Baked Raspberry French Toast Strata

I get ideas for recipes while browsing pinterest and sometimes just by flipping through old cookbooks or by having to use ingredients up or they will go bad, this one is the latter. I had some bakery style croissants I put in the refrigerator that I thought didn’t have that fresh baked taste any longer, and shockingly I had a large carton of fresh raspberries. You see raspberries are one of my son’s favorite fruits to eat and they never last long in the fridge even if I designate them for using in a recipe later. I considered myself lucky that my son hadn’t seen the raspberries. Because the croissants are so buttery they were perfect for this dish giving a wonderful texture and flavor to it.

I am a self proclaimed breakfast lover, but not a morning person (kind of an oxymoron, I know) the idea of having a casserole type french toast ready to pop into the oven in the morning sounded wonderful. I always have grand ideas of waking early and making a delicious breakfast but my morning motivation often gets turned into pouring a bowl of cereal or making a protein smoothie. Waking up was great when I knew I had this dish waiting for me to bake up. My family was surprised by the morning treat and it not being a weekend :D. Surprise turned into oohs and awes as they tasted this yummy low calorie (wink) breakfast. I think that this little number will have to be invited back when company is here and I can look all organized and together. I made a small pan of this for my little family so double it for yourselves if there are more than 4 people awake.

Baked Raspberry French Toast Strata

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Ingredients:
3 large croissants sliced into cubes
5 eggs
1/2 cup cream
2 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp. vanilla (a vanilla bean scraped would be better)
1 1/2 cups raspberries
3-4 oz. cream cheese

Directions:
Step 1: Spray a 9 X 9 square pan with cooking spray.
Step 2: Cut the croissants up and put half into the pan.
Step 3: Whisk the eggs, milk, cream and vanilla together and pour half over the bread.
Step 4: Sprinkle half the raspberries over the bread and then tear small pieces of cream cheese and sprinkle on bread, using half of it.
Step 5: Put the remainder of bread on top and pour the remainder of egg mixture, berries and cheese on top. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.
Step 6: Pre-heat oven to 350 F. take the casserole out of refrigerator and put into the oven with foil on for 50 minutes, take off the foil when timer goes off and cook about 5- 10 minutes longer to brown the top. Let sit for about 10 minutes to set.
Serves:  4-6  people. Serve with  maple syrup or buttermilk syrup

Tagged as: breakfast, cream-cheese, croissant, french-toast, raspberry