How I Made An Easy Version of Crystal Palace's Breakfast Lasagna

I've enjoyed spending some time during these months of stay at home orders finding fun Disney recipes and making them at home to enjoy!  

This Breakfast Lasagna from the Crystal Palace at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom was my biggest challenge to date.  I found this recipe from food.com which appeared to be the most accurate reproduction based on comments so I thought I'd use this as my starting point.  It was a little intimidating at first glance, but then I figured I could tweak it a little bit.  I really didn't want to make homemade everything!

First I chose to skip the pancakes and just use two layers of waffles.  Then, because my husband is the waffle maker and I'm not, I elected to use frozen waffles instead of making those from scratch.

I bought pre-made pound cake instead of making it from scratch.

But I did use the recipe listed for custard and pastry cream.  I started making those on a Friday afternoon so they could refrigerate overnight.  

The next morning before everyone else woke up, I layered my waffles and pound cake as instructed to do so in the recipe and added the fruit.  Baked it and it was absolutely delicious!  

 

I'll be honest that the most time consuming part was assembling the ingredient list and making the pastry cream and custard.  If you want to make everything from scratch, it may take a little more time as well, but it may taste more like the real thing!?

Here is my recipe, after starting with the recipe at food.com by chef #208121 and tweaking it to fit my busy life and lack of desire to make everything from scratch!!

Ingredients: 

1 box frozen waffles

2 cups frozen berries

1 store bought pound cake

4 bananas (3 for baking; 1 for topping)

1 TBSP butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 pint fresh berries (or you can use frozen)

For the Custard:

6 large eggs

1 1/2 pints heavy cream

1 pint half and half

1 ounce brandy (I omitted this)

1/4 ounce nutmeg

1/2 ounce cinnamon

1 1/2 cups sugar

For the Pastry Cream:

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

6 egg yolks

1 1/2 cups milk

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cups sugar

Make the Pastry Cream first.

1.  In a 2 quart saucepan, combine sugar, flour, salt and milk.  Whisk.  Over medium heat, cook while stirring until mixture becomes thick.

2.  In a small bowl with a fork, beat egg yolks slightly, beat small amount of milk mixture into yolks.

3.  Slowly pour egg mixture back into milk mixture.

4.  Stirring constantly, cook over medium low heat until mixture thickens.

5.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.  Chill cream until ready to use.

Make Custard next.

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisk until fully incorporated.  Chill until ready to use.

Assembly

1.  Butter a casserole dish.

2.  Put a layer of waffles down on the bottom.

3.  Sprinkle a quarter of the pound cake over the waffles. 

4.  Peel and slice 3 bananas.  Layer with half of the bananas and frozen berries.

5.  Sprinkle half of the remaining pound cake over the fruit.

6.  Top with the rest of the fruit.

7.  Top with a second layer of the frozen waffles.

8.  Sprinkle with the rest of the pound cake.

9.  Press down on the layers to pack firmly.  This is important!  If you don't, it will be too tall for the pan!

10.  Slowly add the custard mixture until the entire dish is saturated.

Baking and garnishing:

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 60 minutes.

Top the lasagna with a layer of 2 1/2 cups pastry cream.

Slice the last banana and layer on top of cream.

Sprinkle brown sugar on top and place casserole under the broiler until browned. 

Garnish with fresh fruit and serve.

Give it a try!  I can tell you that I'm definitely going to want to try this at the Crystal Palace at the Magic Kingdom the next time I'm able to!!