French Toast Bake – An Easy, Overnight Recipe: This breakfast dish using french bread, heavy cream, brown sugar and a blend of spices smells, and tastes amazing in the morning! Perfect for a Mother’s Day brunch, Christmas morning or a weekend breakfast!
Quick Overview: An easy french toast casserole recipe that you will make the night before and simply bake the next morning for a delicious recipe that the entire family will love, maybe even as much as the Brioche French Toast and Cinnamon Roll Casserole that’s REALLY popular!
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Why You’ll Love this Recipe
My favorite thing about making this French Toast Bake is that I can make it the night before, and practically throw the thing in the oven when I wake up. An hour later, it looks like I’ve been up since dawn, working my fingers to the bone, in the kitchen. Plus, it reminds me of my favorite bread pudding recipes so the fact that I can eat it for breakfast is like a little piece of heaven on earth.
It’s also an easy way to have a warm and comforting dish for a weekend morning for special occasions or just as a family tradition!
How do you keep French toast bake from getting soggy?
I’ve never had this recipe turn out soggy but if you do, make sure you’re using the right kind of bread. The best bread, is a crispy bread or bread such as:
- French bread
- Challah bread
- Brioche
- Italian bread
- Stale, thick bread
This stale bread helps crisp up the casserole, especially since it sits all night.
Are French Toast Casserole and French Toast Bake the Same?
Yes! Although it may be called one or the other, the recipe typically uses the same ingredients and has the same cooking process so it’s essentially the same type of recipe.
How to Make French Toast Bake
Although you can find the full printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for this delicious French toast bake, I also like to share tips along the way to help you make the best overnight french toast bake!
Recipe Ingredients:
- 1 loaf French bread
- butter or non-stick spray for coating casserole dish
- 8 large eggs
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 Tablespoons pure vanilla extract
Step by Step Directions:
Day or Night Before:
Mix together the batter & bread:
- Grease a 9×13 casserole dish with butter or non-stick spray.
- Tear or cut the French bread into chunks/cubes, ( about 1-inch cubes) and place on the bottom of the baking dish, in a single layer and spread out the bread, the best that you can.
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk eggs, milk, cream white sugar, brown sugar & vanilla.
- Pour egg mixture over the top of the bread pieces, trying to coat/cover all of the bread.
- Cover the bread with a lid, aluminum foil or plastic wrap, and store in the refrigerator until ready to bake. Preferably overnight.
Topping:
- In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg in a separate bowl.
- Add the pieces of butter, and mix together with either a pastry cutter or a fork (supplementing your hands, combining the ingredients, until the texture is fine pebbles) to create the crumbly topping.
- Store topping in the fridge, separate from the bread mixture, until right before baking.
Day or Morning of:
Bake the French Toast:
- Preheat over to 350 degrees F.
- Sprinkle the crumbly topping over the french toast mixture.
- Bake uncovered for 1 hour or until golden brown on top.
- Serve with syrup, fresh berries, fresh fruit, or desired toppings.
As soon as my toddler rolled out of bed, he smelled this batch, he had to partake in a plate himself!
What to do with leftover French toast casserole
If you happen to have leftover french toast bake, you can store it in an airtight container, in the refrigerator for 3-5 days.
Honestly, I don’t think it really needs syrup, but you can’t really make something, “too,” good… so go ahead throw some syrup on.
Related Recipes:
- Brioche French Toast
- Blueberry Pancakes
- Fluffy Homemade Pancakes from Scratch
- Easy French Toast Recipe
- Easy Cinnamon French Toast Sticks
French Toast Bake
Ingredients
- 1 loaf French bread
- butter or non-stick spray for coating casserole dish
- 8 large eggs
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 Tablespoons pure vanilla extract
Topping:
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup brown sugar packed
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 pinch nutmeg
- 1 stick butter cold; cut into pieces
Instructions
- Grease a 9×13 casserole dish with butter or non-stick spray.
- Tear or cut the French bread into chunks/cubes, and place on the bottom of the baking dish, spread out the best that you can.
- In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, milk, cream white sugar, brown sugar & vanilla.
- Pour egg mixture over the top of the bread pieces, trying to coat/cover all of the bread.
- Cover the bread with a lid, aluminum foil or plastic wrap, and store in the refrigerator until ready to bake. Preferably overnight.
Topping:
- In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg in a separate bowl.
- Add the pieces of butter, and mix together with either a pastry cutter or a fork (supplementing your hands, combining the ingredients, until the texture is fine pebbles) to create the crumbly topping.
- Store topping in the fridge, separate from the bread mixture, until right before baking.
Bake the French Toast:
- Preheat over to 350 degrees F.
- Sprinkle crumbly topping over the french toast mixture.
- Bake uncovered for 1 hour.
- Serve with syrup, fresh berries or desired toppings.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
Monica Powell says
This is the Best French toast bake recipe I’ve tried!!! Super easy and yummy!!
Jessica says
Yay!!! I’m so glad, thank you so much Monica for letting us know!
Rhonda says
Thank you so much for this after making your bourbon bread pudding I click on th3 link to this, the hubby loved it also I added almond extract and some raisins only because I had them on hand, served it with raspberry syrup! I can only say oh my goodness!
Jessica says
Hi Rhonda!! That makes me so happy! I’m so glad that you liked this too!! Thank you!