Croissant French Toast

Croissant French Toast made with La Boulangerie’s Croissant Toast Bread is the stuff dreams are made of, truly. The bread is what makes this recipe (and a few others already posted here on deepfriedhoney.com) and it’s sold nationwide at Whole Foods. I’ve been told that other stores are starting to carry alternatives, but I’m good with the original – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! – and I usually purchase it directly from the bakery’s website to get the bulk discount.

Croissant French Toast Ingredients

Feel free to jump to the full recipe, but here are useful notes about the ingredients you will need to make this Croissant French Toast recipe:

• Croissant Toast: I recommend using La Boulangerie’s Croissant Toast Bread for this recipe – but you can also regular croissants from the bakery. Just split them down the middle like you were going to fill them and carry on with the recipe as written. Make sure they’re as large as your hand, or bigger.
• Salted butter: Salted butter is important because it’ll help balance the sweetness from the custard.
• Heavy cream: Along with the thickeners listed below, this will make sure we have a custard with enough heft to coat the bread without soaking through it – without becoming a batter as you’d make for my Fried French Toast. I’ve used a mix of heavy cream and whole milk before. I’ve also used almond milk to make a Vegan version of this with their Vegan Croissant Toast Bread. The custard wasn’t as rich either way and the inside of the Croissant French Toast was softer.
• Egg yolks: As I mention in all of my french toast recipes, we use just the yolks so it doesn’t taste eggy.
• Granulated sugar, powdered sugar, all-purpose flour: The sugars are for sweetness, of course, and the flour and powdered sugar act as a thickener for the custard, so it coats the bread instead of just soaking right in.
• Ground cinnamon: It’s not french toast without cinnamon! Adjust the amount to your taste.
• Vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste: Y’all know I love my vanilla bean caviar, so of course I’m using both. You can use just extract.

How to Make Croissant French Toast 

Full instructions are included in the recipe below, but here is a basic overview of what you’ll need to do, along with some important tidbits to help you make the most of this Croissant French Toast recipe:

• Make the custard. In a medium mixing bowl add your egg yolks, cinnamon, sugars, vanillas, and flour. Whisk together into a thick paste until no lumps remain, then slowly whisk in the heavy cream until everything’s well combined.
• Prep the pan. Place a large skillet over medium-low heat and add a drizzle of oil and a small pat of butter in the center. Once it’s melted, swirl them around to coat the surface of the pan.
• Dip, drip, push. I sing this phrase – to the tune of Kick, Kick, Push by Lupe Fiasco – every time I make this. Now it’s up to you, but I don’t soak this Croissant Toast at all. I want to preserve the delicate texture and those flaky layers. Adding liquid is not going to help that. I submerge each piece of bread in the custard quickly and remove it just as quickly, let the excess drip off, and then place the croissant toast in the skillet, and push it down with either a spatula or my fingers to make sure the center makes contact with the skillet.
• Cook kinda low, and kinda slow. We want things crisp on the outside, soft and flaky in the middle. If we have the heat too high, it’ll brown too quickly. If we have the heat too low, it’ll dry out. Keep it medium, and keep adjusting, if needed. The time will vary, but generally, it takes about 7 or 8 minutes per side.
• Keep warm and serve. Set your oven to its lowest setting, or warm if it has it. If your oven is clean just transfer the french toast directly to the rack to rest while you prepare the other batches. Alternatively, you can place a wire rack over a baking sheet in the oven and place the Croissant French Toast on that.

How To Serve the Croissant French Toast

I really can’t tell you how many times I’ve made this Croissant French Toast recipe, and while the classic way pictured above with syrup, butter, and powdered sugar is nice for most of my family, it’s much too sweet for my taste, so I’ve come up with a few ways to serve it.

• French Toast Sandwich – Similar to this bad boy I make with my French Toast Biscuits, I sandwich beef bacon and a fried egg between two slices of Croissant French Toast. Sometimes I’ll dust the whole shebang with powdered sugar, sometimes I don’t.
• French Toast Sticks – Slice the croissant toast into sticks *after* cooking. I’ve tried doing it beforehand and it made them too soft for my liking. Maybe play with it and see what you like for yourself.
• And finally, my favorite: with fruit! Chop up your favorite and have a blast. I like strawberries best, but my family has done bananas, kiwi, Apple butter (does that count?), and more. A dusting of powdered sugar again, is optional.

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