Cranberry Orange Croissant French Toast Bake
Cranberry Orange Croissant French Toast Bake
If you love the combination of cranberry and orange together, then you’ll love this Cranberry Orange Croissant French Toast Bake! It’s rich, creamy and bright with orange flavour and tart cranberries.
The ingredients:
Perfect for holiday breakfast!
This is a perfect option for Christmas morning breakfast! You can make it the morning of, or the night before. Serve with a fruit salad, and side of bacon or sausages. So so good.
Putting it all together:
Here is a quick visual on putting this bake together. It’s really simple. The key is to make sure all of the croissant pieces get coated/soaked in the egg/milk mixture.
Grease a baking dish with butter. Add 1/2 of the cut croissants.
Pour on half of the milk mixture, and half of the chopped cranberries.
Add the remaining croissants, then pour on the remaining egg/milk mixture and chopped cranberries. Let rest for 30 minutes.
Bake for 1 hour, 10 minutes. (cover with foil for the first 30 minutes)
Just look at that beautiful puffed up bake! yum
Cranberry Orange Croissant French Toast Bake Recipe Tips
- CROISSANTS: I used 10 croissants, chopped into bite sized pieces. Depending on the size of the croissants you buy, you might have to use less or more. Make sure to squish as many croissants as you can into the dish, you don’t want any open spaces.
- MILK: You can use half and half cream, whole milk, or 2%.
- ORANGE: Use the zest from 1 large fresh orange, plus 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice.
- CRANBERRIES: I added 3/4 cup chopped fresh cranberries. Feel free to add more or less. You can use dried cranberries, but they don’t give the same flavour as fresh.
- MIXING: I like to use a hand blender to combine the egg/milk mixture to make it smooth and creamy, with no visible egg.
- LET IT REST: This recipe requires about 30 minutes of resting time before baking. This time allows the egg mixture to soak into the croissants.
- WHEN IS IT DONE? This bake is ready when the croissant french toast has puffed up and the the centre of the bake isn’t jiggly. Note: once the bake is finished cooking and you set it out on the table to serve, the puffiness will ‘fall’, that’s normal.
Make Ahead Tip!
This dish can be assembled the night before you want to serve it. Assemble, then let it rest overnight in the fridge. In the morning, let the dish come up to almost room temperature (15 minutes is fine) before putting it in the oven to bake.
Cranberry Orange Croissant French Toast Bake
Ingredients
- 10 croissants
- 4 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups light cream half + half or whole milk
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- 2 tbsp fresh orange zest zest from 1 orange
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup chopped fresh cranberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Lightly grease an oven safe 9 × 13 baking dish with butter (or a large, deep pie plate like I used here).
- Cut the croissants into bite sized pieces.10 croissants
- Chop fresh cranberries, you need 3/4 cup chopped.3/4 cup chopped fresh cranberries
- Use a zester or grater to zest the orange, then juice it.
- In a mixing bowl mix together the eggs, cream, brown sugar, vanilla and orange juice. I like to use a hand blender to do this so the mixture is smooth and creamy. Then stir in the orange zest.4 large eggs, 1 1/2 cups light cream, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice, 2 tbsp fresh orange zest
- Lay half of the cut croissants in the baking dish. Squish them together as much as you can. See picture above.
- Pour half of the egg/milk mixture over the croissants, making sure to soak all pieces from top down. You can lightly press the croissants into the egg mixture.
- Sprinkle on half of the chopped cranberries.
- Then lay on the remaining cut croissants.
- Pour on the remaining egg/milk mixture and sprinkle on the remaining cranberries.
- Lightly press down on the croissants so they soak up as much of the egg/milk mixture as possible.
- Now let it rest for at least 30 minutes so the croissants have time to soak up the wet ingredients.
- Then bake covered with aluminum foil for 30 minutes.
- After this time, remove the foil and bake for an additional 40 minutes, or until the french toast has puffed up and the the centre of the french toast bake isn’t jiggly.
- Serve with syrup.
More Cranberry Orange Recipes to Try!
Have a delicious day!
