Easy French Toast Bake with no overnight chilling and all your favorite French Toast flavors you can serve to your family or a large crowd. Perfect with warm maple syrup.
Easy French Toast Bake may seem like an odd choice for everyone making their New Year’s resolutions this week (and let’s be honest since this is the start of the workweek a lot of people set January 3rd as their official start date!) but this breakfast is the perfect warm, inviting, family friendly meal you’ll love throwing together quickly on the weekend.
Or if you’re looking at this and it is PUMPKIN season, you’ll love my Pumpkin French Toast Bake.
Sure, it has sugar, and butter and eggs. It also saves you from standing at the stovetop cooking each slice individually in the cold. See how I am thinking about you all here? The smell in the kitchen, the warmth from the oven, this is really the perfect January morning breakfast.
Plus… ? I just love staring at how pretty it is. And it tastes even better than it looks! 
If this Easy French Toast Bake needed any more selling, my favorite thing about it is if you have some cream or half and half in your fridge pretty much everything else is a pantry/normal use item. Which means there is a pretty solid chance you don’t have to go to the store this morning before making breakfast. 
Saving you from the cold, yet again 😉
Tools Used in the Making of this Easy French Toast Bake:
9×13 Baking Pan: The perfect baking pan, it has high sides and bakes evenly. Plus when you cut into it you get picture perfect squares.
Maple Syrup: Love serving this with real maple syrup. I keep this brand and Trader Joe’s brand (buy that in store, it is 1/3 the price) on hand at all times if I can.
Nutmeg: The only way I use Nutmeg is with whole nuts. The flavor is completely different than the pre-ground variety and adds another dimension to baked goods. You can also buy these in bulk from your local grocer (I like Sprouts whole Nutmeg) or from Penzey’s online.
Recipe
Easy French Toast Bake
- Yield: 12
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Course: Breakfast
- Cuisine: American
- Author: Sabrina Snyder
Easy French Toast Bake with no overnight chilling and all your favorite French Toast flavors you can serve to your family or a large crowd. Perfect with warm maple syrup.
Ingredients
- 1 loaf French bread I also routinely use a loaf of Texas Toast
- 8 eggs
- 2 cups milk
- 1/2 cup heavy cream half and half would work too
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter cold and cut into small squares
Instructions
Note: click on times in the instructions to start a kitchen timer while cooking.
Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, add the eggs, milk, heavy cream, sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Chop the bread into 3/4 - 1 inch cubes and put it in the bowl with the egg mixture and toss well until all the liquid is absorbed.
In a small bowl or a food processor add the flour, remaining brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt and mix.
Cut in the butter with a fork or pulse in the food processor for 5-10 seconds or until the butter and brown sugar mixture is crumbly.
Pour the bread and egg mixture into the pan, cover evenly with the brown sugar-butter topping and bake for 45-50 minutes or until the top is crispy and the center is no longer wet.
Nutrition Information
Yield: 12 , Amount per serving: 374 calories, Calories: 374g, Carbohydrates: 47g, Protein: 9g, Fat: 16g, Saturated Fat: 9g, Cholesterol: 147mg, Sodium: 288mg, Potassium: 174mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 25g, Vitamin A: 12.1g, Calcium: 10.6g, Iron: 11.8g
All images and text © for Dinner, then Dessert.
A friend made this and it was outstanding!
I loved this French toast as did my guests. I did make some modifications. I used 10 eggs, 2% milk, no heavy cream, no added white sugar and no nutmeg( I don’t like ). It was delicious and easy?
Thanks for coming back to let me know, Donna. I really appreciate the 5 star rating.
I made this a couple weeks ago & it was a huge hit! I’m making another batch now! The directions are spot on.
Thanks, Kristi!
Would this be suitable to bake completely, freeze. . . . . . then reheat in the microwave?
Yes 🙂
Tried this for Mother’s Day this past Sunday. I have to say it may be the best thing I have ever made. It was delicious and everyone loved it. It was also very simple. This is my new go-to breakfast dish. Thanks so much for sharing!!
Wow, that’s quite the compliment. Thank you so much!
Can’t wait to try this! Can you give me an approximate measure by cups for the bread? Will sourdough work ? Thanks for the help!
You’ll want to use about a pound of bread for this recipe. Enjoy!
It was perfect. I let it soak overnight, even though you don’t have to, and it still came out well. Thank you!
Thanks for the 5 stars, Ali! So glad you enjoyed it.
My husband and I love this recipe! I am sorry if I missed it, but can or have you anyone ever frozen this recipe?? If so, how?
Yes, you can freeze it for up to 3 months. Once it’s cooled, put plastic wrap around it and then wrap again in foil. To cook it from frozen, remove plastic wrap, recover with foil and bake at 350 for 1 hour.
Sabrina, could this French toast be made the night before and refrigerated and then bake in the morning?
Yes but I would make each step and place it into a separate container in the fridge. When you’re ready to make it, pour the egg/milk/cream/spice/etc over the cut up bread and sprinkle with t he brown sugar-butter topping and place it in the oven.
Best use for stale dried out Kaiser buns! Beautiful texture, the crispy crumble topping adds just the right amount of sweetness. I added in a few chopped apples for added yum!
Perfect for that and no waste either. 🙂 Glad you enjoyed it!
This was absolutely amazing!! I followed the recipe exactly and it was perfect. Hubby and kids loved as well. We’re going to top leftovers with bananas foster and ice cream for dessert another day.
That sounds amazing!! Thanks for the 5 stars.
I have made this recipe at least 10 times and it is ALWAYS a hit! thank you so much!
Amazing! I’m so glad it’s become a family favorite.
The flour and brown sugar and salt mix, does that go in the egg and bread mixture? It doesnt specify?
The brown sugar-butter topping mixture goes on top of the bread and egg mixture once it goes into the pan (step 6). Hope this clears things up. Enjoy!
I am not a fan of French toast, but this was delicious. I liked it even without the syrup.
Really delicious! I didn’t have cream on hand (I forgot to get it), so I used cream cheese instead. I read you could sub cream cheese for it, so I thought why not try it. I also put in an apple (cubed) since it needed to be used and wow- does it ever taste good! I also used whole wheat flour (because I prefer that to white).
Thank you for such an easy, yet delicious recipe. The leftovers are in my deep freeze for another meal!
Thanks for all of your suggestions, Jeanna.
Helllo! How do you prefer to reheat your leftovers?
I made this the night before without assembling the topping part until the next morning. It allowed my bread to soak up the entire mixture. The next morning I took the dish out of the fridge, and turned on the oven to preheat, and added the topping mixture in the food processor and baked it for about an hour. It turned out wonderful! It’s great hot or cold!
So glad you enjoyed it, Mark. Thanks for the 5 stars.
Hey! I tried this recipe today and for some reason, I couldn’t get it right. I baked it for the 50 minutes, but it was still way too wet throughout so I tried to bake it longer but the top started to burn. I was wondering if maybe I did something wrong or if it had something to do with the bread? I used a loaf of French bread, and it seemed to absorb all the liquid. Could I drop the recipe down to 1 c of milk or would that mess up the whole recipe?
Oh no, it sounds like your bread was too fresh since it absorbed the liquid. Next time, if you’re using a fresher load, try and dry it out in the oven prior to making it or pick an older loaf to start. Hope this helps.
AMAZING! but filling at the same time. Put some powdered sugar on top with some heavy whipping cream and it is the best bread pudding I have ever had. Definitely making this again… Thank you so much…
Sounds delicious!
This is DELICIOUS!!! I made it for a sleepover breakfast and everyone chowed!!!! Even my super picky eater loved it!!! Thank you!!
Yay! Thanks for coming back to let me know, Callie!
I clicked through to this as I saw ‘your favourite french toast breakfast ideas’…. well my favourite is egg, lardons (cubes of crispy smoked bacon) and sundried tomato. But all the above are sweet! Have you tried savoury versions? I don’t really eat sweet stuff for breakfast. I grew up with spiced vegetable dhosas at 7am!
I haven’t tried any savory ones yet. Thanks for the suggestion!
I made 2 pans of this for Christmas brunch and both were gone in no time! Everyone was ranting and raving about how delicious it was! This was a super easy recipe and the taste was amazing!!! Thank you?
Tasted wonderful. I eliminated all sugar and did no topping. I ended up pouring (sorry don’t measure) real maple syrup in the batter and mixed it together. Between that, the Cinnamon and Vanilla it was perfect. Added Blackberry Spread on top, but didn’t need it for taste.
A group of friends served brunch for 60 families at our local Ronald McDonald House and this recipe was a HIT! We received many compliments and the smell of it cooking was enough to get everyone out of their rooms and down to the kitchen.
We didn’t make any changes to the recipe and it was perfect.
Made this for dinner tonight, and it was phenomenal! My son, who is a very picky eater, loved it! I made it for only three people, so we have a ton of leftovers. I’m excited to have breakfast for the next few days! I did cut back the sugar amount in the egg mixture and used whole wheat flour in the crumble topping in order to healthify it a bit. I’ll be making this for my family on a regular basis. Thank you!
You’re welcome, Jennifer!
I was looking for a recipe for French toast and this popped up. It looks delicious. My mouth is saying make that now. So I’m off to the market to get some ingredients. I’ll check back in to let you know how it turned out.
I made the Easy French Toast Bake. It was delicious, although I think I baked mine a little too long and it was drier inside than I wanted it to be. It was not ruined and still tasted great. It was so easy to make. I cut all my bread up into 1″ cubes the night before while the bread was still soft using scissors, which I thought was a time saver and cut down on cleaning up crumbs in the kitchen.
I bought some French crusty bread today in preparation for tomorrow morning. Should I cut the pieces so it can dry out a bit?
Day old bread should be just fine. 🙂
I have a bunch of 3″ french bread rolls left over and was going to use them to make this recipe but I don’t know how may to use? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
You’ll want to have about 14-16 ounces of bread for this recipe. Hope this helps!
Brown sugar amounts are off- first it reads to add 1/2, then it reads to add the “rest of thje brown sugar—and add the cream instead of milk or add with milk…unclear…Looks great-really can’t go wrong with the ingredients.
Sorry for the confusion…you’ll put 1/2 cup brown sugar into the first mixture and the other 1/2 cup brown sugar listed in the ingredient list is for the topping mixture. Enjoy!
I made this today. I thought the instructions were very straightforward. I made it exactly as the recipe stated and it turned out amazing! I was worried experimenting with a new recipe because I was having family over for brunch. Everyone loved it so much that they wanted some to take home. Thank you, I’ll be making this next weekend for ‘girls breakfast’.
So glad you enjoyed it!
Need to fix directions on recipe. Second part of directions doesn’t give you measurements and you’ve already used the brown sugar and cinnamon.
I listed brown sugar twice in the ingredient list to show both measurements, sorry if that was confusing.
This was okay. It took a lot longer to cook, and the bread kind of fell apart.
Our Christmas tradition is fried dough for 53 years. I forgot the dough so I found this. OMG. MERRY CHRISTMAS. I think I have a new tradition…..
How amazing! Merry Christmas!
Can you put this in the fridge over night and cook in the morning? Nevermind I just noticed many people have asked the same question lol.
I put slices of brioche on a rack to dry out a bit overnight, and put everything together for brunch this Christmas Eve morning. It was delicious! My 10 year old son ate 3 servings.
So glad you enjoyed it!! 🙂
Used this for our morning at the in-laws for Christmas festivities. I substituted eggnog for all the milk required. It got so many compliments and it was so easy to make! I used soft bread but the kids liked it because it was easy to chew/eat. This is definitely going in my recipe box as a go to for large gatherings! So much easier than the over night options I usually use. Thank you for sharing.
Eggnog sounds like a wonderful substitution! So glad everyone enjoyed it!
Will this work in a 9×13 glass baking dish?
Yes 🙂
I made this recipe this morning. I had to half the recipe. I can honestly say it was delicious. My guest really enjoyed it.
Does the bread need to be dry or stale? I’m going to use Texas Toast as recommended .
It should be a bit dry. I hope you enjoy it!
This is great
Had to cut recipe in half, it’s only hubby and me. Used half & half, almond milk. We loved it . hubby says make it again
Still finding the sugar requirements confusing.. is there supposed to be white sugar and brown in the bread mixture?
Yes, hope this helps clear up confusion. 🙂
DELICIOUS!!! My husband likes to bring a piece to work for his morning break. The other guys are always drooling. I’ve made it a handful of times and it always turns out amazing!
Haha, love it!! Thanks for the 5 stars!
Can I substitute regular milk instead of using half and half?
Yes, but I would recommend melting 1/2 tablespoon of butter plus enough milk to equal 1/2 cup for the substitution. Hope this helps. Enjoy!
Delicious! Thank you for sharing!
Great recipe! Everyone loved it! How long will the left overs be good in the fridge?
We didn’t end up having any but I would think at least a few days if stored properly in an air tight container. So glad you enjoyed it!
Can this be chilled overnight?
Thank you!
-Liza
Yes 🙂
How many cups of bread does one loaf yield? I am making this recipe for our Youth group at church and I already have a lot of left over hoagie rolls I want to use.
Such a great idea. Depending on how big the hoagie rolls are, I would think you’d need about 6-8 of them. You can always eyeball it and add more if needed.
Am I able to make this the day before and refrigerate overnight?
Yes, you can make this ahead of time. Enjoy!
Delicious! Would be nice to have calories per serving?
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! This recipe is 270 calories per serving. 🙂