Mother’s Day is right around the corner! This Overnight Cream Cheese-Stuffed Lemon French Toast with Strawberries is the perfect Mother’s Day breakfast or brunch. It can be made the night before.
One of my favorite things in the universe are cream cheese filled croissants. Also right up there are strawberries and lemons together. I also love French toast made with croissants instead of regular bread because the texture is so fabulous. So…this recipe is kind of a combination of all my guilty pleasures.
Ingredients Needed
French Toast
- Croissants – You’ll need 6 large croissants. You want them a little stale/dried out so they will soak up all the custard you’ll be pouring over them.
- Cream cheese – Use full fat or low-fat, avoid fat-free.
- Powdered sugar
- Lemons
- Lemon extract
- Eggs
- Whole milk
Strawberry Sauce
- Granulated sugar
- Vanilla or almond extract
- Fresh strawberries
Garnish
- Fresh strawberries
- Whipped cream
How to Make It
- First you’ll make your strawberry sauce. This step can be done a day or two ahead of time. Wash strawberries, remove stems and give them a rough chop. Combine berries, sugar, and extract in medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook for five minutes, stirring/breaking strawberries up with a wooden spoon constantly. After five minutes, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly (if you have a glass blender jar) and a lot (if you have a plastic blender jar). When cool enough, transfer mixture to blender and pulse until desired consistency is reached. You can also use an immersion blender, which makes things super easy!
- Combine some softened cream cheese, powdered sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice and beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
- Slice the croissants in half lengthwise and and generously spread the bottom half of each croissant with the cream cheese mixture, using all of the cream cheese mixture. Press the croissant tops down onto the cream cheese, flattening them a little. Place them into a 9×13″ pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
- Next, whisk together some eggs, milk, powdered sugar, lemon extract, and lemon zest. Pour evenly over the croissant mixture. Cover the pan with foil and refrigerate overnight for for 8-10 hours.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350. Place the covered pan in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 20-30 minutes or until the croissants are golden brown and all the liquid is absorbed. Remove from oven and allow to stand for 5-10 minutes.
- Cut into squares and serve with strawberry sauce, sliced strawberries, and, if you want (how could you not want?), sweetened whipped cream.
Storing and Other Tips
- Store leftover French toast in an airtight container in the refrigerator and consume within 3-5 days for best results.
- If you need to, you can cut your croissants into halves, or even fourths, depending on what you need to do to fit them into the pan.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the custard mixture HAVE to soak overnight?
This recipe has only been tested as written. If you’d like to experiment, I would recommend letting the custard mixture sit for at least 8 hours before baking.
Mine turned out soggy. What happened?
Your croissants were likely too fresh! If they are not already getting stale, leave them uncovered on the counter to dry out a bit before using.
Cream Cheese-Stuffed Lemon French Toast with Strawberries
A delicious overnight French toast utilizing stale croissants, cream cheese filling, and bursting with fresh strawberry and lemon.
Servings servings
Equipment
Ingredients
French Toast
- 6 croissants large, stale
- 1 8-ounce package cream cheese softened, light is fine
- 1 ¼ cups powdered sugar
- 2 lemons
- 1 ¼ teaspoons lemon extract
- 2 eggs
- 1 ½ cups whole milk
Strawberry Sauce
- ⅓ cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or almond
- 1 pint strawberries
Garnish
- strawberries fresh, sliced
- whipped cream sweetened
Instructions
French Toast
- Slice the croissants in half lengthwise. Set aside.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, zest of one lemon, strained juice of one lemon (about 1 ½-2 tablespoons), and ¾ cup powdered sugar. Mix with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
- Spread the lemon cream cheese mixture over the bottoms of the croissants and then replace the tops, pressing down to flatten. If necessary, cut into halves (or even fourths if necessary; you may not need to cut them at all) and arrange the pieces evenly in a 9×13″ pan lightly sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.
- Whisk together the milk, eggs, lemon extract, zest from the second lemon, and remaining ½ cup of powdered sugar. Pour evenly over the croissants and cover with aluminum foil. Refrigerate for 8-10 hours.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350℉. Bake covered for 30 minutes and then remove the foil and bake for another 20-30 minutes or until the croissants are golden brown and the liquid is absorbed. Remove from the oven and allow it to stand for 5-10 minutes. Cut into squares and top individual servings with strawberry sauce, freshly sliced strawberries, and sweetened whipped cream if desired.
Strawberry Sauce
- Wash strawberries and remove stems. Roughly chop strawberries.
- Combine berries, sugar, and extract in medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook for five minutes, stirring/breaking strawberries up with a wooden spoon constantly.
- After five minutes, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly (if you have a glass blender jar) and a lot (if you have a plastic blender jar). When cool enough, transfer mixture to blender and pulse until desired consistency is reached. You can also use an immersion blender.
Notes
Store leftover French toast in an airtight container in the refrigerator and consume within 3-5 days for best results.
Nutrition
Calories: 234kcal, Carbohydrates: 37g, Protein: 5g, Fat: 8g, Saturated Fat: 4g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 2g, Trans Fat: 0.003g, Cholesterol: 50mg, Sodium: 133mg, Potassium: 176mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 25g, Vitamin A: 311IU, Vitamin C: 33mg, Calcium: 63mg, Iron: 1mg
Calories: 234kcal
Cost: $8
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Questions & Reviews
Don’t like the big chunks of cream cheese in the blueberry French toast ? Put it in the blender with the egg and milk mixture, heavenly and no chunks!
(A huge family fave BTW and I am recruited to make it everytime hubby’s work has a brunch. the whole office asks him to get me to make it and it’s always the only dish completely demolished!) my secret ingredient? Add white chocolate chips in with the bread before pouring the egg mixture over it!! You don’t taste the chocolate, just an added richness.
Oh wow this looks delicious and I love that you used croissants! Beautiful recipe!!
Looks wonderful and definately will make it. My question is whole milk? 2%? 1%? I never know which to use and only have skim milk in the house so buy specifically for each recipe.
Thanks.
Doesn’t really matter–I used 1%, and whole would be divine.
This sounds so wonderful!!! I just love that it is an overnight preparation….such a time savor!! Thanks for another great recipe!!
Do the croissants have to be stale? I don’t think they would last long enough to get stale if I didn’t hide them.
Not REALLY, but they’ll absorb more of the liquid if they’re stale.
Could this work with brioche bread? I make rrgular french toast with brioche
Sure! You might want to throw an extra egg in there if you use a heavier bread, though.
Try it with strawberry cream cheese. Its amazing too. Also you can cook up a piece or two like regular french toast in a frying pan. I love this breakfast.
I don’t know if I have ever in my life wanted to eat somethings so badly! Yum!
that’s what i was thinking too!
I was making dinner for about 20 last night. They were coming around five. I get out of church at four and come home to pull up the baked creamy chicken taquito recipe and I was like NO WAY! This sight is NEVER down! Luckily I knew there would be people who “adapted” it. Unluckily it is perfect the way it is so I had to try and remember how it was originally instead of following adapatitions. Glad you’re back up!
Paul Deen would love this!! She does something similar with Krispy Kremes. I’m being a little bit wicked with my comment, but also your dish looks deliciously wicked!
Totally wicked. Although she would probably butter the croissants and the pan first! And she’d use whipping cream instead of milk, you know it. 🙂
Oh baby!!! That looks DELISH!!
My little guy is having surgery on Valentine’s Day, so breakfast is out, but maybe for dinner as strawberries are his favorite.
Is it possible to let this sit in the frig for 24 hours maybe?
Yeah, I think you should be fine. 🙂
So do I pick up the payment of the cupcakes this weekend while you guys are in Layton? This breakfast looks amazing! Really excited for the weekend…I can hardly wait!
PattiCake–They might be Hostess cupcakes if we have to bring them this weekend, haha!
Well, if Sara will give me a pass because I haven’t found/made a foam finger for waving at you while you’re on stage, then I guess I can give you a pass on the cupcakes if they have to be Hostess. Counting the days!
Good lord those look great.
Perfection! This is going to be so delicious.
Lemon cream cheese with strawberry sauce…WHY would you want to wait until Valentine’s Day to serve these. Wahoo, just the recipe and photos are making my mouth water, I think I’ll just run to the store to get some supplies. You could probably get away with serving these as a dessert too. Just label it a bread pudding or something.
Just in time for National Croissant Day! 🙂
Oh wow. That looks so good. And fairly easy. I’m going to ‘pin’ this so I remember to make it soon.
This looks AMAZING! You can make up for the website being down yesterday by paying me in cupcakes this weekend at Time Out for Women ;). I can’t wait to meet the both of you!
Wow! This looks amazing!
Good Heavens this looks delightful! Would it work with light cream cheese or should I just embrace the goodness of it all and eat rice cakes for the rest of the day?
I used light cream cheese and it was fabulous! 🙂
Oh my, this looks wonderful! Can’t go wrong with croissants (or cream cheese, or strawberries or…). YUM.
This looks delicious. I posted something very similar last week, using sour dough bread, instead of croissants – what a great idea! I can attest to the fact that the flavors mixed together are amazing. 🙂
These sound delicious!!! I’ll have test them out before Valentine’s Day, you know, just to make sure I know how to make them 😉
But of COURSE. 🙂
Sounds wonderful! Quick question-can the pan go directly from the refrigerator to the oven or does it need to warm to room temperature?
I’ve never had a problem with it, BUT you could always put the pan in the oven and start heating it so the pan can gradually warm up.
oh i love regular french toast made with croissants…this sounds marvelously delish…can’t wait to try it…
Umm…. YUM.
Wow! That sounds amazing! Seriously, the recipe title ALONE drew me in. French toast? Lemons and strawberries?! Great combo. Wondering if you could use some Texas toast or any other bread? Not that I don’t like the idea of the croissants, just curious!
I’m sure you could! I would probably increase the eggs to 3 instead of 2–other breads tend to soak up more stuff and have a stronger flavor, so it would mask some of the egginess.
Ugh! Servers down is so stressful! I’m glad you had this amazingness to calm your nerves 😉
Can’t wait to try this out for Vday breakfast in bed!!
Well now I don’t know what to make for breakfast on Valentines day…this or the heart shaped puffed pancakes! I know, my life is so hard…haha, but seriously this looks delicious I will be trying it either way! Thanks for another awesome one!