French Toast Muffins: Mini Chef Mondays

We’re big breakfast lovers in our house, so for this week’s Mini Chef Mondays I decided to do a twist on a classic breakfast with french toast “muffins.” You could modify these to be a breakfast casserole, but I like the idea of something small, and I figured the kids would like it too!

French Toast “Muffins”

“Muffin” Ingredients:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 loaf French bread, torn into bite-size pieces
• 2 cups milk
• 6 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• Pinch of salt

Crumble Topping Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup cold butter
• 1 cup flour

Directions:

1. Melt butter in microwave and mix with brown sugar. Put 1/2 tablespoon in the bottom of each of 24 cupcake liners (greaseproof liners work best!). Fill each liner with bread pieces (not packed tightly).
2. In a separate bowl, mix milk, eggs, cinnamon, granulated sugar, and salt. Pour a little less than 1/4 cup of this mixture over the top of each liner.
3. Make the crumble – use two knives or a pastry cutter to mix the butter and other ingredients together, then sprinkle over top of each muffin.
4. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 450 degrees F, or until the tops of the muffins are caramelized and the centers are cooked through.
5. Optional: You can serve these with syrup, or can make a simple glaze of cream cheese, powdered sugar, and milk to serve drizzled on top.

Now, if you’re familiar with my Mini Chef Mondays posts, you know what comes next – step-by-step photos to use with your little one!

First, get a loaf of good French bread. We taste-tested our loaf several times to make sure it was high-quality enough. So, although the recipe says to use a whole loaf, we used a loaf minus probably 3 slices total.

I cut our bread into about 1″ cubes to make it easier for E to tear into small pieces later. I’d recommend doing this before bringing your kiddo into the kitchen, because she got a little bored when I was working on this. Set your bread aside for later in the recipe.

Melt butter in the microwave, then mix in the brown sugar. I stirred at first and then once the ingredients were slightly mixed I let E do some stirring (you don’t want warm/hot butter splashing on little hands).

Put 1/2 tablespoon of the mixture in the bottom of each of 24 cupcake liners. (Side note: we did not use greaseproof liners, because all we had on hand was Sofia the First liners leftover from E’s birthday party. The butter will soak through, so greaseproof liners are the way to go).

Next, fill each liner with bread pieces. I liked having the small cubes because they were easy for E to tear apart (and I didn’t have to worry about her tearing off a huge piece of bread accidentally).

In a separate bowl, mix together milk:

Eggs (and, umm, encouraging your daughter’s silliness by laughing while she holds eggs might result in one egg splattered on the floor. Maybe.):

Vanilla:

Plus cinnamon, sugar, and salt.  Pour slightly less than 1/4 cup of mixture over each muffin tin.

Let the mixture soak into the bread, then work on the crumble topping. Put all ingredients in a bowl:

Then cut together with two knives or a pastry cutter.

Sprinkling the crumble on top is a fun job for your little one. It may end up all over the place, but just go with it.

Bake at 450 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until your “muffins” are caramelized on the top and are cooked all the way through.

Let cool, and enjoy! Like I mentioned above, you can serve these with syrup or with a simple cream cheese glaze. Refrigerate uneaten muffins if you want to save some for the next day – and you can always assemble these, refrigerate them, and wait to bake them until the next morning.

And, as always…

I am hosting Mini Chef Mondays along with 11 fabulous bloggers!

Be sure to check out each of their Mini Chef posts as well. We would love it if you would share your Mini Chef posts with us each week, too! Follow along socially and join in on the fun by using our hashtag #MiniChefMondays to share creations your mini chef created in the kitchen. Additionally, if you have a kid-friendly recipe that kids can easily recreate link up! Don’t have a blog? Share the URL of your instagram photo in our linky below.

1. Inside Out Healthy Breakfast Smoothie Recipe // Courtney’s Sweets
2. Cake Batter Christmas Cookies // Momma Lew
3. Cherry Banana Yogurt Smoothie // Baby Loving Mama
4. Peanut Butter Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies // We’re Parents
5. Goat Cheese Stuffed Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus Recipe // Eating Richly
6. Simple Pumpkin Hummus with Pita Chips // Giggles, Gobbles and Gulps
7. Baked Apple Pie Bites // Step Stool Chef
8. Pumpkin Granola // Vegging at the Shore
9. Apple French Toast Casserole // Mom’s Messy Miracles
10. Apple Pie // O’Boy! Organic
11. Snicker Doodle Cookies // Can’t Google Everything