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A delicious, warm from the oven Overnight French Toast Casserole is the perfect sweet breakfast for a crowd, and it’s always a hit! Prep the custard-soaked bread the night before and pop it in the oven first thing in the morning. It’s a great breakfast casserole for slumber parties or holiday breakfasts!
Love French Toast? I’ve got lots to share – Try my Classic French Toast or Strawberry French Toast Bake next!
Why I Love This Recipe
This easy french toast casserole recipe is sure to please!
Slices of crusty French baguette are dipped in a custardy egg batter, then layered in a baking dish and topped with a cinnamon sugar crumble. This gorgeous breakfast recipe is perfect for a holiday brunch, Mother’s Day, Christmas morning, or just when you want to impress your family on a Saturday.
The cinnamon sugar topping gives the top crusts of the bread a deliciously sweet crunch, while the custard keeps the insides tender and moist. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, or douse it in maple syrup – you make the call!
What you need
Ingredients
You’ll need to gather a few basic ingredients to start this baked French toast recipe.
- French Bread or Baguette – You can slice and layer like I did, or you can cut the bread into cubes. Either way works with this recipe.
- Custard Base – Eggs, milk, cinnamon, sugar, and vanilla extract are whisked together. The bread is soaked in the mixture to keep it moist and form a crust.
- Optional Additions – Maple syrup, sliced fresh fruit, dollops of sweetened cream cheese, butter or even crumbled bacon make delicious toppings or garnishes.
How To Make Overnight French Toast Casserole
See the recipe card below for full, detailed instructions
- Make the custard. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, cinnamon, sugar, vanilla, and salt.
- Soak bread in custard. Dip each slice of bread in the egg mixture and arrange side by side in a greased 9×13 baking dish.
- Sweet Toppings – Sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon evenly over the bread for a sweet crust.
- Cover and refrigerate overnight. Cover tightly with foil or plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or for at least 4 hours before baking.
- Cook. Bake covered with foil at 350°F for 40-45 minutes or until golden.
- Serve immediately. Dust with powdered sugar or top with warm maple syrup or other toppings of your choice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you make French toast the night before?
This is the best part about this recipe – you absolutely SHOULD make it the night before! It’s a perfect crowd-pleasing, make-ahead breakfast, especially for the holidays.
The bread has plenty of time to absorb all of that custard liquid and the result is incredibly moist and soft bread with a crunchy sweet topping.
Variations
- Try using cubed bread instead of slices. Cut into 1-inch chunks like my Cinnamon French Toast Casserole recipe.
- Try different types of bread, like challah bread, brioche bread, sourdough bread or even wheat bread for different flavors and textures. Just make sure your slices are nice and thick, or the bread may end up getting soggy.
Serving Suggestions
You can serve this casserole with a variety of toppings. Here are some of our favorites:
- Sweet cream cheese (softened and stir in powdered sugar).
- Homemade whipped Cream.
- Fresh berries (strawberries, raspberries or blackberries) – try macerating the berries (sprinkle with sugar and let them sit in a covered bowl in the fridge overnight). They’ll be more like a chunky, fruity syrup.
- Crumbled bacon.
- Butter and warm maple syrup.
Storage Tips
Make Ahead, Leftovers, and Freezing
Leftovers – Store leftover french toast in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2-3 days. Reheat in the microwave or in your oven or air fryer. It’s best to do with without extra toppings. Individual portions can be frozen and for up to 1 month.
Make Ahead and Refrigerate – Being an overnight casserole you’ll most likely be making this ahead of time. Just follow the directions in the recipe card.
Make Ahead and Freeze – Prepare the casserole up to just before baking. Make sure to soak each piece of bread completely or they will dry out. Cover with plastic wrap and foil and pop the whole pan into the freezer for up to 6 months. Thaw in the fridge overnight, remove the plastic wrap if used, cover with foil and bake as directed.
Recipe Tips
- Uniform slices – The main component of this recipe is the bread. You’ll want to keep the slices thick and as uniform as possible, and be sure to give them a few seconds to soak in the liquid. Press together with your hands if you have to. Any bread that isn’t soaked in custard will dry out.
- You don’t need day old bread – While day old bread will already be slightly stale, you can get around this by using a fresh loaf and drying it out on your kitchen counter. Slice it and let the pieces sit out on a baking sheet for a few hours to dry out a little.
- Use any bread you like. I used a baguette for mini slices, and it also tends to be a little more dense, and doesn’t need to be as stale. A larger loaf of french bread is good if you want to cut it into cubes instead of slices. But it is softer and will need to either already be stale or sit out to dry out.
- Prevent soggy french toast by using the right kind of bread – If your french toast casserole is soggy, it’s likely because of the bread you used. If the bread is too soft or too thin (think sandwich breads, like white or wheat) they may soak up too much liquid making the bread soggy or mushy. If this happens to you, try baking it for a bit longer so the egg can firm up a bit.
More Great Breakfast Ideas
- Caramel Apple French Toast Casserole
- Creamy Blueberry Baked French Toast
- Homemade Waffles
- Strawberry French Toast Bake
Overnight French Toast Casserole
Ingredients
French Toast:
- 1 pound French baguette loaf cut into 1-inch thick slices
- 8 Large eggs
- 1 cup Milk Any kind, even a sweeter one will do
- 1 teaspoon Ground cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons Granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon Kosher salt
Topping:
- ½ cup Light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon Ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Spray a 13×9-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, granulated sugar, vanilla and salt.
- Dip the bread slices in the egg mixture to coat (let them soak for a few seconds) then arrange side by side in the baking dish.
- Pour remaining egg mixture evenly over the bread.
- In a small bowl, whisk together brown sugar and 1 tablespoon cinnamon. Sprinkle evenly over the bread.
- Cover tightly with foil or plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or for at least 4 hours before baking.
To Bake:
- Preheat oven to 350℉.
- Remove plastic wrap from the casserole if used and cover tightly with foil.
- Bake covered for 40-45 minutes or until golden. For a more golden and crunchy top, remove the foil halfway through.
- Serve immediately, dusted with powdered sugar or topped with softened butter and warm maple syrup.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer Kristin Maxwell of “Yellow Bliss Road” is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. For accurate calorie counts and other nutritional values, we recommend running the ingredients through your preferred online nutritional calculator. Calories and other nutritional values can vary depending on which brands were used.
The flavor was great. Was I the only one whose dish turned out super soggy? It didn’t look toasted like the photo at all. I then separated the slices individually and toasted in the oven. That greatly improved texture. Is there a secret to baking it so that it will toast properly?
This recipe looks so good, I can’t wait to try it. I’m wondering if anyone has tried it with sourdough?
Should there be a space or gap between the slices of bread prior to baking or can they be touching each other?
They can be touching.
I added a little bit of nutmeg also and it’s was amazing!!! Merry Christmas!!!
Nice! Thanks for stopping by Viktoria.
Can you use regular bread?
French bread is more dense so it’s better for this recipe, especially overnight. Regular sandwich bread is not thick enough and would get soggy.
Made baked French toast recipe as printed. Love, love it!! Thank you for the recipe.
You are so welcome Debbie! Thanks for stopping by.
Can you freeze this to use at a later date? Cook first or No? If so.
You can freeze either before or after baking. Either way, you’ll want to defrost before baking or reheating.
How long can this stay in the refrigerator? I was hoping to make this the morning before so was planning for 24 hours. Would that be too long?
Hi Karen, I wouldn’t leave it longer than 24 hours.
Hi! Would it be okay to use sourdough bread instead?
Yes you can use sourdough bread. Keep in mind the tanginess so as long as you don’t mind that you should be fine.
Hit of the entire brunch. Made night before and doubled the recipe.
Nice! Thanks for stopping by Karen.
Hello – This sounds delicious. I always add fresh orange zest and I intend to make this recipe this afternoon to eat tomorrow morning. Hoping for some leftover, though, so I’m wondering if it would be best to re-heat in the microwave or the oven. Don’t want it mushy or too dry.
Also, have you tried challah bread?
Thanks so much ?
Hi Sharon, you should be able to reheat in the microwave. Just wrap it in a paper towel to keep it from drying out.
Easy and so delicious! Served this as a part of our daughters bridal shower with warm syrup and powdered sugar. It was a big hit- Thank you for sharing!
You are so welcome Jill! Thanks for stopping by.
Thanksgiving Morning! Wish me luck. I’m putting this dish in the oven to serve at our Family brunch! ?☕?
Enjoy!
Making this recipe for family here from Norway. I will let you know how they like it. It smells really good!
Thank you Kristy! WOW! all the way from Norway, thank you so much for stopping by.
Hi, I’m excited to try this recipe this weekend. I have to bake another recipe at the same time and it calls for 375 degrees…do you think this recipe could handle baking at a higher temp than 350? If so, how long would you suggest baking it for? Also, do you overlap the bread in the baking dish or lay the slices flat? Thank you!
Overlap the bread or lay it flat – it’s a personal preference. Yes you can bake it at a higher temperature, but I’d keep it covered with foil so it doesn’t brown to quickly about check it about 2/3 of the way through.
How many people does one batch serve?
It will easily serve 6 people.
Hello! The recipe and ingredients list are different with the amount of cinnamon for the crumble topping. Used a teaspoon? Thoughts? P
Yes, there was a typo. Sorry about that. The topping should be 1 tablespoon cinnamon with 1/2 cup brown sugar.