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This best-loved overnight French toast casserole is perfect for making ahead of time! It’s eggy with a hint of cinnamon.
Overnight breakfast casseroles are my favorite thing to make on weekends, or for holiday gatherings and brunches. This French toast casserole is by far my most popular, but people also love my Cinnamon Roll French Toast Bake, and for a savory casserole – Sausage Breakfast Casserole.
Overnight Casserole Recipe
We love 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 of my favorite recipes to enjoy on this day is French Toast, and more specifically, today’s french toast casserole. This breakfast bake is simple to make and is beyond delicious.
It’s perfect for making ahead of time, making holidays like Mother’s Day and Christmas morning a breeze!
The Best Bread for French Toast
This oven french toast 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
Make Ahead French Toast Casserole
This easy french toast casserole takes a few steps but is quite simple.
BREAD. Cut bread into 1-inch cubes and scatter evenly in a greased 9-x-13-inch baking dish.
EGG MIXTURE. In a medium bowl, mix eggs, milk, heavy cream, vanilla, and sugar together, then pour evenly over the bread.
CHILL. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
TOPPING. Mix flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl. Cut butter into this mixture until crumbly. Place the topping in a small resealable plastic bag and refrigerate overnight as well.
BAKE. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F. Unwrap the baking dish and sprinkle the topping evenly over the bread.
Bake, uncovered, for 45–60 minutes, depending on how soft you like it.
Crockpot directions
Follow the recipe directions but reduce the amount of milk by ½ cup. Refrigerate for 6-10 hours in the ceramic crock pot. Place the ceramic pot into the heating base, cover it, and cook on low for 4 hours or high for 2 hours.
Recipe Tips and Variations
Soggy french toast bake. This overnight french toast casserole should be soft on the bottom and crisp on the top. If 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. 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.
Variations. Change up your french toast bake recipe with these delicious twists:
- For a more savory casserole: ham and cheese, chorizo, green chile, sausage, or crumbled bacon.
- For a sweet casserole: thinly sliced apple, orange zest, sliced apricots, sliced pineapple, blueberries, and chopped pecans.
Serving + Storing
This baked french toast casserole is delicious when drizzled in maple syrup, but here are a few more tasty ideas.
What to serve with french toast bake:
- Buttermilk Syrup
- Cheesy Hashbrown Breakfast Casserole
- Sausage Cream Cheese Casserole
- Orange Julius
- Cinnamon Buttermilk Syrup
FREEZE. Freeze french toast casserole recipe before or after baking. Wrap the dish with plastic wrap then foil and freeze for up to 2 months.
When you’re ready to eat thaw overnight in the fridge, remove all the wrapping, and bake. If it has been prebaked cook it at 350°F for 20 minutes. If it has not been pre-baked, cook according to the recipe directions.
Recipe FAQ
The main reasons for soggy baked french toast include using too much egg mixture, the oven temperature being too low, or you didn’t bake it long enough. Also, be sure to bake it uncovered.
Thick dry bread works best as it needs to be able to soak up all the egg custard without completely falling apart. My favorites to use include Brioche, Challah, Pullman loaf, French bread, sourdough bread, or stale Texas Toast.
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
French Toast
- 1 loaf sourdough bread or brioche, challah or French bread
- 8 large eggs
- 2 cups milk
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup sugar
Topping
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup cold unsalted butter cut into pieces
Instructions
- Cut bread into 1-inch cubes and scatter evenly in a greased 9-x-13-inch baking dish.
- In a medium bowl, mix eggs, milk, heavy cream, vanilla, and sugar together, then pour evenly over the bread.
- Cover the dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
- To make the topping, mix flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl. Cut butter into this mixture until crumbly. Place the topping in a small resealable plastic bag and refrigerate overnight as well.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Unwrap the baking dish and sprinkle the topping evenly over the bread.
- Bake, uncovered, for 45–60 minutes, depending on how soft you like it.
Video
Notes
Variations.
o For a more savory casserole, add ham and cheese, chorizo, green chilies, sausage, or crumbled bacon.
o For a sweet casserole, add thinly sliced apple, orange zest, sliced apricots, sliced pineapple, blueberries, or chopped pecans.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe from Mormon Mavens in the Kitchen.
Has anyone put chopped nuts in the crumble topping? I’m going to try pecans!
I made a trial run of this recipe to see if I wanted to include it on a brunch buffet we’re hosting in a few weeks. I used Costco’s seasonal Cinnamon Raisin boule bread 😋 which gave a wonderful texture to the finished dish. I only used 6 eggs (I saw reviews for similar recipes that commented on a distracting eggy flavor) and used a combo of 1 c of coconut milk and 1 c of dairy milk for an added flavor boost – we thought it came out great. Agree with another reviewer that mixing the custard and bread cubes several times before refrigerating and then again before baking leads to zero sogginess. Final test will be how does it taste at room temp …
Can I cook this in the crockpot?
Great recipe!
4 stars only due to the Blog having so many ads that it makes it difficult to get to the recipe. Continually jumps the page around.
Really good. Like that its a casserole make overnight. Read through all tips and decided to make as is. It was NOT overly soggy , but it was too soggy for us on bottom. There was not leftover marinade. Wondering how best to fix this. I will try cooking 50-60 m instead of 40. Hope it works.
One thing- I turned the bread in the milk marinade before leaving overnight because not all were coated. I highly recommend that.
Hope we fix the soggy parts. We plan to make again for Christmas.
This recipe is hands down delicious. I followed the recipe from start to finish exactly and it came out so well I’m ready to make a gluten free version with coconut or date sugar.
Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe.