berry croissant french toast. It will take 30 – 40 minutes on 375 degrees F on convection.
When the mixed berry baked croissant french toast is finished it should look like the picture above. Just watch for gooey egg in the middle I find this is the area that takes the longest to cook.
In pure Canadian fashion we serve with a bit of melted butter and lots of real Maple Syrup. Other recipes have instructions about making a glaze and extra stuff. You really don’t need the glaze just need to have Maple Syrup on hand. And then enjoy your mixed berry baked croissant french toast!
PS I have made this with mangoes and peaches as well which also works and is very tasty, but the mixed field berries tends to be the best received by the whole family.
