Croissant Pudding

By Mary Susan4.7 (3)

Buttery croissants baked in a rich egg custard. This croissant pudding makes the perfect breakfast for any holiday or special occasion.

The Story Behind Croissant Pudding

I’m a firm believer in celebrating holidays with delicious food and this Croissant Pudding is the perfect way to celebrate. When I got married, I realized not every family has traditional food for their holidays. My husband’s family is all about the unique activities, while my family, on the other hand, is all about the food. I guess that makes it a win-win for the family I’m raising.

croissant pudding finished in pan with golden brown finish

My family has a Christmas menu that is pretty unique. The morning starts with oyster stew, potato soup (for those that refuse to eat the oyster stew, and orange rolls. Those all go together, right? Lunch is leftover orange rolls while everyone waits for the Christmas buffet.

The Christmas buffet consists of every mayonnaise based salad. There’s chicken salad, potato salad, seafood salad, and then some veggie and treat trays. No traditional ham for us. My first Christmas away from my family was quite different. My in-laws always did a destination Christmas. So we were in Massachusetts at a ski resort. I was about 18 weeks pregnant at the time, so I didn’t participate in any skiing, I stayed warm and fed that growing baby. We were leaving to drive to Virginia the day after Christmas, so the pickings for Christmas dinner were slim. I remember I had leftover frozen chicken nuggets and store bought rolls. It was far from what I was used to.

For Easter, I grew up with a fairly traditional meal for most families. Usually turkey or ham with fresh veggies. My mom always made the BEST carrots. Seriously, no one can cook carrots like my mom does.

This Croissant Pudding recipe comes from my sister-in-law, Tarin. She makes this for her family on Christmas morning and other special occasions. As soon as she mentioned this to me, I knew I had to try it. I mean how can a recipe be bad when using croissants?

This is such a decadent and rich dish. It’s kind of a cross between a baked french toast and a bread pudding. It is completely worthy of a holiday in every sense. Croissants are a thick pastry, so they don’t really absorb much of the custard. Instead, you get this creamy egg custard baked on the bottom, with a little bit on top of the croissants, just to make it golden.

If that doesn’t have you salivating yet, that’s not all there is to this recipe. To make this breakfast even more worthy of being served on a holiday, you have a creamy homemade syrup to drizzle on top.

Recipe

Croissant Pudding

Buttery croissants baked in a rich egg custard. This croissant pudding makes the perfect breakfast for any holiday or special occasion.

4.7 (3)

Instructions

1Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2Grease a 8×12 (or 7×11) pan. Layer your croissants in the pan making sure the entire surface is covered. Croissants should be squished in together.
3In a large bowl whisk together the eggs and sugar. Slowly incorporate the heavy cream and vanilla. Whisk until well combined.
4Pour the custard mixture over the top of the croissants. Push the croissants down with a spatula to help the custard soak a little bit to the tops of the bread.
5Place your croissant pudding pan into a larger pan (9×13) and fill the larger pan with water. The water should come halfway up to the pan with the croissants in it.
6Place in the oven and bake for 1 hour. Halfway through the baking time, take the back of a spoon and give those croissants another little push down through the custard. Just enough to have some cover the tops of the croissants.

Syrup

7Heat all ingredients on medium heat on the stovetop until the butter is completely melted. Drizzle the syrup on top of individual servings of croissant pudding.