Cap'n Crunch French Toast
Click here for a new way to destroy all the soft tissue in your mouth
This might not be what you’re expecting.
If you read that title and the image of some Cap’n Crunch-coated French toast popped in your head… this ain’t it.
This actually hits on the ever-trendy idea of cereal milk as an ingredient. Coating French toast in cereal is just too obvious in this case, and it’s been done before on this publication. Further, Captain Crunch has such a distinct taste, that I wanted that to be highlighted all the way through, rather than just in an outside coating.
The cereal is blended and cold-steeped with milk in the fridge for 12 hours, then strained and used as the dairy in the custard base for this recipe. This serves the purpose of making sure that the you taste the Cap’n in every element of this French toast. If you saw the title/concept of this dish and thought to yourself, “eh, Cap’n Crunch has never really been my thing. I’m more of a Cocoa Puffs person,” well, I highly encourage you to try this method (making custard out of cereal milk) with your favorite cereal.
Time Required
12 hours, 45 minutes, Cereal Milk Steeping -12 hours, Prep -15 minutes, Cooking -30 minutes
Yield
4-5 servings (depends on how greedy hungry you are)
Equipment
Large Non-stick Griddle, Skillet, or Sauté pans
Medium Mixing Bowl
Fine Mesh Strainer
Food Processor or Blender (or a big ziplock and a rolling pin)
Whisk
Measuring Cups and Measuring Spoons
½ Sheet Pan
Drying Rack
Wide spatula
Non-stick Spray
Large Spoon
Ingredients
10 slices Thick-cut Brioche-style Bread
3 cups Whole Milk
4 Eggs
3/4 tsp Kosher Salt
1 tbsp Granulated Sugar
4 cups + 1 cup Cap’n Crunch Cereal (with Crunchberries… but separate the Crunchberries)
Other Ingredients
Maple syrup… if you’re feeling like a brand loyalist, specifically Cap’n Crunch syrup. If you didn’t know that was even a thing, boy have I got a ridiculous bit of reading coming up for you.
Whipped Cream
Method
Add the milk and 4 cups of the cereal to the jar of a blender or food processor, and blend on high for one minute, then remove the jar from the blender, leaving the lid on, and place it in the refrigerator for 12 hours. Alternatively, if you really don’t want your blender jar consumed for a whole 12 hour period, you can empty its contents into a bowl, and either seal it with a lid, or cover it with some plastic wrap, and refrigerate it. *If you don’t feel like using appliances, you can also add your cereal to a sealable plastic bag, get as much of the air out as possible, seal the bag and mash it up with a rolling pin (you don’t need to actually pound it, you can just roll over it a bunch of times if you don’t feel like working out some aggression) until you reduce it to crumbs. Then add it to a sealed bowl according to the info referenced previously in this step*
Once the cereal milk has refrigerated for a whole day, pour the contents of the blender/food processor jar out into a mesh strainer that is sitting over a medium mixing bowl. Use a large spoon to press the solids into the strainer, squeezing all as much of the milk as possible out without pushing too much of the Cap’n crunch pulp through the strainer (the pulp will make your custard more starchy and thick). Remove the strainer and discard the solids.
Add the eggs, salt, and sugar to the mixing bowl with the cereal milk, and whisk until the egg whites have broken down complexly. Pulverize the last 1 cup of cereal in the blender/food processor (or aforementioned resealable bag + violence method), and add it to the custard base.
Heat a large non-stick griddle, skillet or sauté pans over medium-low heat, and spray the cooking surface(s) with a light coating of non-stick spray.
Dip one slice of the bread into the custard base, submerging it completely and allowing it to soak for 10-15 seconds. Remove the bread from the bowl, allowing some of the excess custard to drain out of the slice and back into the bowl, then lay the slice onto the hot cooking surface. Repeat the dipping process with 2-3 more slices of bread, making sure to space each slice out at least one inch on the cooking surface.
Cook each slice for a total of 5 minutes, using a wide spatula to flip half way through cooking, and remove each slice to a drying rack set over a ½ sheet pan when it finishes cooking. Store the sheet pan in the oven if you plan to serve more than 10 minutes in the future.
To serve, arrange two slices of French toast on a plate (doesn’t have to be e blue one…) and top them with a dollop of whipped cream, drizzle with Cap’n Crunch syrup, and crumble a handful of Crunchberries over the whole dish.
There is another way…
Pulverize an extra cup of cereal in step 3, and rather than mix the smashed dry cereal into the custard, set it aside in a medium mixing bowl.
Instead of cooking on a skillet/griddle/saute pan, add ½” worth of neutral oil to a large, wide saute pan set over medium heat.
Dip and soak your slices of bread for 10-15 seconds, then drain them for 5 seconds over the custard bowl. Set each slice into the bowl with the cereal crumbs, pressing lightly to make sure the crumbs adhere to the bread. Turn the slice and repeat the process to coat both sides evenly.
Immediately (carefully) drop the slice into the hot oil. If you have room in the pan, repeat the process with the another slice, and cook each slice for a total of 4 minutes, using a slotted spatula, spider, pair of tongs or tweezers to carefully turn them over after 2 minutes.
Use a slotted spoon or spatula to remove each slice to a drying rack set on top of a ½ sheet pan, and store in the oven until you’re ready to serve.