Stuffed Croissant French Toast

Ingredients

  • vegetable oil cooking spray or butter
  • 4-5 medium sized croissants
  • ¼ cup orange juice
  • ¾ cup orange marmalade
  • ¼ cup apricot preserves
  • 2½ eggs
  • ½ cup half & half or cream
  • 2 tsp almond extract
  • ¼ tsp nutmeg
  • 3 tbsp maple syrup
  • if using almond croissants, scrape almond paste from inside & use 2 tsp, divided
  • powdered sugar for dusting

How-to

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  2. Butter a large loaf pan or casserole dish
  3. Slice croissants in half as if preparing a sandwich and place croissant bottoms in the pan
  4. Mix orange juice, marmalade and preserves.  Add 1 tsp almond extract.  Mixture should be thick.  Pour 2/3 of this mixture onto croissants in the dish
  5. Put croissant tops on and fill in all empty spaces (they can be pulled and stretched a little to fill the pan and supplemented with dried French bread - no crusts)
  6. Mix eggs, half & half, nutmeg, maple syrup and remaining almond extract.  Pour over croissant mixture to cover thoroughly
  7. Dribble remaining marmalade mixture over tops of croissants.  Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour, preferably overnight
  8. Remove from refrigerator about 1 hour before baking.  Bake until set and golden – about 30 minutes.  (To prevent the top from burning, it may help to cover with foil until halfway done baking)
  9. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with sliced strawberries and oranges