Easy Make-Ahead Breakfast Bake with Croissants & Berries

If you need a good breakfast casserole that is perfect for feeding your crowd and make-ahead friendly, you're gonna love this croissant French toast casserole. Plus, it is the best way to use leftover croissants. And I'm craving some breakfast casserole, so let's get started. A big thank you to Galena from Ohio for sharing this recipe with me. I met her at a church potluck, and when she told me about the recipe, I knew I had to make this croissant French toast casserole. And now I can't stop making it. You all are gonna love it. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and butter a nine-by-13 casserole dish. Next, chop up five to six large croissants. You want these to be about one to one-and-a-half-inch pieces then transfer them to your buttered casserole dish. I love this casserole dish. I will share a link to it and all of the tools I used to make this recipe in the notes. Next, we're gonna make our French toast custard mixture, which couldn't be easier. Crack your eggs into a large mixing bowl, then add warm milk. Also add cream and melted butter. Now add one-third cup of sugar, which makes this lightly sweet, and some vanilla extract. I'm using my homemade extract, and of course I'll link to this in the notes. It's just two ingredients. Last but not least, we're gonna add a generous amount of cinnamon and a little bit of salt to balance it out. That was close. Whisk that up until it's really well combined. And part of the reason why I like using warm milk is so the butter doesn't solidify. It just makes it a little bit easier to whisk together. Now pour your custard mixture over your croissant pieces. This can't not be good. A great tip I got from Galena is to press over the top with a spatula to help the croissants absorb that mixture. Now we're gonna bake some berries into the casserole. I like to add blueberries and blackberries because they bake nicely and turn jammy. You'll also wanna push some of these down into the croissants between the layers to add even more flavor. Now let the casserole rest for 15 minutes before you bake, or you can cover and refrigerate it overnight. What I love about croissants here is they won't get soggy. When you're ready to enjoy it, bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes or until the top is crispy and the berries have burst. I love how the berries are like bubbly and saucy. They turn all jammy in the casserole dish. It's so good. And it adds a lot of extra flavor because I tucked it into the croissants a little bit, and as soon as it comes out of the oven, I just can't wait to dig in because it's like, listen, crisp on top, and then just so tender on the inside. It is perfect. And before serving, I do like to add some fresh berries. So I've got more blueberries and blackberries here, and then I have raspberries and even some homegrown strawberries. And it's just so fun and beautiful to add all the berries on top. So that's what we're gonna do. And last but not least, we're gonna add some halved little baby strawberries. You can also leave the tops on. I don't know if you know this, but when it's like organic garden-grown strawberries, it's totally okay to eat the top. Maybe not by itself. Who told you that? I don't know. I think I saw somebody put it into a smoothie or something. I guess it's a little extra greens. I don't need a cucumber. Me too, dear, me too. Oh, look at that, look at that. I feel like these are so tiny and so cute that you don't even need to cut them. But adding the fresh strawberries on top and the raspberries on top, I like that better than baking it into the dish because I just feel like they're just so juicy and vibrant. There's a couple of fruits that I don't think bake well. Blackberries and blueberries get like jammy and saucy while strawberries, eh, I just wanna dig in. And look at how impressive this is. And seriously, like the easiest breakfast casserole ever. And if you wanna leave a little bit of pizzazz and keep a little bit of green, you can. Just makes it maybe a little more frustrating to eat. You can also garnish it with mint, basil, whatever. Okay, now that we've got our berries on there, the last thing I like to do is dust with a little bit of powdered sugar and then we're gonna dig in. Okay, just a little sprinkling, dusting of powdered sugar, and then we're gonna slice right into this. And I love croissants in a French toast casserole because it has those buttery layers. The texture is just perfect. Okay, we're gonna get a generous slice here. And cutting the croissants into small pieces like this makes it super easy to serve. Loosen the edges and we have a liftoff. And look inside, look at the layers here. It is so good. It's like custard that's set and ah, it's so much flavor. We're gonna plate this and eat it right away while it's still warm. And I have a very special guest star, taste tester who loves this dish. Actually, the whole family enjoys it. Okay, come on in. Okay, what should we start with? A little maple syrup or a little more powdered sugar? Oh, that's perfect. I like it. A little more, a little more. She's just like me. Okay, okay. We've gone a little bit out of control. Now just a little drizzle. We don't want too much. And remember the actual casserole doesn't have too much sugar in it, but it's just perfect once you add that maple syrup. Oh, yummy. I think we missed a spot up here. That's good, that's good. It's like drowning now. You want the back? She likes the little crispy edges, I think, right? Oh my goodness, look at this. It's a little bit swimming in sauce, but so, so yummy. And again, look at those layers in the custardy center. It's just 10X. Okay, why don't you get a bite too and we'll take a bite at the same time. Take that whole corner. There you go. We don't do small bites. She's working it over here. She's got it figured out. Okay, ready? On three. One, two, three. Isn't that so satisfying? It's like the most exciting breakfast casserole. It even has a little bit of protein because remember we put five eggs into here. So this is so good. It's so hearty. I love that you can totally make it ahead. It keeps well, you can put it overnight in the fridge instead of baking it right away, which is awesome if you're like, like I'll take this to the cabin and make it for breakfast the next morning. It's so easy. It comes together super fast and totally a crowd pleaser. Everybody loves this, huh? It's a long way to get your kids to eat the food. That's right. And if you guys love breakfast recipes, we have a whole chapter on breakfast in my cookbook. I will link to that in the notes. Tons of tried and true family favorites that you have to have to check out. And, are those bunny ears? Let us know. If you guys have any recipe requests, I would love to hear from you in the comments and let us know where you spotted Sharky because the first person who finds Sharky in our live premieres will get a prize. Okay, over and out. Somehow you just keep eating that. That's supposed to be my slice. Okay, a little more sugar. Oh boy. We're confiscating that now. Oh, I'm glad you're enjoying it. Oh boy, that's the biggest bite I've ever seen. All right, bye now.