Croissant French Toast with Browned Butter Maple Syrup

Oops.

This is kind of the ultimate definition of #sorrynotsorry.

This past Sunday marked a most momentous event, wherein my husband offered to make me french toast without demanding exercise in return. (We took a long walk with the dog afterwards, but that doesn’t really count.)

While it felt too good to be true, it was very real. And MAN, was this french toast delicious. Let me paint you a picture: french toast. Also, croissants. Are you there yet? 

After drinking quite a lot of wine on Saturday night, we found ourselves awake at what I personally consider to be an ungodly hour on a Sunday (approximately 6:30 AM). By the time 8 AM rolled around, we had gotten up, gone to the bakery, stopped at Safeway, and attempted to grab coffee (the place was closed – #sundayproblemz), and we were back in the kitchen, putting together breakfast.

I had a great idea. “This should be our Sunday morning tradition! We go to the bakery, and pick out a delicious baguette and some pastries, and then we can go to Safeway and get groceries for a fun breakfast and lunch, and then we can get you coffee,” I said.

My husband just stared at me. “Why would we want to make going to Safeway our tradition?” he said.

Well. I guess we can’t all be excited about new traditions, all of the time. It should be noted (and hopefully this goes without saying) that I haven’t yet given up on our potential VERY fun new Sunday thing. I was going to call my hubs “Mister Grumpy Pants” here as a commentary of sorts on his attitude towards our favorite new super fun way to spend a Sunday morning, but since he made me french toast I really feel like I should keep my mouth shut.

When I finished sulking long enough to eat this croissant french toast, though, I decided to be done being a brat forever, because OMG. The brown butter combined with the maple syrup is just [emoji with the heart eyes, times three].

Def make this. It’s a good idea.

Croissant French Toast with Browned Butter Maple Syrup

adapted slightly from Not Without Salt’s cookbook Date Night In

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup half-and-half
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds removed (optional)
• 2 Tbsps dark brown sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 Tbsps butter
• 2 croissants, halved

Topping:

• 1/4 cup real maple syrup
• 2 tbsp butter

Directions

Whisk together half-and-half, eggs, vanilla, vanilla bean, dark brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon in a shallow bowl.

Melt butter in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Dip each croissant half briefly in the delicious mixture and place in the hot pan (this is just basic french toast technique we’re talking, guys). Cook for 1–2 minutes on each side. Transfer to warm oven (around 200 degrees will do the trick) while you finish the rest of the croissant halves.

For the syrup: In a small, heavy saucepan, whisk butter on medium heat until you see brown flecks start to appear (I find that using a stainless steel saucepan makes this much easier). Once the butter starts to caramelize, remove from the heat and set aside. When you’re ready to serve the maple syrup, heat the syrup in the microwave, and then stir in the browned butter. Mmmmmm.

Serve topped with fresh berries, whipped cream if you’re feeling wicked, a liberal sprinkling of powdered sugar and browned butter maple syrup.