This super delicious overnight French Toast Bake recipe takes French toast to a whole new level! Pieces of sourdough bread covered in an egg mixture, topped with cinnamon sugar, and baked to perfection! This easy French toast casserole is the ultimate holiday or weekend breakfast!!
Overnight breakfast casseroles are my favorite thing to make on weekends, or for holiday gatherings and brunches. This french toast bake is by far my most popular, but people also love my Cinnamon Roll French Toast Bake, and for a savory casserole, Breakfast Strata is a winner!
Overnight French Toast Casserole Recipe
I’ve blogged before about my love of breakfast foods. I could eat it any time of the day, and it’s fairly common to come over to the Merkley home on an evening and find us eating Belgian Waffles or Buttermilk Pancakes.
Breakfast recipes are just that great! I feel like we don’t get to eat them often enough in the mornings since we’re usually in a rush, but we occasionally get to enjoy them on the weekends and holidays. One holiday we always have breakfast is on Mother’s Day. And usually I’m not the one that has to bake it!! 😉
One of my favorite recipes to enjoy on this day is French Toast, and more specifically, today’s French Toast Bake. This breakfast bake is simple to make and is beyond delicious!!
This french toast casserole is made from pieces of sourdough bread, covered in an egg mixture, and topped with a buttery cinnamon sugar topping. Talk about DELICIOUS, right?!
What is the best bread for french toast?
This baked french toast casserole recipe calls for sourdough bread, which is my personal favorite (and the only kind I’ve ever used). But if you don’t have sourdough on hand, there are a few other options you could try!
The main idea is that you want the bread to be sturdy enough that it will hold up after being combined with the egg mixture. Thinly sliced or squishy bread (think wonder bread) can fall apart while cooking after being soaked in the egg mixture. It’s also a bonus if it’s available in an uncut loaf, because then you can slice and cube it perfectly. Here are some other options:
- Brioche
- Challah
- Pullman Loaf
- French Bread
If you try any other breads, you’ll have to let me know how it turns out!
I think what makes it so good is the sourdough bread… oh, and the butter and the cinnamon and the sugar. It’s definitely one of our favorite dishes to make for holidays and weekend breakfasts!
How to Make French Toast Bake:
This recipe takes a few steps but is quite simple. To begin, cut your bread or loaf into cubes and place into a greased 9×13 pan.
In a bowl, mix together eggs, milk, heavy cream, sugar and vanilla. Pour evenly over the bread. Cover your pan with cling warp and refrigerate overnight.
Make streusel topping by mixing together flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl. Cut in butter with this mixture until crumbly and place in a Ziploc bag. Refrigerate this mixture overnight as well.
When ready to bake, sprinkle crumbly mixture evenly over bread and bake.
Variations:
For a more savory casserole add: ham and cheese, chorizo, green chile, sausage or crumbled bacon.
For a sweet casserole add: thinly sliced apple, orange zest, sliced apricots, sliced pineapple, blueberries, chopped pecans
TIPS, TRICKS, and FAQ
Why is my french toast bake soggy? This casserole should be soft on the bottom and crisp on the top. If you find your casserole comes out too soggy try some of these tips:
- Soak the bread in a separate bowl: If there’s too much egg in the pan it may be left a little soggy. One way around this is to store your bread mixture overnight in a bowl. In the morning transfer the bread to the baking dish leaving behind the extra liquid.
- Choose the correct bread: choose a dense bread such as Brioche, Challah, Pullman Loaf, or French Bread.
- Use a lipped cookie sheet instead of a 9×13 baking dish. You will have to adjust the bake time and watch carefully.
- Not soaking the bread long enough: You want the egg mixture to seep deep into the bread for a soft custardy center. If the mixture doesn’t have time to soak into the bread it may end up creating a soggy mess.
Can you freeze it? Yes, you can choose to freeze it before or after baking. Wrap dish with plastic wrap then foil. It can keep for up to 2 months in the freezer. When you’re ready to eat thaw overnight in the fridge, remove all the wrapping and bake. If it been prebaked cook at 350 degree F for 20 minutes. If it has not been pre-baked, cook according to recipe directions.
Can french toast casserole be cooked in crock pot? Yes make according to recipe directions. Refrigerate for 6-10 hours in the ceramic crock pot. Place the ceramic pot into the heating base, cover and cook on low for 4 hours or high for 2 hours.
what to serve with french toast bake:
- Homemade Buttermilk Syrup
- Cheesy Hash Brown Breakfast Casserole
- Crescent Roll Sausage Bake
- Copycat Orange Julius
- Cinnamon Buttermilk Syrup
For more french toast recipes, check out:
- Pound Cake French Toast
- Eggnog French Toast
- French Toast Muffins
- Creme Brûlée French Toast
- Cinnamon Roll French Toast Bake
- Pumpkin French Toast Bake
French Toast Casserole Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 loaf sourdough bread
- 8 eggs
- 2 c milk
- 1/2 c heavy whipping cream
- 3/4 c sugar
- 1 TB vanilla extract
Topping
- 1/2 c all-purpose flour
- 1/2 c brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 c butter cold, cut into pieces
Instructions
- Cut loaf into cubes and place evenly in a greased 9x13 pan.
- In a bowl, mix together eggs, milk, heavy cream, sugar and vanilla. Pour evenly over bread.
- Cover your pan with Saran Wrap and refrigerate overnight.
- Mix together flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl.
- Cut in butter with this mixture until crumbly and place in a Ziploc bag and refrigerate overnight as well.
- Take pan and Ziploc out when ready to bake. Sprinkle crumbly mixture evenly over the bread.
- Bake at 350 for 45 minutes to 1 hour depending on how soft you like it.
Video
Recipe from Mormon Mavens in the Kitchen.
I have made this countless times and it is amazing!!!!! I haven’t made it for a while though and I forgot if the brown sugar should be packed or not? Thanks! This is such a delicious recipe!!!
I’m so glad that you love the recipe!! It is one of our favs too. I don’t usually pack the brown sugar. But honestly, either way it would still turn out just fine I think.
Made this a few times now and we all love it! I would like to make a pan to freeze and I am aware you can choose to freeze it before or after baking. Wrap dish with plastic wrap then foil. It can keep for up to 2 months in the freezer. When you’re ready to eat thaw overnight in the fridge, remove all the wrapping and bake. If it been prebaked cook at 350 degree F for 20 minutes. If it has not been pre-baked, cook according to recipe directions.
My question is would you make it, leave overnight in the fridge for the mixture to soak in the bread and in the morning put the topping on then freeze or do you make it completely add topping and put it directly in the freezer without leaving in fridge overnight? I plan on not pre-bake it.
I would probably let it soak overnight just to make sure it gets soaked into the bread before freezing.
First how many ounces or grams is your sourdough loaf?
Second could you use rye, whole wheat or whatever?
Thirdly, is it ok to use regular milk?
I use the 24 oz loaf of sourdough typically. I have not used rye or whole wheat. I like to use bread that is light and spongey that will soak up the custard well, not making it soggy. I’m not sure how well a rye or whole wheat would do that? I haven’t tried. And I use regular milk along with the heavy whipping cream. You could also use half and half, but I always use milk/heavy whipping cream and it turns out 100%!
I made this with a few substitutions. I didn’t have heavy cream so I used french vanilla coffee creamer and used just a drop of vanilla extract. I added a quarter teaspoon of nutmeg and used ten eggs.For the bread I used half a loaf of Hawaiian sweet bread and four brioche rolls. I also didn’t leave it sit in the fridge overnight as I didn’t have time. It came out absolutely delicious and was gone in a few hours.
Oh I’m so happy to hear it turned out yummy and everyone loved it! Thanks for giving the recipe a try and sharing what you did.
This was SO good!! It’s tedious work but SO worth it. I was nervous to use sourdough but I’m very glad I did use it. You couldn’t taste sourdough at all. And because it’s a denser bread… it turned out perfect.. not to hard and not smooshy gooshy! I turned off the oven at 45 mins and just let it stay warm in the oven for a while because it didn’t look browned yet. By the time we were all ready to eat, it was perfectly browned. I will definitely make again!
Thanks for sharing what you did! The sourdough in this recipe is really good. So glad you all enjoyed the dish!
Had this for Brunch,delicious! Ladies were very happy 😊
Yay! I’m so glad to hear that!
I just prepared this for my daughter’s birthday Brinner! I usually make a different French toast bake recipe that calls for a full stick of melted butter and 1/4 C of brown sugar mixed together and spread on the bottom of the pan before layering the slices of bread. But I like the idea of cutting bread into cubes like monkey bread and your egg batter mixture has more to it than the other recipe. So I took the caramel bottom idea from the one recipe and combined it with everything else from your recipe. I think this is going to be a huge hit! The bottom turns to caramel while baking and the whole thing tastes like Werther’s toffee in French toast form! YUM!!! I also decided to use cinnamon swirl brioche bread. This will be dessert for dinner for sure. ♥️🤤🎉
Yummy! That sounds absolutely delicious! Definitely dessert for dinner. 🙂
very nice
I was looking for a recipe so I could use up a whole loaf of bread and this did not disappoint. In fact, this was a huge hit! I did substitute out the heavy whipping cream for cream cheese. It made the custard rich and creamy. I didn’t get a chance to refrigerate this overnight either, but the custard mixture soaked all the way through probably since the bread loaf I had wasn’t sourdough. I also added oatmeal to the stresel on top and it gave it a breakfast on the grandparents farm nostalgic taste. I will definitely be making this again!