Apple Crisp French Toast Bake

A homemade apple crisp French toast bake mixed with chunks of french toast and topped with an oat crumble. Can be adapted to be gluten and dairy free. Refined sugar-free.

We love breakfast in our house. It’s one of the only meals of the day where you can pretty much eat dessert and it’s socially acceptable. Try eating donuts or pancakes every night for dinner and see how many raised eyebrows you get. But breakfast? Eating sugar is practically encouraged. Now don’t get me wrong, we do enjoy a deliciously sweet breakfast on occasion, but we don’t eat it every day. Although I could.

Every once and a while I like to make a breakfast treat, one that I know the kids will get excited about, but still made with whole foods and natural ingredients. This yummy concoction is a meld of breakfast and dessert—french toast meets apple crisp. It’s moist chunks of bread and tender cinnamon-y apples topped with a crispy oat & nut topping. There’s something about the warm flavors which make it a perfect fall-time breakfast, although I dare say it would be delicious anytime of the year!

I begin by cooking sliced apples in an oven-proof skillet. This allows it to go from stove to oven without dirtying extra dishes, however, if you do not have an oven proof skillet you can easily transfer the mixture to a baking dish for the oven part. I used a mixture of gala and granny smith apples. Gala apples are sweet where granny smith are tart. It really depends on your taste. The gala apples made the french toast sweet enough to not really need maple syrup. If you’re a maple syrup drizzling fan, like me, you may prefer tartness of the granny smith apples to balance out the sweetness of the syrup, especially if you’re already using a sweet bread.

After the apples are tender, add cubed bread pieces and pour in the egg mixture. I used gluten-free sliced bread, but you can use any bread that you’d like. Whole grain, cinnamon-raisin, challah, brioche, or Hawaiian bread, would be good choices if you’re looking for flavor and don’t need it to be gluten-free.

Next, sprinkle the oat topping all over the apple and french toast mixture. This crumble is made by blending rolled oats, coconut sugar, and nuts with butter or coconut oil. It adds a nice crunch crust, which compliments the apples and french toast.

We drizzled a little pure maple syrup on top, but depending on the apples you use, you may not even need it. However you eat it, this recipe is sure to please. It even has my family’s stamp of approval on it! Let me know how you like it!