Croissant French Toast Bake

12 Servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes

Croissant French Toast Bake takes a classic French toast bake and makes it with buttery, flaky croissants. Perfect to feed a crowd or for holidays!

Lately we’ve been loving using croissant’s in different Breakfast Recipes. They’re the perfect bread that works well with both savory and sweet dishes. If you love this Croissant Bake, be sure to try Chocolate Chip Croissant Casserole and Ham and Cheese Croissant Casserole next.

Croissant French Toast Bake with maple syrup

CROISSANT FRENCH TOAST BAKE

When it comes to classic, easy, and sweet breakfasts pancakes, waffles, and French Toast top the list every time. Unfortunately, even though these recipes are easy, making them can be time consuming. Sure, there’s just a few ingredients to whip together, but then you have to stand over a frying pan or griddle to make each serving individually. 

Well, breakfast bakes are the perfect answer to this problem. This French Toast Bake is just as easy to prep as a classic French Toast Recipe, but you get to put it all in one baking dish and let the oven do the cooking. 

Making a breakfast bake is an especially good idea if you’re serving a big group. Pull this recipe out for your next family get-together, Sunday brunch, or holiday. It’s easy to make, but still impressive and delicious enough for a special occasion. In fact, it’s so easy your kids could even try their hand at it for a delicious Mother’s Day dish. 

With the sweet brown sugar and cinnamon custard baked into croissants, this dish is sure to be a hit with kids and adults alike. Baking it in the oven makes the outside of the croissants become slightly crisp while the inside remains buttery and slightly moist. Put it out with maple syrup, cinnamon sugar, powdered sugar, fresh fruit, and other easy toppings for the perfect breakfast. 

Croissant French Toast Bake in white baking dish

USE OLDER BREAD FOR FRENCH TOAST BAKES

This recipe is perfect for if you have any croissants that are a couple days past their prime. That’s right, the next time you realize your croissants have become too stale for a sandwich, there’s no need to despair. Instead, turn those croissants into a delicious French Toast Bake.

Using slightly old bread in French toast helps the bread pieces to absorb all the flavorful custard. It won’t actually taste stale when you eat it. Baking with the custard will make the croissants buttery, flaky, and give them a slight crispness.

If you just bought some fresh croissants for this recipe, you can still make them work. Try leaving them out at room temperature overnight to dry out a little. Another option is to toast them in the oven for a few minutes. Either way they’ll be a little more crisp and ready to go. 

MORE FRENCH TOAST RECIPES

VARIATIONS ON CROISSANT FRENCH TOAST BAKE

  • More bread options: Although using cubed croissants makes a wonderful change to classic French toast, there are plenty of other breads you can use in this recipe. Some breads that work well in French toast are Texas toast, French bread, sourdough, challah, and brioche. Of course if you have any dietary restrictions, you can also make this recipe with gluten-free bread or any other kind you need. 
  • Meat add-ins: To add some savory ingredients to this sweet French Toast Bake try mixing in some bacon bits or sausage with the custard mixture. The maple syrup and meat will pair wonderfully together. If you do add bacon or sausage, be sure to brown the meat before adding it to your bread mixture. 
  • More add-ins: There are plenty of other delicious add-ins you can try besides meat. Try some nuts like chopped pecans, walnuts, or almonds. You can mix the nuts into the custard or just add them to the top of the bake. Either way, they’ll add a lot of nice texture and crunch. You could also add raisins, or fruits like blueberries or bananas. 

MORE HOLIDAY BREAKFAST RECIPES

HOW TO STORE CROISSANT FRENCH TOAST BAKE

  • Serve: To keep it fresh, you shouldn’t leave any leftover French Toast Bake at room temperature for more than 2 hours. 
  • Store: Once it’s cooled, cover the dish or put it in another airtight container. Properly sealed, the breakfast bake will stay good in the fridge for up to a week. 
  • Freeze: To keep your Croissant Bake longer store it in the freezer. It will stay good for up to 3 months. 

Cross section of Croissant French Toast Bake in baking dish

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Croissant French Toast Bake

Croissant French Toast Bake takes a classic French toast bake and makes it with buttery, flaky croissants. Perfect to feed a crowd or for holidays!
Yield 12 Servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

  • 8 large eggs
  • 2 cups whole milk , (or evaporated milk)
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar , packed
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 8 large croissants , cubed

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 8x10 baking dish with vegetable oil spray.
  • In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, milk, brown sugar, vanilla extract and cinnamon.
  • Add in the croissant pieces and gently stir until custard is soaked in.
  • Pour mixture into baking dish.
  • Bake for 40-45 minutes until golden brown.

Nutrition

Calories: 264kcal | Carbohydrates: 25g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 158mg | Sodium: 274mg | Potassium: 152mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 578IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 83mg | Iron: 1mg

Croissant French Toast Bake collage

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. It’s a keeper. Had some croissants that we hadn’t eaten & this was the perfect solution so they wouldn’t go to waste. Only thing I did different is sprinkle some cinnamon sugar on top before I baked it.

  2. Made this. It was fantastic! Served with ginger syrup, fresh berries. I added crushed pecans to the top before baking. I did add additional cinnamon and light dusting of fresh nutmeg.

    1. Your question got buried over the holidays, our apologies.
      No, the custard is absorbed by the cubed croissants.
      Hope you enjoyed it.

  3. I made this exactly as the recipe calls for and it’s such a great base for all sorts of mix-in combos. Just topped with maple syrup and fresh strawberries this time around but can’t wait to make again with fruits and nuts mixed in. I’d def double the cinnamon the next time because I like my French toast more cinnamony, but other than that, this is great!

    1. I just made it in a 9×13 and cooked for 40 mins. Came out great. I just kept an eye on the browning on top and it’s likely thinner than it is supposed to be. Still very moist and crispy.

  4. Made this delicious dish this morning and it was just what we needed to start our day on a cold, morning!! Any morning will work to make this easy dish!
    Thanks

  5. I made this recipe for dinner one night and my family loved it . I used regular bread because I didn’t have croissants. I have some leftover blueberries that I added to the casserole I also put some pecans in with the Kerbal topping and it was wonderful. My grandson even liked it he hates French toast ,he went home and bugged his mom to make it . He told his mom to leave the french toast casserole to Nana .

  6. Had an 8″x6″x2″ glass pan. I only used 6 eggs because ours are extra large. I had 2 8oz. UHT skim milk containers, only used 1. Had to make Pillsbury crescent rolls ahead of time for this, and they were a bit small. Still this recipe is very fluid, french toast with any kind of bread is simple and open to many variations like nutmeg or fruit. I love that I had the ease of popping it in the oven instead of frying and flipping. Served to hubby for lunch with longanisa sausage.

  7. Just made for Christmas morning brunch. It was a hit with the family. I sprinkled powdered sugar on top and had berries on the side. This is my new go to for baked French toast. Ty 🙂

  8. Hi Sabrina! Love your recipes, every one I have made have been a hit.
    I was wondering on this recipe, what is the size of the croissant you use.
    I normally purchase Costco croissants and they are quite large.
    Thanks and keep up the great recipes.

        1. Once it’s cooled, cover the dish or put it in another airtight container. Properly sealed, the breakfast bake will stay good in the fridge for up to a week. 

      1. I made this recipe for dinner one night and my family loved it . I used regular bread because I didn’t have croissants. I have some leftover blueberries that I added to the casserole I also put some pecans in with the Kerbal topping and it was wonderful. My grandson even liked it he hates French toast ,he went home and bugged his mom to make it . He told his mom to leave the french toast casserole to Nana .