A fantastic and tasty sweet breakfast casserole that you throw together the night before and then just slide into the oven in the morning.

Overnight Baked French Toast Casserole

Overnight French Toast Casserole is one way to get a delicious and well loved breakfast favorite prepared for a crowd and quickly on Christmas morning or New Year's Day. Those are two of the rare occasions where I can actually manage to remember to prep a breakfast casserole the night before.

Put it together the night before, pop it in the oven the next morning, and it's ready in about 45 minutes - just enough time to let everybody rip into their Christmas gifts, or to tame that morning after headache with a dose or two of caffeine while waiting on breakfast on New Years Day.

Here's what  you'll need to make my Overnight Baked French Toast Casserole:

• Double batch cinnamon sugar (tap/click link)
• 1 long loaf French bread (like Reisings)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 8 large eggs
• 1 cup heavy cream or whole milk
• 1 cup half and half
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• Pinch kosher salt
• 1/2 chopped pecans
• Warmed pure cane, maple, sorghum or fruit syrup
• Sifted powdered sugar

Here's how to make it.

These days you can buy cinnamon sugar already made up, but if not, just make up a double or triple batch made with granulated sugar and cinnamon. You can get my ratio here.

Slice French bread into thick slices, about 1 to 1-1/2 inch thick. I used the long 10-ounce loaf of Reising's New Orleans Po'boy bread, which is an extra-long, thinner loaf than most typical deli style French breads. If you have other leftover sandwich bread, Texas toast, homemade yeast bread, brioche, or challah, certainly make substitutions with those.

You'll want enough to layer the baking dish twice. 

Melt the butter and pour it into the bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish.

Sprinkle the bottom of the pan with half of the brown sugar and sprinkle the brown sugar generously with cinnamon sugar.

Lay one layer of the French bread slices on top of the cinnamon sugar/butter mixture.

Whisk together the eggs, with the cream, half and half, vanilla extract and salt. Drizzle half of the egg mixture (about 2 cups) over and around the layer of bread.

Sprinkle the top of the bread with the other half of the brown sugar and more cinnamon sugar. Add the remaining French bread slices in another layer, and press them down into the dish with the palm of your hand. Drizzle the remaining egg mixture on top and around the slices.

Sprinkle the top very generously with more cinnamon sugar.

Scatter about 1/2 cup of chopped pecans all over the top and cover tightly with foil. Refrigerate overnight.

The next morning, bring the baking dish to room temperature while preheating the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake, covered, for about 35 minutes; uncover and bake another 10 minutes or until firmed up and slightly crispy on top. If you prefer it with a lot more crunch, bake it uncovered the entire 45 minutes.

Let rest for just a minute or so, then sift the top with powdered sugar.

Cut into squares and drizzle top with warmed, pure cane syrup, maple syrup, or a fruit syrup over the top of individual squares if desired. Serve hot.

Southern skillet fried apples are especially great as a side for this casserole by the way!

Tip: Managed to forget to put this together the night before? I totally understand, trust me.  But, if you get up early enough, and if you have young children waiting on Santa, you will... you can still throw this together and let it rest in the fridge for just a few hours with great results.

If you love Pain Perdu or good ole basic French toast from sliced bread, I think you'll enjoy this oven version. It has all of the typical flavor you find in your pan-fried version, except in an easy oven casserole form that you can stick in the oven and enjoy the festivities without any tending.

For more of my favorite breakfast and brunch recipes, visit my page on Pinterest!



If you make this or any of my recipes, I'd love to see your results! Just snap a photo and hashtag it #DeepSouthDish on social media or tag me @deepsouthdish on Instagram!

Unable to view the printable above on your device? Tap/click here for a backup printable.

Posted by Mary on December 24, 2010

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