Cinnamon Raisin French Toast Bake

by Sabrina Snyder

Published on

22 Comments

4.84 from 6 votes
12 Servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
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Cinnamon Raisin French Toast Bake is an easy, sweet breakfast to feed a crowd. Made with cinnamon raisin bread in brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg custard.

Breakfast Recipes like this one are great for the holidays or family get togethers. Instead of making individual slices of French toast over a griddle, you can bake breakfast for everyone in one dish. For more sweet breakfast casseroles try Chocolate Chip Croissant Casserole.

Cinnamon Raisin French Toast Casserole in baking dish

CINNAMON RAISIN FRENCH TOAST BAKE

Cinnamon Raisin French Toast Bake is the perfect warm, sweet breakfast to throw together for the weekend or the next holiday. This simple breakfast bake has the same soft, lightly toasted bread that makes French toast so irresistible. Making it into a casserole-like dish means you can make enough for everyone all at once and include raisins and other add-ins.

If you love this Cinnamon Raisin French Toast Bake, be sure to try other baked French toast recipes. Easy French Toast Bake and Blueberry Cream Cheese French Toast Bake are both equally delicious breakfasts perfect for Christmas morning.

Whether you’re making it for a holiday or just a normal morning, this is the perfect indulgent breakfast your whole family will love. The raisins and custard bring so much delicious flavor to your bread bake. The smell of cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar will fill the house while your breakfast bakes in the oven. We honestly can’t think of a better way to start the morning! Once it’s done you can serve it with maple syrup over the top and enjoy.

Slice of Cinnamon Raisin Breakfast Bake

DRY OUT BREAD FOR STUFFING OR BAKES

The best way to make bread pudding, stuffing, or bakes like this one is with slightly stale bread. It might sound backwards to use less fresh bread. However, using older, dry bread makes it absorb the custard better.

If your cinnamon raisin bread is fresh, there are still a few options to get it to the right texture. Leave your bread out overnight to dry out. If you forgot to prepare the bread the night before, just toast it at 250 degrees for 15 minutes.

MORE BREAKFAST CASSEROLE RECIPES 

OVERNIGHT CINNAMON RAISIN FRENCH TOAST BAKE
Although you can make this French Toast Bake the morning you plan to serve it, you can also prep it ahead of time. Once you’ve prepared Cinnamon Raisin French Toast Bake, you can leave it in the fridge overnight, then all you have to do is bake it in the morning.

  1. Start out by whisking together the eggs, milk, brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg and raisins in a large bowl as usual.
  2. Tear up the cinnamon raisin bread, and add the bread pieces to the custard.
  3. Pour the custard and bread cubes into the prepared baking dish.
  4.  Cover the baking dish and store it in the fridge until you’re ready to bake it. You don’t want to leave it longer than overnight.

Cinnamon Raisin French Toast Bake before baking

VARIATIONS ON CINNAMON RAISIN FRENCH TOAST BAKE

  • Bread: If you don’t have cinnamon raisin bread, you can replace it with a different bread option. Try sourdough, Texas toast, wheat bread, French bread, or rolls. Because there’s cinnamon and raisins in the custard, you’ll still have some of those flavors.
  • Mix-ins: There are plenty of mix-ins you can try the next time you make Cinnamon Raisin French Toast Bake. If you use bread without raisins, try using chocolate chips in place of the raisins in the custard. You can also try mixing dried cranberries, or golden raisins along with the raisins.
  • Cinnamon sugar topping: Try making a cinnamon streusel topping for your French toast bake. Combine 2 tablespoons cold butter, ¼ cup flour, 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar, ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon. Mix the ingredients in a small bowl until it makes a crumbly topping. Sprinkle it over the French toast before baking.

MORE BREAKFAST RECIPES FOR THE HOLIDAYS 

HOW TO SRORE CINNAMON RAISIN FRENCH TOAST BAKE

  • Serve: You can leave your French toast bake at room temperature for up to 2 hours.
  • Store: After it’s cooled, cover the French toast in plastic wrap or tin foil to store in the fridge. It will stay good in the fridge for up to a week.
  • Freeze: You can seal the French toast bake and store it in the freezer for up to 3 months. Let it defrost in the fridge overnight, then reheat it in the oven.

Cinnamon Raisin Breakfast Bake

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Dinner, then Dessert

Cinnamon Raisin French Toast Bake

Cinnamon Raisin French Toast Bake is an easy, sweet breakfast to feed a crowd. Made with cinnamon raisin bread in brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg custard.
Yield 12 Servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder
Cinnamon Raisin French Toast Bake
PrintRate

Ingredients
 

  • 8 large eggs
  • 2 cups whole milk , (or evaporated milk)
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar , packed
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 cup raisins
  • 16 ounces cinnamon-raisin bread , cubed

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 8x10 baking dish with vegetable oil spray.
  • In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, milk, brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg and raisins.
  • Add in the bread and gently stir until custard is soaked in.
  • Pour mixture into baking dish.
  • Bake for 40-45 minutes until golden brown.

Nutrition

Calories: 222kcal | Carbohydrates: 34g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 128mg | Sodium: 200mg | Potassium: 285mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 246IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 96mg | Iron: 2mg

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Cinnamon Raisin French Toast Bake collage

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. Mine came out looking great. I used brown sugar Splenda and it was blah. However, a little whip cream helped. I will do the recipe again but with regular brown sugar.

    Reply

    2. Used 4 slices cinnamon bread. 4 eggs, 1 cup heavy cream mixed with a little water. 2 tbs. Lacanto Maple Cinnamon sugar free syrup. A little salt and cinnamon.
      Made 2 separate bowls. Mixed ingredients separately. Added 1 tbls raisins.
      Baked for 25 minutes. Puffed up. Yum!

      Reply

  4. Do you see any harm with mixing up the custard and pouring it in the baking dish with the bread and letting it set in the refrigerator overnight so the only task would be to bake it in the morning?

    Reply

  5. This turned out perfectly! I used leftover cinnamon raisin sourdough bread and mixed it up the night before we baked it. I added currants and a few espresso chocolate chips. Delicious!! Thank you!

    Reply

        1. Yes
          Freeze: You can seal the French toast bake and store it in the freezer for up to 3 months. Let it defrost in the fridge overnight, then reheat it in the oven.

          Reply