Recipes Breakfast Brunch Breakfast By Type French Toast

Crunchy French Toast

Kid-friendly, crunchy French toast, made with sliced bread, eggs, milk, vanilla, and coated with crunchy cornflakes crumbs.

Elise Bauer

Elise founded Simply Recipes in 2003 and led the site until 2019. She has an MA in Food Research from Stanford University.

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Elise Bauer
Elise Bauer
Crunchy French Toast
Elise Bauer

On a visit with my goddaughter Piper and her sisters Alden and Reilly, the girls surprised me one morning by making me their favorite version of French toast for breakfast - a "crunchy" French toast!

To make this French toast you first toast squares of bread lightly in the oven, then dip them in an egg-milk mixture, dredge them in crushed Corn Flakes, and bake them in the oven. It's the Corn Flakes that give this French toast its crunchy-ness.

The three sisters, ages 4, 7, and 9, did everything to prepare this meal, while I sat astounded, watching them, lifting not a finger to help.

child putting crunchy french toast in oven
Elise Bauer

These little French toast squares were actually quite good, especially with butter and real maple syrup!

The recipe comes from a book they received for Christmas - Kitchen for Kids. Thank you girls! (More photos)

child eating crunchy french toast
Piper likes her Crunchy French Toast!. Elise Bauer

Crunchy French Toast

Prep Time 20 mins
Cook Time 20 mins
Total Time 40 mins
Servings 3 servings

Ingredients

  • 2 or 3 slices of bread, cut into quarters
  • 1 cup cornflake cereal
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon all-purpose flour
  • 2 drops of vanilla
  • Butter and pancake syrup

Method

  1. Preheat oven, prepare baking sheet:

    Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

  2. Lightly toast bread in oven:

    Put the bread pieces on a lined baking sheet into the warming oven (it does not need to be at full temperature) to toast lightly for 5 minutes. Cool the bread completely.

  3. Crush the Corn Flakes:

    Seal the Corn Flakes in a heavy plastic bag. Crush them with a rolling pin to the size of rolled oats. Pour into a pie pan or a shallow dish. Set aside.

  4. Soak bread slices in egg mixture:

    In a large bowl, whisk to mix the eggs, milk, flour and vanilla until blended. Be sure there are no lumps of unmixed flour. Pour into a pie pan or shallow dish. In batches, lay the bread pieces in the egg mix. Soak about 1 minute on each side in the egg mixture. Be careful not to rip the bread.

    whisking egg mixture for crunchy french toast
    Elise Bauer
    dipping toast squares into egg batter
    Elise Bauer
  5. Coat with crushed Cornflake crumbs:

    Place the bread pieces in the cornflake crumbs. Coat both sides with the crumbs. Place on the lined baking sheet.

    coat french toast with corn flakes
    Elise Bauer
    arrange crunchy french toast on baking pan
    Elise Bauer
  6. Bake:

    Bake at 400°F for 10 minutes on one side. Then flip over with tongs or a spatula and bake another 5 to 10 minutes, until the crumbs begin to turn brown.

    Eat warm with butter and pancake syrup.

    child putting crunchy french toast in oven
    Elise Bauer

Adapted from a recipe in Kitchen for Kids: 100 Amazing Recipes Your Children Can Really Makeby Jennifer Low.

Piper, Alden, and Reilly enjoying their crunchy French toast
Piper, Alden, and Reilly enjoying their crunchy French toast. Elise Bauer