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Gooey pumpkin french toast casserole is oozing with butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar making it a family favorite fall breakfast!
If you love classic French Toast Bake and Pumpkin Pancakes, then you’ll love this pumpkin french toast casserole made with Cinnamon Buttermilk Syrup!
Why We Love Pumpkin Style!
Who loves pumpkin?! We do, and I’m here to tell you why you need to make this Pumpkin French Toast Casserole.
- Flavor. With pumpkin and all the spices of fall, everyone loves this recipe!
- Holiday Perfection. It’s great for holidays, especially Halloween and Thanksgiving.
- Spin on a Classic. Yes – this fall version of our classic French Toast Bake is perfect for any breakfast breakfast.
- Can be Made Ahead. Make it the night before making any holiday so easy.
How to Make Pumpkin French Toast Casserole
French toast pumpkin casserole is perfect for busy mornings! Just prep it the night before and enjoy the aroma of pumpkin in the morning.
- BREAD. Cut bread into 1½ inch squares. Place in a greased 9×13 pan.
- EGG MIXTURE. In a bowl whisk together eggs, milk, pumpkin pie spice, pumpkin puree, heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla. Once it’s mixed well, pour over bread chunks and refrigerate overnight. If looking to do this quicker, refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- STREUSEL. Mix flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and salt in a bowl. Cut in a cold stick of butter. Mix with your fork until crumbly. Refrigerate overnight as well.
- PREP. Once ready to bake preheat oven to 350°F.
- BAKE. Before baking, spread streusel over the top and bake for 35-45 minutes.
- SYRUP. Make buttermilk syrup by melting butter in a pan on low-medium heat. Add sugar, buttermilk, vanilla, and cinnamon – mix with whisk. Add baking soda and stir until all combined. Will be foamy at first and will then return to normal.
Serve warm over pumpkin french toast bake right out of the oven.
French Toast Muffins
Muffins are a delicious alternative to a casserole. It makes for a quick breakfast option. To make this change, grease a muffin tin and gently pack the mixture evenly into the muffin tin. Then bake at 350°F for 20 minutes.
Recipe Tips
Here are some other tips for this Pumpkin French Toast Bake:
- Best bread. We used sourdough bread for this recipe and it was flavorful and delicious. Stay away from using limp sandwich bread (you want crusty bread), but you can use other bread such as Texas Toast, Brioche, French bread, Pullman loaves, or challah bread.
- Make Stale Bread. If you do not have stale bread, cut up your bread and place it on a tray in the oven at 350°F for about 12-18 minutes until the bread becomes a little crunchy and all dried out.
- Let the Bread Soak. Allowing the pumpkin french toast casserole recipe to soak up in the fridge for a bit gives it a bread pudding-like texture.
- Pumpkin. We like pumpkin puree as opposed to pumpkin butter or pumpkin pie filling because the only ingredient is pumpkin.
- To make this non-dairy, use coconut cream instead of heavy cream and cashew milk instead of cow’s milk.
- Topping variations. Instead of cinnamon buttermilk syrup, try topping this with powdered sugar, agave syrup, maple syrup, honey, or incorporate walnuts/pecans into your streusel for some extra crunch.
Storing Info
- MAKE THIS AHEAD OF TIME. Assemble the casserole the night before, cover it with foil, and keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to bake it in the morning. You can also keep it in the freezer for up to 1 month. Thaw overnight in the fridge before baking.
- STORE. Though leftovers aren’t quite the same as freshly baked you do not want them going to waste. Keep leftover toast in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month. Reheat in the microwave or in the oven.
- Leftover syrup can be stored separately in an airtight container in the fridge for 1-2 weeks.
For more breakfast bakes
For More Breakfast Bakes, Try:
- Christmas Breakfast Casserole
- Breakfast Pie
- Overnight French Toast
- Tater Tot Breakfast Casserole
- Cinnamon Bites
Pumpkin French Toast Casserole Recipe
Gooey pumpkin french toast casserole is oozing with butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar making it a family favorite fall breakfast!
Ingredients
- 1 loaf sourdough bread (used Pepperidge Farm)
- 8 eggs
- 2 cups milk
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- ½ -1 cup LIBBY’S 100% Pure Pumpkin
- ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Topping
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup butter
Cinnamon Buttermilk Syrup
- ½ cup butter
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup buttermilk or 1/2cup milk with 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
- Cut bread into 1½ inch squares. Place in a greased 9×13 pan.
- In a bowl whisk together eggs, milk, pumpkin pie spice, pumpkin puree, heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla. Once it's mixed well, pour over bread chunks and refrigerate overnight. If looking to do this quicker, refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- To make the streusel, mix flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and salt in a bowl. Cut in a cold stick of butter. Mix with your fork until crumbly. Refigerate overnight as well.
- Once ready to bake preheat oven to 350°F.
- Before baking spread streusel over the top and bake for 35-45 minutes.
- Make buttermilk syrup by melting butter in a pan on low-medium heat. Add sugar, buttermilk, vanilla, and cinnamon – mix with whisk. Add baking soda and stir until all combined. Well be foamy at first and will then return to normal.
- Serve warm with french toast bake right out of the oven.
Video
Notes
Allowing the bread to dry out a bit or using stale bread can help the bread cubes absorb the custard mixture a little better.
Nutrition
Serving: 6g, Calories: 958kcal, Carbohydrates: 119g, Protein: 21g, Fat: 45g, Saturated Fat: 26g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 324mg, Sodium: 1093mg, Potassium: 420mg, Fiber: 3g, Sugar: 68g, Vitamin A: 4754IU, Vitamin C: 1mg, Calcium: 231mg, Iron: 5mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This Pumpkin French Toast Bake reminded me so much of Bread Pudding that I turned it into one. Call it Pumpkin French Toast or Pumpkin Bread Pudding… taste the same and so delicious!
Love this recipe one of my favorites!!
I love breakfast bakes and pumpkin so this was the perfect recipe to find. The recipe was made as written and I really liked the result.
French toast……pumpkin style! It’s that time of the year when there’s an abundance of pumpkin. A breakfast dish that can be made ahead of time. Something I really like to do..
Thank you so much for sharing this super helpful and really easy to make french toast recipe! It tasted amazing! Will surely have this again! Highly recommended!
This is dessert and breakfast in one! The Pumpkin with the french toast is the perfect pair!
I love your regular french toast bake, so I knew I had to try this! It was a hit!! It has just the right amount of pumpkin flavor.
Looks perfectly gooey and delicious! I love eveyrthing about this!
Yum!im curious though, the recipe calls for 8eggs, but the tips about the pumpkin puree product suggest its versatility and good-for-you-ness by cutting a whole egg out by swaping out with the puree. Are all the eggs really that necessary?
Thank you for the lovely recipe and have a fun weekend, Kristyn!
You’re welcome, Liz! Let me know if you give this one a try. I think you’ll love it. 😉