This Cran-Berry French Toast Bake recipe is sponsored by my friends at Angelic Bakehouse. As always all opinions and thoughts are my own and I only post about brands I buy and my family loves.
I might be hosting Thanksgiving this year but instead of thinking about Thanksgiving dinner I’m thinking about Thanksgiving brunch and all the brunches the days after. Since I don’t like to waste food, and to make things easier, I already picked up lots of Angelic Bakehouse Sprouted Dinner Rolls! Not only to serve at our Thanksgiving dinner but to make at least one pan of Cran-Berry French Toast Bake!
Maybe more as we’ll be hosting our annual Friendsgiving up north and attending the tree lighting and magical fireworks (so magical if it snows, worth standing in the freezing temps to watch them) if we have enough rolls left. Who am I kidding I’ll make sure we have enough and if we don’t I’ll grab some more at my local Whole Foods.
When it comes to Thanksgiving if I had a favorite food it would be cranberries! My love for them goes deep and I make a batch homemade cranberry sauce from mid October through the end of the year to put on almost anything and everything I can, more for Thanksgiving. Loving them so much I would go out to Cranfest in Wisconsin every year if I could to get all the cranberries and cranberry things. Yep you should have seen me carrying all the boxes last year when I was pregnant, pretty comical.
I’m always thinking of ways to use “leftover” yeah I always “accidentally” make WAY too many cranberries. I mean I have to fill the requests for my aunt and dad for extras to take home and I think I still factor in both of my grandmothers that are no longer with us. When I was thinking about it I got a craving to make a favorite I always use to make with my grandmother, bread pudding. While bread pudding and baked French toast are similar bread pudding has more of a custard texture and I often make it sweeter for dessert instead of breakfast.
I decided it would be perfect to make for our Friendsgiving/ tree lighting weekend. Since I wanted to make it for the weekend after Thanksgiving we’ll call this Cran-Berry French Toast Bake. Even though my family says we have to call it Cran-Berry French Toast Hotdish because we’re Minnesotan, umm ok but never heard of a sweet breakfast hotdish so we’ll stick with Cran-Berry French Toast Bake.
Making it after Thanksgiving I knew it would be perfect to make with leftover Angelic Bakehouse Sprouted Dinner Rolls since I don’t plan on making any sourdough the week of Thanksgiving. Buying extra dinner rolls to make sure I have enough and using the “leftover” aka planned over rolls for Cran-Berry French Toast Bake is a win win!
Speaking of leftovers I also couldn’t wait and had to make another favorite with Thanksgiving leftovers… cranberry grilled cheese with caramelized onions! Of course on Angelic Bakehouse Sprouted Dinner Rolls brushed with dairy-free butter, toasted, and sprinkled with fresh rosemary! Did I mention I live in Minnesota and it’s all about comfort food when the temps dip and the snow starts falling?
Angelic Bakehouse was love at first bite, from their wraps, breads, buns, pizza crusts, and crisps I knew we would love their dinner rolls! I mean I still have a package of their buns in the freezer from our Labor Day festivities and the dinner rolls are pretty much the same.
We don’t buy bread or rolls often because we make our own sourdough but I always have a couple loaves of Angelic Bakehouse Sprouted Bread in the freezer for when we don’t make our own sourdough, because there are many weeks we don’t make it lately. It’s our go to bread for traveling and camping. Pretty much the only bread I buy as the sprouted grains are easier on my gluten sensitive stomach. Not to mention made with only the best non-GMO ingredients and is packed with whole food nutrition and no fillers.
Since I’ve never made bread pudding or a French toast bake with sprouted bread, or dinner rolls, I had to test it out. I ended up testing over 4 pans! Trust me family, friends, and neighbors that got to help eat it all weren’t complaining. Not only making sure I got the texture right but the sweetness. I also decided to add raspberries to help up the nutrition, bright color, and because even the non cranberry lovers liked the twist.
I decided not to make it too sweet to leave the topping options open because it’s delicious with a drizzle of pure maple syrup!
Oh but WAIT, there are more options! You know I like options and making things adaptable, I’ve always said I like to think of my recipes as inspiration and love seeing how you adjust them to meet your needs or use what you have on hand.
If you have leftover cranberry sauce and not cranberries (not jelled cranberries from a can) you can use it in place of the cranberries and raspberries, just use 1.5-2 cups depending on preference. If you still want raspberries use only a cup of cranberry sauce and stir or sprinkle on the raspberries. Either way it omit the sugar, it will likely be sweeter anyways.
You can sprinkle with powdered sugar or drizzle with honey instead of maple syrup.
You can enjoy it with yogurt, and more cranberry sauce if you want a real treat!
A fan of nuts, sprinkle chopped pecans on top!
Or my personal favorite is in a bowl with milk poured over. Especially good for leftover Cran-Berry French Toast Bake that’s been in the fridge, because it’s had time to set, is to put it in a bowl and top with warm milk!
I love making classic comfort food and favorites I grew up on healthier but sometimes you don’t want to mess too much with traditional family recipes. In this case I used Angelic Bakehouse Sprouted Dinner Rolls to make it healthier, not to mention easier since we’ll be serving them for Thanksgiving. When it came to sugar again I didn’t want to make it too sweet but stuck with cane sugar as coconut palm sugar doesn’t produce the bright beautiful red berries shown. Again if you like things sweet use a sweetened vanilla dairy-free milk and top with a sweetener to taste like pure maple syrup or your favorite local honey. Or use cranberry sauce, with or without raspberries, in place of fresh cranberries and sugar.
While everyone else is making their shopping lists or napping after Thanksgiving dinner one of the girls will be tearing my “leftover” Angelic Bakehouse Sprouted Dinner Rolls and I’ll be whisking the eggs and milk prepping Cran-Berry French Toast Bake for the next morning. Not sure if we’ll use fresh cranberries or cranberry sauce, you’ll have to check out Instagram Stories to see!
It’s Meatless Monday and there are more great recipes linked up below and as always Deborah and I hope you join us and look forward to what’s cooking in your kitchen!
| Prep Time | 15 minutes |
| Cook Time | 50 minutes |
| Passive Time | 8 hours |
| Servings |
servings (6-9 servings)
|
- 1 package Angelic Bakehouse Sprouted Dinner Rolls Angelic Bakehouse
- 6 large eggs
- 1 3/4 c non dairy milk (I like to use a thicker like a pea protein based non dairy milk or use 1 cup dairy free milk beverage and 3/4c dairy free creamer or half and half)
- 1 TBSP vanilla
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 5 oz fresh cranberries (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 5 oz frozen raspberries (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 1/2 c sugar
- zest of 1 lemon
- 5 oz fresh cranberries (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 5 oz frozen raspberries (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 1/2 c sugar
- zest of 1 lemon
Ingredients
|
|
- Spray a deep 9x9 pan with coconut oil, or non stick spray, and set aside.
- Tear 9 dinner rolls into pieces. I like to tear in half and then tear each half into 3 pieces, so 6 pieces per dinner roll.
- Place the roll pieces into a large bowl.
- In another bowl whisk eggs, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon together.
- Pour egg/milk mixture over the bread pieces and toss gentle to coat.
- Spread evenly into prepared pan, spaces are ok don't pack it in.
- Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight.
- In the morning remove pan from the refrigerator and preheat oven to 350F.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- While it's baking toss fresh cranberries, frozen raspberries, sugar, and lemon zest together in a large bowl. Unless using cranberry sauce, than see notes.
- Remove and carefully sprinkle cranberry mixture over top, return to oven and bake for an additional 20 minutes. Placing a rimmed baking sheet on the rack under the pan in case it bubbles over (this will depend on the depth of the pan and the moisture in the berries).
- Remove from heat and let cool at least 10 minutes before serving. If serving warm there will be some juice in the bottom of the pan from the berries, it is soaked up as it cools.
- Enjoy with pure maple syrup, honey, or powered sugar drizzled/sprinkled over top!
- Store any leftovers in the refrigerator and enjoy cold or warmed back up, enjoy within 3 days.
If you have leftover cranberry sauce and not cranberries (not jelled cranberries from a can) you can use it in place of the cranberries and raspberries, just use 1.5-2 cups depending on preference. If you still want raspberries use only a cup of cranberry sauce and stir or sprinkle on the raspberries. Either way it omit the sugar, it will likely be sweeter anyways.
You can sprinkle with powdered sugar or drizzle with honey instead of maple syrup.
You can enjoy it with yogurt, and more cranberry sauce if you want a real treat!
A fan of nuts, sprinkle chopped pecans on top!
Or my personal favorite is in a bowl with milk poured over. Especially good for leftover Cran-Berry French Toast Bake that's been in the fridge, because it's had time to set, is to put it in a bowl and top with warm milk!
Like it, PIN it for later!
AZ@…And A Dash of Cinnamon
Love the addition of the berries in this!
Deborah Brooks
Breakfast bakes are my fave! What a great idea to use the dinner rolls for this. Looks amazing and perfect for the holidays
Becca | Rabbit Food Runner
I love Angelic Bakehouse!
Farrah
Ooo, this sounds perfect for the cooler weather! :] The cranberry grilled cheese looks amazing too! *-* I’m all for comfort food this time of year!
Noelle
Absolutely delicious! Love the cranberry flavors!! Perfect breakfast