French Toast Bake Recipe {Video}

This Classic French Toast Bake recipe is the perfect breakfast casserole for Christmas morning, Easter morning or brunch recipe any time of the year. It's made with simple ingredients like French bread, eggs, maple syrup and everyday baking spices.

This overnight french toast bake can be made 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. This is one of the best breakfast or brunch recipes. 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.

Jump to:

• Classic French Toast Bake Video Tutorial
• Baked French Toast Recipe 
• Ingredients in Classic French Toast Bake
• Variations of this French Toast Bake to try:
• How to Store This French Toast Bake
• Classic French Toast Bake Recipe 
• More Overnight French Toast Recipes

Classic French Toast Bake Video Tutorial

Baked French Toast Recipe 

It's almost impossible not to love this sweet and buttery oven-baked french toast casserole, topped with cinnamon and brown sugar streusel.  It 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 use this recipe to make as an overnight French toast bake recipe, letting your prepared breakfast casserole sit in the refrigerator overnight so all you need to do in the morning is pull it out to room temperature, pre-heat your oven and bake.  I've even made this 48 hours in advance, and it still turns out perfectly. 

How to Make Overnight French Toast Bake Recipe

Overnight:  This is the ideal way to bake this as long as you have the time.  The extra time in the fridge allows for all of the egg mixtures to soak into the bread.

How to Make Last Minute French Toast Bake

Morning Of:  If you don’t have time for an overnight casserole, you can still make it work - just give yourself an additional 20 minutes.

1. Add the 1” bread cubes to a large bowl and pour the egg and milk mixture over.  Toss lightly and let sit at room temp for at least 10 minutes.
2. Toss again and let sit for at least another 10 minutes or so before you put it into your baking dish.
3. You can now add your streusel topping to your oven-baked french toast and bake as directly in the original recipe.

Ingredients in Classic French Toast Bake

• 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 - extract or imitation will work fine
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg

Streusel Topping:

• Butter - we recommend room temp and cutting into small cubes
• Brown Sugar - we use light brown sugar
• Flour - all-purpose flour
• Cinnamon 

Variations of this French Toast Bake to try:

• Add your favorite berries on top of the French Toast Bake before adding the streusel topping, and bake as directed.  
• For a cream cheese stuffed variation, divide your bread and egg mixture in half.  Spread half of the bread mixture evenly into your baking dish, then dollop 2- 8oz packages of cream cheese evenly over the top.  Be sure your cream cheese is room temp so it’s easier to work with. Then cover with the rest of your bread, your streusel topping and bake as directed.

How to Store This French Toast Bake

• 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

If you’ve tried this recipe, please rate it and leave a comment on this post. I love hearing feedback from you helps me and other readers too! If you love Pinterest,  feel free to leave a comment and photo there too.  Also, if you like to share, use the hashtag #thecarefreekitchen on Instagram and tag me @thecarefreekitchen so I can find you and give your post some love. You can also find me on Facebook at The Carefree Kitchen. Thank you!!

This overnight french toast bake recipe 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.

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