Apple Crumble French Toast

Why yes, I am posting yet another French Toast recipe, what about it?! This Apple Crumble French Toast is a mashup of a few different recipes: the base is my Croissant French Toast, the chantilly cream is from my Peaches and Cream French Toast, and the Apple Crumble “filling” and “topping” are both from the Deep-Dish Apple Crisp Pie recipe in A deepfriedhoney Holiday, my digital cookbook.

I brainstormed it on Twitter the day before yesterday and took votes on the idea: the results were overwhelming “DO IT!”

Apple Crumble 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 Apple Crumble French Toast recipe:

• Green apples: Granny Smith if you’re nasty. I just wanted to channel Janet for a moment, use Granny Smith apples period. They have the perfect texture and amount of tart for this.
• Croissant toast: My favorite! Brioche, challah, or King’s Hawaiian sweet bread are great substitutes.
• All-purpose flour, self-rising flour, cornstarch: We use self-rising flour to make the crumble topping, all-purpose to thicken the sauce that coats the apples, and cornstarch to stablize the chantilly cream.
• Quick-cooking oats: For the crumble topping! I love the warm sweetness that oats add.
• Granulated sugar, light brown sugar, powdered sugar: Granulated sugar for the custard, apples, and whipped cream; brown sugar for the crumble; powdered sugar for the whipped cream.
• Salted butter, vegetable oil: Salted butter for everything! If you use unsalted butter you’ll need to add a pinch of salt to everything.
• Ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground ginger: Our spices. It’s not french toast without cinnamon, and it’s not Apple Crumble without all three, for me!
• Lemon juice: The main reason is to keep the apples from turningbrown, but it also brightens the apples. They’ll lose most of their tartness during cooking.
• Vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste: If you can’t find the paste it’s OK, just use all vanilla extract. You’ll be missing the little vanila bean caviar specks in your whipped cream, but that’s OK.
• Heavy whipping cream, whole milk: For a slightly thicker custard use all heavy cream. I didn’t have enough to make both the chantilly cream and custard so I used half whole milk.
• Egg yolks: Yolks only means no “eggy” taste.
• Water: Just a tad, to loosen the caramel that forms around the apples into a nice sauce.

How to Make Apple Crumble 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 Apple Crumble French Toast recipe:

• Let’s get ready to crumble! Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper then set it aside. Make the crumble: In a small mixing bowl stir together the flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon, and ginger. Sprinkle the cubes of butter over the top and then use a fork or pastry cutter to work the butter into the flour and oats – the same way you’d make pie dough or biscuits – until it’s well combined.
• Bake the crumble. Pour the crumble mixture onto the prepared baking sheet and spread it out in an even layer. Place in the oven for 5-7 minutes, until nicely browned and it smells like oatmeal cookies when you open the oven. Remove and set aside to cool completely before disturbing, then you’ll use a spoon to break it up into bite-sized pieces to top the Apple Crumble French Toast.
• Cook the apples. Place a medium saucepan over medium heat and add two tablespoons of butter. Once it has melted add the flour, then the apples, lemon juice, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar. Stir together, until a sauce forms – you shouldn’t see any large swathes of flour or cinnamon. Cover with a lid and let cook for 5 minutes.
• Adjust the sauce. After 5 minutes the sauce should have thickened into caramel. If it hasn’t, allow it to cook 2-3 minutes more, then add the water. Stir together until the water has been fully incorporated into the sauce, then cover and reduce the heat to medium-low. Let the apples simmer just until they’re fork-tender, stirring occasionally. When they have, remove the pan from heat but keep it covered.
• Whip up the custard. Grab a medium-sized mixing bowl and whisk together the egg yolks, sugars, vanillas, cinnamon, and flour. After it’s well combined with no lumps, whisk in the heavy cream as well. This is the custard for the Apple Crumble French Toast! Set it aside and prepare your skillet. Place a wide – at least 10″ – skillet over medium heat and let it warm up for a few minutes. Add about a teaspoon of oil and a teaspoon of butter to the pan, and swirl it around so it coats the surface.
• French the toast. Dip a single slice of croissant toast into the custard. Submerge it completely, and pull it out immediately. Let the excess drip back into the bowl, and add the toast to the pan. Press down on it – especially the center – to make sure it all comes into direct contact with the pan. Repeat until the surface of the pan is covered, but don’t crowd it. Cook the toast for about 7 minutes on each side, until it’s golden brown in color and a bit crisp along the edges. Add a bit more butter after the first flip. When the toast is done to your liking remove it from the pan and transfer it to your oven (preheated to its lowest setting) to keep warm while you finish cooking the rest of the toast. Add more oil and butter between each batch, as needed, and keep adjusting the heat, as needed so things don’t burn.
• Serve up the Apple Crumble French Toast! I served it by arranging a few slices of french toast on a plate, then spooning on a generous amount of apples and caramel sauce, followed by a heaping portion of the crumble topping and a dollop of whipped cream. No syrup or powdered sugar is needed, but if you want to go right ahead! Dassit.

Try My Other French Toast Recipes

French Toast is my husband’s favorite breakfast, so I’ve developed plenty of options over the years…

Obligatory Pinterest graphics:

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