CROISSANT TRAYBAKE WITH SUMMER FRUIT

Summer fruit is reason enough to invest a little more time in planning a weekend breakfast/brunch. This recipe provides the base for a traybake that you can adapt to your taste and whatever summer fruit you have on hand. Croissants are cut in half and soaked in a custard before being topped with a cinnamon streusel topping and baked with some fresh fruit. Once out of the oven, everything is topped with more softened fruit and a dusting of icing sugar. Easy, fresh, and absolutely delicious, this recipe makes summer that much easier to celebrate!

Active Time: 25 mins

Total Time: 2 hours, 20 mins (including 1 hour in fridge)

Equipment: medium pot, mixing bowls, square baking dish (20-x-20cm)

YOU’LL NEED:

Streusel Topping

6 Tbsp (45 g) plain flour 

1/4 cup (37 g) rolled oats

3 Tbsp (50g)  brown sugar

⅛ tsp flaky salt

⅛ tsp cinnamon

3 Tbsp (43 g) butter, room temperature

Traybake

200 g summer fruit*, divided

1 lemon, zested and juiced

¼ tsp ground ginger

4 croissants

3 eggs

250 ml milk

250 ml cream

110 g caster sugar, divided

½ tsp vanilla bean paste 

½ tsp flaky salt

Icing sugar, for dusting

Whipped Cream or Crème Fraîche for serving, optional

METHOD:

Make Streusel Topping: Whisk together flour, oats, brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon for Streusel Topping. Add cubed butter and work in until a coarse mixture forms and there are no more lumps of butter. Set aside.

Make Traybake: In a mixing bowl, toss sliced stone fruit or whole berries with lemon juice, 10g sugar, and ginger; set aside. Cut croissants in half and lay cut side down in a buttered casserole dish. Beat eggs in a mixing bowl. In a medium pot over medium-high heat, gently whisk milk, cream, 100g sugar, vanilla, salt, and zest just until mixture is steaming. Remove from heat and let sit for 1 minute. Whisking constantly, slowly stream warm milk mixture into eggs. Pour custard over croissants. Lightly press croissants down to encourage them to shrink and soak up the custard. 

Assemble: Sprinkle half of fruit around soaked croissants and scatter Streusel Topping evenly across the surface. Place in fridge to soak for 1 hour. Place remaining fruit in fridge to stay cool until after baking. 

Bake: Place in 170°C for 40 mins. Let cool for 15 minutes before topping with remaining fresh fruit and dusting with icing sugar.

Consider serving with whipped cream or crème fraîche.

*Any stone fruits or berries will work beautifully in this recipe. If using stone fruit (peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines, cherries), be sure to remove the stone and slice into 2 cm-thick slices. Berries can be left whole. Feel free to mix several kinds together or just use one kind.