Baked Apple Cinnamon French Toast

Whenever we have company I spend a lot of time trying to come up with new and delicious recipes. When it is our kids I try to mix this in with old favorites or variations on a theme. I have made the croissant Bread Pudding recipe from Ina Garten, but I wanted to make a few changes. Tara wanted croissant French toast and Trista had a few comments about that, but here is the compromise I came up with. By the way, there will be no more fancy breakfast. Too fat and too full.

Baked Apple and Cinnamon French Toast

4 Croissants
1 cup or more chopped up apple, I used a VERY large Granny Smith. (I bought 2 to use, but one disappeared from the fridge)
8 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk (I mixed it up with half and half and 2 percent, about half of each)
3/4 cup Splenda brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon maple flavoring
butter
maple syrup or whatever you have in the cupboard

Pre-heat oven to 400.

First I put a large chunk of butter in a glass dish and heated it in the microwave for 20 seconds or until melted. Pour this in a 9X13 dish and spread it around. Chop up the apples and place in a large bowl. Add the cinnamon and brown sugar. I used the kind with Splenda. If you have the regular brown sugar double the amount to 1 1/2cups. Mix well.




Cut the croissants in half lengthwise and place the bottom half in the dish. I broke off pieces where they overlapped and put those pieces where there was no bread. Distribute the apples over the bread and then add the top pieces of the croissants, fitting them where necessary to cover all the apple pieces.




Using the now empty bowl, add the eggs and the milk. Mix well and add the vanilla and the maple flavoring. Carefully pour this over the bread and apples.

Place the dish inside a larger pan. I used a roaster. Then add hot water about half way up. Don't over fill and spill the water inside the bread pan. Carefully place the pan in the oven.

I set the timer for 45 minutes. You may want to check it then. Use a clean knife and insert it in the middle of the dish. If it comes out mostly clean, you are done!




While I waited for it to cool, I put another hunk of butter in a ceramic gravy bowl. Heat it in the microwave until it is melted. Add the maple syrup and heat about 15 seconds longer until warm. Cut and serve the Baked French Toast with the syrup poured over the top. Yum. And it covers all the breakfasty food groups. Eggs, bread and fruit. All in one pan!

I made another recipe compromise for which I have no pictures and they really are not needed. We wanted a green bean casserole for dinner Christmas night. But not the cream of mushroom kind. However French fried onions are definitely needed.

I put butter and olive oil in a large fry pan. Add about 1/4 cup of slivers or slices of almonds and about 1/2 cup of onions. Saute. Add the frozen green beans of your choice. Saute until all is mixed well. Dump everything in a casserole dish and sprinkle with the French fried onions. Bake for 20 minutes or so in a 350 degree oven. Delicious and easy. Maybe our new tradition.