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With this French toast casserole, you skip the hassle of standing by the stove and pan-frying each individual slice of French toast.
Instead, you just throw everything into a dish and let the oven do the work! You can even assemble the casserole the night before and bake it the next morning.
You still get all the best parts of a slice of French toast, but with far less effort: soft and custardy middles, cinnamon-infused edges, plus an extra-crunchy toasted topping.
What You’ll Need
For this French toast casserole, you are going to need a fairly large loaf of bread – enough to make about 10 cups once cubed. Use any good-quality loaf, like a French loaf, sourdough, ciabatta, or challah. I actually really liked the sourdough bread because the slight sour taste helped balance out the sweetness of everything else.
Leave the crusts on the bread since this adds some good, crunchy texture to the casserole!
Add Some Toppings!
I also added some orange zest and dried cranberries to my version to brighten up the flavors. You can leave these out if you want, or add your own favorite dried fruits to the casserole!
By the way, those extra-crunchy top pieces are like cinnamon and sugar croutons. As I was testing this recipe, I kept picking them from the top and leaving the bottom for my husband. Shh…don’t tell anyone.
How to Make Overnight French Toast Casserole
You can absolutely make this recipe straight through and bake it right away, but for a totally hands-off and hassle-free morning, assemble it the night before and bake it in the morning when you get up. This actually gives the bread even more time to soak up the milk, which makes the inside of the baked casserole more custardy and decadent.
Here’s what to do: Assemble the casserole through Step 4, cover well, and refrigerate overnight. The next day, uncover, drizzle the casserole with the topping, and bake. Baking time will be slightly longer.
Ways to Make This Recipe Your Own
We’ve gotten some fabulous comments since first posting this recipe! Here are a few ideas you should definitely try:
- Add a little booze to the custard, like Amaretto or rum (a few tablespoons should do it!)
- Use cinnamon swirl bread for the bread!
- Swap in any non-dairy milk instead of the dairy milk, like almond milk or cashew milk
- Use doughnuts or leftover cake instead of bread (oh my goodness)
- Add some crispy, crumbled bacon, either in the mix or over top — or both!
What other ideas do you have? Tell us in the comments!
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French Toast Casserole Recipe
Make-ahead instructions: Assemble the casserole through Step 4, cover well, and refrigerate overnight. The next day, uncover, drizzle the casserole with the topping, and bake. Baking time will be slightly longer.
This casserole reheats well, though the chunks of bread on the top will gradually lose some crunch. The best way to reheat it is to bake it in the oven at 350F for 10 to 15 minutes to warm through and re-crisp the top.
Ingredients
For the casserole:
- 1 large loaf good-quality French loaf, sourdough, ciabatta, or challah (enough to yield 10 cups of chunks of bread)
- 1/2 cup (45g) chopped pecans
- 5 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- Zest from one medium orange (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
For the topping:
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 3 tablespoons (40g) dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Pinch of salt
Optional toppings for serving:
- Dried cranberries
- Powdered sugar
- Maple syrup
Method
1 Preheat the oven to 375F (190C). Place an oven rack in the center position.
2 Slice the bread into 1-inch slices and then cut them into 1-inch cubes. You can also tear the bread apart with your hands. Leave the crusts on.
3 Layer the bread and pecans in a baking dish: Lightly grease a 2-quart (if you want thicker slices) or 3-quart baking dish (if you want thinner slices) with cooking spray or butter. Add enough bread cubes to cover the bottom. Sprinkle a few tablespoons of pecans on top. Continue layering the bread chunks and pecans.
4 Prepare and add the custard: In a small bowl, whisk the eggs together. Add the milk, sugar, orange zest, and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and mix well. Pour the egg and milk mixture evenly over all the bread chunks. (I found it easier to pour the mixture into a large measuring cup with a spout first before pouring the mixture over the bread.)
At this point, the casserole can be baked right away, or covered and refrigerated overnight.
5 Drizzle with topping: In another bowl, mix the melted butter with the brown sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and a pinch of salt. Using a spoon, drizzle the mixture evenly over all the bread chunks.
6 Bake the casserole for 35 to 45 minutes. I baked mine for about 38 minutes. Leave the casserole in the oven longer if you want the chunks of bread on the top to be more brown and crunchier.
7 Remove the casserole from the oven and let it cool for about 10 minutes before serving. Sprinkle dried cranberries and dust powdered sugar on top, if you like. Serve with maple syrup at the table.
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Lisa Lin is the writer and photographer behind Healthy Nibbles & Bits, where she shares simple, gluten-free recipes. She grew up in San Francisco and spent time living in China and Washington, D.C. before moving back to California. Her recipes are often inspired by her time in China and travel throughout Southeast Asia.
French Toast Casserole
I’ve made this twice now..first time I made a half batch because I wasn’t sure how it would taste but I used an apple strudel bread and omg it was so yummy! This time I used the apple strudel and cinnamon raisin and topped with mini chocolate chips and confetti chips, looks and smells delicious, will be having it for breakfast in the morning
xxxxxyyyyy
This might be a dumb question but I’m learning how to cook so bear with me. If I wanted to cook this in a 4.7 quart baking dish how would I do that? How would the quantity and cooking time differ? Or would I just double up on the ingredients?
Hi Melissa,
Using a much larger baking dish would make the casserole shallower, so the egg custard mixture wouldn’t hit as much of the bread cubes. I’d anticipate it to be dryer, plus crustier because you’d be exposing more of the bread to the oven. And yes, the baking time would be shorter. If you love crusty tops, it might be for you, but I’d be wary of nearly doubling the pan size here. Try scaling the recipe up by 2, and maybe you can freeze leftovers! Yaay!
So delicious!!! I had planned to make this Christmas morning, but our plans changed. I didn’t want to let the loaf go to waste though, so I prepped this on New Year’s Eve and refrigerated overnight. I melted 2/3 cup butter and blended it with the milk to simulate heavy cream (vs. plain milk). Even though I accidentally used all of the milk mixture in the dish, so I had to bake it slightly longer for the center to set (50 minutes) the casserole came out perfectly. This despite the French bread loaf I used being more than a week old! My husband and I agree we’ll make this casserole often in addition to the main dish of our New Year’s morning family tradition!
xxxxxyyyyy
Excellent- I made half the recipe, added cooked bacon & used 8×8 pan. I made it the night before & added topping in the morning & it turned out great!
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Simply Awesome! Put it together Christmas Eve and enjoyed it on Christmas morning. The only change I made was I mixed the pecans in with the topping instead of layering them with the bread. Baked for 40 minutes. Served with fresh fruit and real maple syrup. This was a huge hit and is definately a Christmas tradition going forward. Thanks for this fabulous recipe.
xxxxxyyyyy