One of my least favorite things to do is stand over a griddle and flip pancakes or French toast.
Thankfully I avoided it with French toast that’s baked in a muffin pan.
The recipe is fast, easy, and perfect for brunch or a holiday breakfast, but it’s do-able even on busy weekday mornings.
And they’re portable so when you’re late leaving the house for work or school, it’s an easy grab-and-go breakfast. Not that I’m ever late trying to get out of the house.
As a bonus, the recipe is accidentally healthy and on the lighter side. There’s no oil or butter, I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk which keeps the recipe dairy-free, there’s only 2 tablespoons of sugar in the batter, and I used sugar-free syrup sweetened with aspartame.
For people like me who like a little French toast with our bottle of syrup, low calorie sweeteners are the way to go and can be a handy tool for people trying to reduce sugar. I’d rather save my caloric splurges for big fat cookies. Using low calorie syrup with aspartame is such a safe and simple swap.
Before starting the recipe, make sure to spray the heck out of your muffin pan with cooking spray so the egg-based batter doesn’t cause the French toast to stick.
The French toast is slightly chewy and barely crisped on the outside, and remains soft in the interior. The pieces of bread hold together remarkably well, although we had no problem devouring them, pull-apart style.
They’d be adorable served alongside Baked Parmesan Hash Brown Cups, also made in a muffin pan.
Everything tastes better that way.
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Baked French Toast Muffins
Ingredients
- 3 large eggs
- scant 1/2 cup milk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk
- 1 tablespoon light brown sugar, packed
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 to 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 6 slices whole-grain or whole-wheat bread, diced into 1-inch cubes
- sugar-free syrup, for serving
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Spray 8 of the 12 cavities of a Non-Stick 12-Cup Regular Muffin Pan (note you will not use all 12) very, very well with cooking spray or grease and flour the pan; set aside. (I don’t prefer the cosmetic look of muffin liners and in this recipe, I think the bread would stick.)
- To a large bowl, add the first 6 ingredients, through vanilla, and whisk to combine.
- Add the bread and gently toss with a spoon to coat evenly. Allow bread to rest in bowl for 3 to 5 minutes, or until most/all of the batter has soaked into the bread.
- Evenly distribute bread (and any un-absorbed batter can be drizzled evenly) among 8 cavities in prepared pan by loosely laying it in, without packing down. Each cavity should be about 3/4-full. The bread puffs quite a bit while baking, but deflates upon cooling. Pieces should all lay fairly flat in each cavity because any pieces that are jutting up will be prone to burning.
- Bake for about 25 minutes or until tops are lightly golden brown, the coating mixture is set, and bread looks fairly dry (no wet batter); use your judgment when evaluating doneness because type of bread used, muffin pans, ovens, and climates vary. Start watching closely at 20 minutes.
- Allow French toast to cool for about 10-15 minutes in muffin pan on top of a wire rack before gently rimming each cavity with a knife if necessary, dislodging, and serving with syrup.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Post is brought to you by the Calorie Control Council and aspartame.org. The opinions, recipe, text, and photography are my own.
These sound incredible! It’s like my two favorites in one!
Wow! I clicked on this post because of the gorgeous (and delicious looking) photo, but to find out they’re healthy too is great! Thanks for sharing!
I love french toast. It is the best breakfast treat to me. I could eat it every morning and what a fun way to eat it- in a muffin:))
These are so cute! :) The perfect breakfast for when you have a lot of people over.
I love it when you come up with recipes like this! But then again, breakfast is my favorite meal. Would they be a good make-ahead food (as in, make it the day before and pop it in the microwave before eating)?
Did your griddle purchase make flipping pancakes any easier? It was a game-changer for me … and living in the chilly midwest, I kinda actually LIKE standing over the hot griddle on a cold morning!
As long as you’re okay with microwaving, these are totally fine as a make-ahead! Some people aren’t as into microwaving (personally I love it) but I think you’ll be just fine using it!
And my griddle…being that I don’t have a big family and don’t really cook big breakfasts regularly, I don’t use it much. With all the other baking and cooking I do, elaborate breakfasts are not my thing and hauling out the griddle just isn’t on my to-do list. LOL :) But overall YES WAY better flipping with it than before! Night and day!
Love these french toast muffins, Averie! I’ve made mini pancake ones before, but never french toast, so I can’t wait to try these! And what a fun way to eat them too! Pinned!
Thanks for pinning and yes mini stuff is always so fun!
These little portable, individual sized French toast cups are so fun! I like that they are a little healthier too.
These are perfect for Christmas morning you can throw them in the oven and they bake while you open presents. Excellent idea…I love real maple syrup it’s an East coast thing we’re pretty serious about our syrup, but they are portioned controlled so a little real syrup won’t hurt…right???
You have better portion control than me, clearly :)
I’m never late getting out of the house either, but I’d happily eat these anywhere! Love that you use the almond milk. It always turns out great, and then you don’t have to worry about dairy.
Plus, honestly, standing at the stove is awful. I wonder if anyone likes doing that…
I just had one reader say she liked standing over her griddle! I need to have her make mine :) I hattttte that job. It’s so tedious and if you turn your back for a second, they burn. If you watch them, then never cook. LOL
I hate flipping pancakes too! Especially because I get to stand in the kitchen while my husband is eating away, haha! I love french toast muffins, these look amazing!
Weird! One of my FAV things to do is just flip pancakes…I like how mindless it is. I guess it’s similar to some people who like to wash the dishes (I HATE DOING THAT!!)….either way, I love these muffins! They look fabulous!
Well you can flip my pancakes any day! I tend to mutilate them and can’t get them nice and perfect no matter how hard I try! Hence, baked recipes are my friends :)
OMG, those all look SO amazing!! I normally wouldn’t take the time to make anything this elaborate for breakfast (no time), but I had such a great trip down Vicarious Lane, delicious!!
Honestly it’s as easy as tearing some bread up, pouring an eggy/milk mixture over the top and putting the little cubes in the muffin pan – super easy and not elaborate. Trust me, I have to time for elaborate :)
You’re going ot have to start a brunch recipes collection here! Love these. And I love that they are “accidently” healthy. Because you wouldn’t do that on purpose, would you? ;)
I’ve seen French Toast bakes, but never muffins. Such a great idea. Not that I ever eat while walking….
I know with the brunch recipes…it just kind of happened. I think I’ve made every cookie known to man but brunch is still more of an untapped area :)
I really like the chunky look of these–lots of crevices to soak up the syrup! The little kid in me still likes to eat with her fingers so pull apart food is the perfect excuse to do just that. I always have some sugar free maple syrup on hand. There’s nothing like the real thing, but I would use way too much so the sugar free stuff keeps me in check…I’d rather save the sugar for something I can sink my teeth into as well!
Same here, Paula! I can use a ridic amount of syrup and I’d way rather save my splurges for other things! And eating with your fingers and pulling apart…so satisfying and these were perfect for that :)
I’m totally making these. And I’m with you on the syrup – I’m not wasting the sugar grams on syrup. I’d rather have pie! :)
Let me know how they go! I loved them a little too much :) And glad you can relate on the syrup situation!
Um yum. I’d totally devour a few of these little gems, Averie!