French Toast Casserole is one of our family’s favorite breakfast recipes. In fact, we make it for special occasions all year long and ALWAYS on Christmas Day. Thick cubes of bread are soaked in a sweet vanilla custard and topped with a buttery cinnamon crumble. It is simple enough for a weekend breakfast and special enough for holiday breakfast or brunch.
The best part is that you can prepare everything the night before. In the morning, just pop it in the oven and let it bake. It’s not only delicious, but feeds a crowd and is especially perfect for feeding guests in town.
For other breakfast favorites, check out our Sausage breakfast casserole and classic holiday breakfast casserole. And if oyu are looking for something equally as impressive to pair it with, try our Easy Candied Bacon.
Why we think you’ll love it:
- Simple. The easiest make-ahead breakfast for holidays or weekends.
- Customize. Easy to customize with fruit, nuts, or chocolate chips.
- Holiday perfection. Perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or any special occasion AND perfect for feeding a crowd or enjoying leftovers later.
- Your house will thank you. Our French Toast Bake smells amazing and looks beautiful with minimal effort.
French Toast Casserole Ingredients
- Bread (1 24-ounce loaf of sourdough, brioche, French bread or challah): The main idea is that you want the bread to be sturdy enough that the bread cubes will hold up after being combined with the egg mixture.
- PRO TIP: For any of these breads, you can slice and toast or let slices sit out for 24 hours to make them more stale and sturdy.
- Eggs (8 large): Create the rich custard and give the casserole structure.
- Milk (2 cups) and heavy cream (½ cup): Add moisture and richness.
- Vanilla extract (1 tablespoon): Adds warm, sweet flavor.
- Sugar (¾ cup): Sweetens the custard perfectly.
Topping
- All-purpose flour (½ cup): Helps create the crumble texture.
- Packed light brown sugar (½ cup): Adds caramel-like sweetness.
- Ground cinnamon (1 teaspoon): Brings warm, cozy flavor.
- Salt (¼ teaspoon): Balances the sweetness.
- Cold unsalted butter (½ cup, cut into pieces): Creates the crumbly, golden topping.
How to Make French Toast Bake
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, whisk 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. This overnight French toast casserole should be soft on the bottom and crisp on the top.
Serve it with some of our favorites, including: Buttermilk Syrup, Cinnamon Buttermilk Syrup, Whipped Cream and sliced strawberries
Kristyn’s Recipe Tips
- BREAD. Choose sturdy bread such as sourdough, challah, or brioche so it can soak up the custard without getting soggy.
- OVERNIGHT. Soak overnight to let the flavors deepen and the bread fully absorb the custard.
- TOPPING. Keep the topping chilled until you are ready to bake, then sprinkle it over the bread for the best texture.
- TOO SOGGY. 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.
- 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.
French Toast Casserole Recipe
Video
Ingredients
French Toast
- 1 (24-ounce) 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 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 degrees 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.
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 FAQ
For a more savory casserole: ham and cheese, chorizo, green chiles, sausage, or crumbled bacon.
For a sweet casserole: thinly sliced apple, orange zest, sliced apricots, sliced pineapple, blueberries, raspberries, and chopped pecans.
You can also swap ingredients, like milk for almond milk, cinnamon for nutmeg and more!
FREEZE. Freeze this easy French toast casserole 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 pre-baked, cook it at 350°F for 20 minutes. If it has not been pre-baked, cook according to the recipe directions.
If you have any leftover baked French toast casserole, cover the pan with plastic or divide it into individual airtight containers. Keep it in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. Reheat in the microwave.
This was such a DELICIOUS recipe! I didn’t follow it 100%, but it goes to the recipe’s versatility with whatever you have in your fridge. I used a loaf of Trader Joe’s Pumpkin brioche. I dried it in the oven before adding the custard mix. I didn’t have milk, but I had half-and-half and cashew milk. I used a cup of each. I mixed it in a bowl and stored it in the fridge overnight uncovered. I worried that the dryer bits on top were mixed with the soggy bits, but it came out nice and crusty after I baked it for 55 minutes. The only other thing I didn’t do was add the crumbly topping because I didn’t want the extra sugar since I was going to add maple syrup. I will absolutely make this again. I’ll just halve the recipe because it’s only me eating it.
Mmmm I bet it was so tasty with the Pumpkin brioche. Thanks for sharing what you did/used and for giving the recipe a try!! Glad to hear it was a hit!
Excited to try this as it sounds delicious! Will it work if I don’t soak for at least 4 hours? I was searching the comments, but don’t see anyone that has tried this. Have you ever tried only 2 hours for example?
You could try! The only thing is if the mixture doesn’t have time to soak into the bread it may end up creating a soggy mess. So, I would say at least 2 hours. You’ll have to let us know how it turns out!!
Making this for our October fest/Fall get together with friends and family camping out at our home…soo excited, always wanted to try a French toast casserole and with all the rave reviews we are using this recipe…will update afterwards on results!! Has anyone ever added bacon bits? For the savory?
Can’t wait to hear how it turned out. The bacon bits in it are fantastic, if you like that maple/bacon flavor combo!
We LOVED this recipe!!
Has anyone put chopped nuts in the crumble topping? I’m going to try pecans!
That will be amazing!!
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 …
Thanks for sharing what you did. The flavors sounded exciting and delicious!
Can I cook this in the crockpot?
Yes you can! Crockpot instructions are included in the recipe post.
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.
Thanks for the feedback. The ads allow us to keep all of our content on the site free! Glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe!
My secret to avoid all the jumping around due to the ads is click on the jump to recipe button and once there, click on the print recipe option. That will take you to a new screen of no ads, just the recipe. So much easier to deal with!!!
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.
We have lots of tips in the post to help ensure it doesn’t turn out soggy. Hopefully some of those can help too as you try it again! Thanks for giving the recipe a try.
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.