Want to cook your kids an awesome griddle breakfast recipe to win you the Parent of the Year Award? Try these Cinnamon Toast Crunch French Toast Sticks on your flat top grill!
If there’s one thing to know about my cooking, it’s that I like to be creative. And I’m always preaching about adding extra flavor where you can. So of course when I decided to make my kids French Toast Sticks for a Sunday morning breakfast recently, I had to add a fun flavor surprise in the form of one of their favorite sugary cereals… Cinnamon Toast Crunch!
And you guys liked my video for Sausage Stuffed French Toast Roll Ups so much that I had to share this delicious and easy breakfast recipe with you also!
Here’s how to make your kids’ new favorite french toast sticks recipe:
The Key Ingredients for the Best French Toast Sticks
Here are the ingredients that I used to make these easy and kid-friendly french toast sticks on the griddle:
The Bread
For this particular french toast recipe, we used an unsliced loaf of brioche so that we could get the slices the perfect thickness.
If you’ve never had brioche, you need to finish reading this post, watch the video for these on YouTube, and then get down to your nearest grocery store and pick up a loaf! We absolutely LOVE brioche bread and buns, and while it is a couple dollars more expensive, the velvety sweet and soft texture is so worth it!
The French Toast Mixture
There are a lot of different ratios and measurements you can use for your french toast mixture, but most contain the same basic ingredients:
- milk and/or cream
- beaten eggs
- brown sugar and/or cinnamon
- vanilla extract
For these French Toast Sticks, I used half and half because that’s what we had on hand, and I typically use half and half for a richer french toast custard. Another fun addition is flavored coffee creamer!
I left the cinnamon out of my french toast mixture since I was coating the sticks in Cinnamon Toast Crunch… I didn’t want the cinnamon to overpower the whole breakfast and take away from the flavor of the brioche.
The Extra Bit of Crunch
And speaking of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, the popular kids’ cereal makes the perfect coating for your French Toast Sticks!
When crushed to a semi-fine consistency, the sweet crunchy cereal adheres to the french toast custard and helps to create an awesome crispy exterior on your french toast. Soft and delicate on the inside and slightly crunchy on the outside… what more could you want out of French toast?!
How to Make French Toast Sticks with Cinnamon Toast Crunch
Here’s how I made these kid-approved, not too sweet or too soggy Cinnamon Toast Crunch French Toast Sticks:
Step 1: Cut the brioche into large sticks.
We cut our brioche loaf into pretty large sticks that were about 1″ square. We wanted the sticks to be able to hold up to the weight of the cereal coating, and we also wanted to enjoy the flavor and texture of the brioche inside the sticks without it getting too soggy.
And this size stick is great for little hands to pick up and dunk in syrup, too!
We were able to get 21 french toast sticks out of the 14 oz. unsliced brioche loaf.
Step 2: Make the french toast mixture.
I like to make the french toast mixture before crushing the cereal, because it gives the brown sugar a chance to dissolve in the egg and cream a bit. Just make sure that you whisk the mixture again right before dunking your brioche to help redistribute the sugars.
Step 3: Crush the Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal.
Just add the cereal to a zip top bag, squeeze out the excess air, and start smashing away. You can use your hands, the bottom of a measuring cup, a rolling pin, or a meat mallet. You’re looking for a semi-fine texture with some larger chunks of cereal… you don’t want to completely pulverize it, because what makes this recipe fun is that the Cinnamon Toast Crunch is still recognizable in your finished dish.
It’s like two breakfast favorites in one – sugar cereal and french toast dippers!
Step 4: Dip the french toast sticks.
Set up a dredging station and get ready to batter your french toast sticks… You can also let the kids help out with this step! Here’s what my dredging station looked like, with wide-bottom bowls for the cereal and batter:
First dip the sticks one at a time into the french toast batter. You don’t want to just add a bunch into the batter and let them sit as you coat others with the cereal, because then they’ll get too soggy.
Instead, just gently toss each stick in the liquid mixture for about 3 seconds then immediately transfer to the cereal. Use a fork or spoon to coat all sides of the stick with the cereal and then transfer to a plate while you batter the rest of the sticks.
Step 5: Cook the french toast sticks on the griddle evenly on all sides.
For this breakfast, I used the Pit Boss Ultimate Griddle, but any flat top grill or electric griddle would work! Or, you could also cook this yummy breakfast in a skillet on your stovetop.
Start by preheating your griddle on low and then add butter. Carefully set the french toast sticks on the griddle and cook on the first side until nicely golden brown. Be careful that your cooking surface isn’t too hot, or your french toast will burn before it has a chance to get crispy.
Then, turn the sticks to the next side and continue to cook. And remember, since these sticks are nice and thick, you’ll probably need to cook all 4 sides, rather than just the top and bottom like you would for normal french toast.
When your Cinnamon Toast Crunch French Toast Sticks are done, it’s time to serve them up with your favorite syrup for dipping… Or you could get crazy and add sprinkles or let your kids dip them in hot fudge or Nutella for extra parenting (or grandparent) points!
Hope you guys enjoy this fun griddle breakfast recipe! And don’t forget to check out my entire playlist of griddle breakfast recipes on YouTube!
If you give it a go, let me know how you like it in the comments below! And feel free to print the recipe to keep for later:
Cinnamon Toast Crunch French Toast Sticks on the Griddle
Ingredients
- 12 oz. box Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal
- 3 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups Half and Half
- 1/2 cup brown sugar loosely packed
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 14 oz. loaf unsliced brioche bread
- syrup for dipping
Instructions
- Cut brioche loaf into thick sticks. To do so, slice the brioche into thick slices, and then cut each slice into thirds. You should have approximately 21 sticks.
- Make the french toast custard by combining 3 beaten eggs, half and half, brown sugar, and vanilla extract in a wide-bottom bowl. Set to the side.
- Dump Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal into a zip top bag and crush to a semi-fine consistency. Transfer crushed cereal to a wide-bottom bowl and set to the side.
- Mix french toast custard once again to redistribute the brown sugar before dipping brioche.
- Working with one brioche stick at a time, dip in the custard mix for about 3 seconds, making sure that all sides are coated evenly. Then, transfer to the bowl with crushed Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. Lightly toss so the entire french toast stick is coated. Transfer to a plate and continue to coat all other bread sticks.
- When all of the french toast sticks are dipped in custard and then coated in cereal, add some butter to the preheated griddle. Place each stick on the griddle and allow to cook on the first side.
- When the first sides of the cereal crusted french toast sticks are golden brown and slightly crunchy, flip to the next side and continue to cook.
- Continue to cook until all sides are golden brown.
- Transfer french toast sticks to a plate and serve with syrup for dipping.
Comments & Reviews
Sharon L....THE IslandGirl says
These are AMAZING! My grandsons wouldn’t eat them….their loss. LOL, Poppy and Nana took home the leftovers and threw them into the airfryer the next day. They were even BETTER! I would say make a bunch of these and freeze them to have on those lazy mornings! Absolutely a fantastic recipe! 🙂
Wayne Hurlbut says
I made these for my Granddaughter and she loved them. Next weekend she asked me to make them again.
WP says
love this recipe!
Lou Boni says
Fantastic recipe. Not many cereals better and combined with french toast to boot!
Jason Boyse says
We love this one!!
Bill C says
I made this when the Grandson spent the weekend. Needless to say, he thinks I’m some sort of diety! His favorite cereal besides CTC is Crunchberry we’ll see how that goes but you layed the groundwork! Semper Fidelis!
Steve Goff says
GOOOOOOLEE! 5 stars!