Croissant French Toast Bake and my 1st WIAW

I love when bloggers post WIAW posts, or What I Ate Wednesday for those who don't know, cause I didn't at first! But really, any day of the week works, and it's interesting when people post what they ate, cause I am always so curious! And love to snoop in people's lives.....ha.... but really I love to see what people are eating along with the picture of course. It's weird and strange, but obviously other people love it too or else people would stop posting about it!

For breakfast, I stopped at Starbucks and got my favorite fancy drink, Peppermint Mocha. I get these year round, not just when they have them at Christmas time! I also had blueberry Belvita biscuits.

 

Of course, I forgot to take a picture of my lunch!! ARG! My first attempt at WIAW is already a failure. But whatever. I'm still doing it! So for lunch I had leftover Mustard Chicken and potatoes. It didn't look very pretty anyway. But it tasted pretty good for my first time making it the night before. 

For dinner, I made this Croissant French Toast Bake from Pinch of Yum's blog. I made it once before, and it was liked by the hubs, but not really by me. It was too squishy and unbaked in the middle. So this time, I baked it for longer, and it was better! It had a crunchy top and outside, and really soft inside, and with a little maple syrup it was so sweet and buttery.

 

I think next time, I would make this for brunch with some sausage links or fruit. It was a little too sweet for dinner by itself!

 Here is the recipe! Adapted from Pinch of Yum

Baked Cinnamon Croissant French Toast

Ingredients

• 3 large croissants, a few days stale
• 3 eggs
• ¾ cup milk
• 3 tablespoons Greek yogurt
• ¼ cup sugar
• ½ tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons flour
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• cinnamon to taste (I used almost a full teaspoon)
• pinch of salt
• 3 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces

Instructions

1. Grease a small baking pan with butter (I just used a small loaf pan). Tear the croissants into small pieces and place in the dish.
2. Whisk the eggs, milk, yogurt, sugar, and vanilla. Pour evenly over bread. Cover and refrigerate overnight in the fridge (or for a few hours if you are short on time).
3. For the topping, mix flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Cut the cold butter in with a food processor or just using your fingers until your mixture looks like small crumbs.
4. When you're ready to eat, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sprinkle crumb mixture over the top of the croissant/egg mixture in the pan. Bake for 30-45 minutes depending on how soft/crispy you want it to be. Make sure the french toast is fully cooked before you remove it from the oven - usually the top looks done before the inside is really done.
5. Top with butter and drizzle with maple syrup.

Some fun things that I've been loving recently are:

These EVOL cups from Target. I like them, and they have a lot of different veggies and flavors, but I'm not sure I LOVE them. But they are easy to take to work as a side instead of chips or something unhealthy!

I LOOOOOOOOOVE THESE Sea Salt Butterscotch caramels!! They are like the candies my grandma used to buy, but so much better. I was skeptical at first since they look so ordinary. They have a good salty flavor, so I think that's why they are so good.

Homemade milkshakes! We got a milkshake somewhere the other day and it was just not good! It was so thick and not chocolatey enough. So I made one at home that I think was a million times better. I also added whipped cream on top, but forgot to take a pic!

Hendrickx Belgian Bread Crafter

I love to write Yelp reviews because it's my way of keeping track of all the restaurants, bakeries, and other businesses I've been to in Chicago. That way, I have a nice list of what I like and don't like, and also what I still want to try. I also love using Yelp to find out if these places that I haven't been to are good, bad, legit, and if they're worth visiting at all.

SO recently I started hearing about how Yelp is now doing a bunch of shady stuff like calling businesses and trying to make them pay to hide the negative reviews that they might have, or have people write fake positive reviews for their business if they pay Yelp so much a month, but then if they turn them down, have fake negative reviews written on their page. While some of that may be true, I think you can usually tell the fake reviews from the real ones. That still doesn't help that some reviews may be hidden in order to get a higher star rating for a business. 

Anyway, I think I am going to start reviewing Chicago businesses here in my blog. There are so many that I love, and so if anyone stumbles across this, they will get an honest review! I will still use Yelp to look up new businesses, but just know that some of the reviews may not be for real.

Don't mind the papers and coffee! I was so excited to take a bite, I didn't care what the picture looked like!

So the best croissants in town belong to Hendrickx Belgain Bread Crafter. It's a small little bakery at 100 E. Walton, conveniently right across from my work! The interior is very cute and colorful, with a bright orange door that makes it very easy to spot. The owners are brother and sister I believe, and they are the friendliest people ever. They have brought a REAL taste of Belgium into the city of Chicago for sure. Even though I've never been to Europe, I'm sure this is what it tastes like.

I bought my first almond chocolate croissant when they were first opening and the menu was still small. It was one of the best croissants I'd ever eaten, and still is! It has this dense, chewiness that makes it so much better than a flaky, greasy croissant. The belgian chocolate inside is not overpowering, which can sometimes be the case with chocolate croissants. It takes 18 hours just to make one batch of 'em, and I believe it! You can taste the tender love and care in each bite.

Look at those beautiful layers

The menu has grown a lot since they first opened, and now includes lunch items like chicken and egg salad sandwiches, goat cheese and pistachio sandwiches, tomato and carrot soup, muffins, breads, macaroons, eclairs, and the leige waffle (which is really popular in Belgium I guess). You can tell everything is made with quality ingredients.

Chicken Salad on freshly made Country White Bread (and a badly lit picture)

They also offer cooking classes, and I really want to go to one! The most recent one was a Crepes class, but they don't have a website and only post them on their Facebook page, so it's tricky to find out when they are happening. One of the cool things about Hendrickx is that you can see right inside their kitchen. They aren't afraid of letting you see how they bake the goodies, and what ingredients they use.

If you are ever in the area, please stop in and grab a croissant, even if you just take it home for later. I wish I could ship these to all my friends for Christmas so they can enjoy the greatness of them.