French Toast Casserole

Name: French Toast Casserole
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 55 min
Ingredients: 1 loaf French bread ((450g)); 8 large eggs; 1 cup milk; 1/2 cup maple syrup ((or granulated sugar)); 2 teaspoons cinnamon; 2 teaspoons vanilla extract; 2 tablespoons granulated sugar; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 1/4 cup powdered sugar; 1 tablespoon milk

written by Ashley Fehr

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5 from 13 votes

Prep Time 10 mins

Total Time 55 mins

Servings 6 servings

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French Toast Casserole is perfect for prepping the night before and popping in the oven for a weekend or holiday brunch! An overnight French toast bake with cinnamon, vanilla and maple and crispy cinnamon sugar topping.

french toast casserole in glass pan with glaze drizzle from a spoon

We are big breakfast lovers here.

It doesn’t matter if it’s breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner — if breakfast is on the table, we’re all in! There was no struggle to eat when this French Toast Casserole was on the table 😉

Some of our favorites for busy mornings?

Slow Cooker Oatmeal for those mornings we just can’t get it together, these Mini Frittata Muffins for a healthy breakfast or school lunch, and these Healthy Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins for when we are running out the door, whatever the time of day.

But we also love sitting down to a relaxed breakfast or lunch on weekends, holidays, or birthdays — these Whole Wheat Pancakes often make an appearance, and The BEST Cinnamon Buns are a favorite always!

french toast casserole whole drizzled with glaze

Adding to our list of favorites today is this easy French Toast Bake, which I love most because you can prep it completely the night before you need it.

The center is soft and tender like a bread pudding, but I love a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar on mine just for that fun texture!

How to make French Toast Casserole:

Start with your bread — cut it or tear it into small pieces, and throw it into a greased baking dish.
Whisk up your egg mixture, and pour it over top.
Stir up the streusel mixture to throw on top.
At this point, you can refrigerate to bake the next day (if you’re doing this, you may want to leave the streusel and add it in the morning so it stays crunchy), or you can let it sit for a couple hours and bake right away.
Serve warm or at room temperature — my kids even love the leftovers for lunches!

french toast casserole piece with pan and maple syrup in the background

What’s the best bread for French toast?

Stale bread is best for French toast because it’s a little drier, and will soak up that egg mixture before baking.

If I don’t have stale bread, I like to toast slices briefly to dry them out before adding to my pan.

In reality, you can use almost any leftover breads or baking you have to make French toast!

Brioche, or Brioche buns, leftover croissants, donuts, pancakes, cinnamon raisin bread would all be amazing, and I’m all for using up leftover bits before they’ve gone bad.

Variations on this French Toast Casserole:

To make this French Toast Casserole dairy free, substitute the dairy milk for almond or coconut milk and be sure that your bread doesn’t contain dairy.
You can swap the brown sugar for maple syrup for a maple twist on this French toast bake.
Add in chocolate chips, swirls of peanut butter, fresh or frozen berries, chopped bananas, nuts, or chunks of cream cheese if you want! This recipe is really an awesome one for adapting and having fun with. Let your mind go wild!

french toast casserole with syrup drizzle on white plate

What to serve with Baked French Toast:

This French toast recipe doesn’t need much for side dishes, but I love serving it with smoothies (this Healthy Strawberry Smoothie recipe and this Pineapple Smoothie are favorites), or fruit salad (this Creamy Fruit Salad Recipe, Hawaiian Fruit Salad, and Christmas Fruit Salad are fun ones depending on the season!), to create a more balanced meal.

Coffee is also a must!

Some of our best French Toast recipes:

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Ingredients

1 loaf French bread (450g)
8 large eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup maple syrup (or granulated sugar)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Cinnamon Sugar

2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Glaze

1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk

Instructions

Lightly grease a 9×9" pan.
Cut or tear bread into 1" cubes and place in pan — it will be full and that's okay!
In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, maple syrup, cinnamon and vanilla. Pour over bread in pan, doing your best to evenly distribute the mixture over the bread.
Using a spatula, press the bread down into the liquid the best you can.
Cinnamon Sugar: In a small bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle over bread.
Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.
Cover (with foil or a lid) and bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes. Remove cover and bake another 15-20 minutes until set in the middle and top is slightly crispy.
Glaze: stir together powdered sugar and milk and drizzle over French toast, or serve with syrup, fruit, whipped cream or yogurt as desired.

Notes

*You can bake this in a 9×13″ pan if you prefer, but the casserole will be quite thin and will require reduced baking time.

Nutrition Information

Keywords french toast bake, french toast casserole

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Published on December 10, 2019 / Last updated on May 26, 2020