French Toast Bake Recipe {Video}

This Easy French Toast Bake is the perfect breakfast casserole for Christmas morning, Easter morning, or a lazy weekend brunch. It’s made with simple ingredients like French bread, eggs, maple syrup, and everyday baking spices and can even be made the night before.

Looking for more French toast recipes? Try this Mixed Berry French Toast Bake, Pumpkin French Toast, Apple Cinnamon French Toast Bake, or this yummy Coconut French Toast Bake.

Easy French Toast Bake Casserole

Looking for a delicious breakfast that is easy to prepare? This overnight French Toast Bake casserole is perfect for busy mornings, or when you have guests staying over.

It’s got sweet and buttery oven-baked French toast topped with cinnamon and brown sugar streusel.  This recipe is warm, inviting, easy to throw together, and tastes great with other breakfast recipes like mini quiche, a fruit tray, or oven-baked bacon.

You can make this a couple of days ahead of time, but if you’re in a time crunch, I’ll give you some tips on how to make it the day of too. Add some homemade buttermilk syrup, berry syrup or sweetened strawberries and whipped cream and you’ve got yourself a breakfast feast that everyone will love.

Classic French Toast Bake Video Tutorial

Ingredients You Will Need

• French Bread – day old bread works best because it soaks up liquid better
• Milk – any kind that you have on hand will work.
• Eggs – this is what binds the whole casserole together.
• Maple Syrup – you can also substitute an equal amount of brown sugar.
• Vanilla – pure vanilla extract has the best flavor.
• Spices – warm baking spices like cinnamon and nutmeg taste amazing with the brown sugar streusel. Ground ginger would also be great.
• Butter – for the streusel, cut the butter into small cubes before adding it to the mixer.
• Brown Sugar – light brown sugar or dark brown sugar will taste good.

How to Make This French Toast Bake

1. Add the bread to a baking dish. The day before you want to serve this, spray a 9″ x 13″ baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Cut or tear the French bread into 1″ pieces and place them evenly in your baking dish. The bread should be about even with the top of your baking dish.
2. Pour the custard over the top. In a large mixing bowl, add the eggs and whisk to break them up.  Add the milk, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg and whisk again until all the ingredients are combined. Pour your egg mixture evenly over the bread, covering as much of it as possible. Use a fork to gently stir your bread and egg mixture together.
3. Refrigerate overnight. Cover with saran wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight, or for at least 4 hours to allow time for the bread to soak up all of the liquid.
4. Make the streusel topping. In a medium-size mixing bowl, add the room temperature butter, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon.  Stir or mix with a fork until the streusel has 1/4″ pieces.  You can also use a standing mixer with the paddle attachment on low speed, making sure to stop the mixer once you have 1/4″ pieces.
5. Preheat the oven. In the morning, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Take the baking dish out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature.
6. Bake. Sprinkle the streusel evenly over the bread and egg mixture. Bake in your preheated oven for 45-50 minutes, or until the top and edges are light golden brown.  
7. Serve. Remove from the oven and cool slightly before slicing. Serve with whipped cream, berries, or your favorite syrup.  Enjoy!

Frequently Asked Questions

Storing and Reheating Instructions

• Refrigerator: If you have any leftovers, wrap well in plastic wrap or aluminum foil and store in the fridge for up to 3 days. 
• To reheat, you can warm individual portions in the microwave, or else cover the top with aluminum foil (so that it doesn’t brown too much) and reheat in a 325-degree oven for about 15 minutes, or until warmed through.

More Overnight French Toast Recipes

• Mixed Berry French Toast Bake with Cream Cheese 
• Coconut French Toast Bake 
• Pumpkin Stuffed French Toast Bake 
• Apple Cinnamon French Toast Bake
• Strawberries and Cream French Toast Bake
• 4th of July French Toast Bake
• Blueberry French Toast Bake
• More Breakfast Casseroles
• More Easy Breakfast Recipes

This Overnight Baked French Toast uses simple ingredients like French bread, eggs, maple syrup and everyday baking spices and is easy-peasy to put together ahead of time, or just make and bake.  This baked french toast casserole makes for the perfect Christmas morning breakfast, or brunch during any time of the year.