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. 
MY OTHER RECIPES
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
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.
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Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
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In a large bowl, add the eggs, milk, heavy cream, sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg.
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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.
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In a small bowl or a food processor add the flour, remaining brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt and mix.
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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.
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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: calories
All images and text © for Dinner, then Dessert, Inc.
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Looks great for a Sunday morning brunch! I love the flavors that come with french toast.
Oh my lands, so much nicer than my limp french toast haha. This looks so tasty and not at all hard!
Thank you Michelle!
No judging here — This looks amazing, and we tend to splurge a little on weekends,anyway!
I LOVE that I don’t have to chill this overnight… It’s usually the one thing I forget I need to do! LOL
Me too! Anything to make life easier, right?!
I love French Toast regardless of the season! Plus, whenever I go overboard, I just balance it out with a longer workout! 🙂
You’re right, it’s all about balance!
Sabrina! This looks super incredible- love the look of this for when we have overnight guests!
This looks great for weekend breakfast!! I have been wanting to make a baked french toast for a while now- Thanks for this!! I am saving this to make super soon 🙂
Thanks Ami!
Should the bread be a bit hard or is soft ok to use?
Bit hard is much better. If your bread is soft heat it in the oven at 325 for 10 minutes or so to dry it out. 🙂
You have brown sugar listed twice. So does that mean adding brown sugar to egg mixture and again to topping?
I am so sorry I thought I had typed “sugars” but wrote “sugar” in the first half of the directions. I should have been clearer and said “sugar, brown sugar” but I’ve updated it now. Sorry for the delay, this comment got snared in the spam filter and I just saw it. Thank you for bringing attention to the lack of clarity!
I still don’t understand….does it take a total of 1 cup of brown sugar or just a total of 1/2 cup
Total 1 cup, 1/2 goes in the liquids, 1/2 as a topping.
Might have been easier to say 1 cup brown sugar, divided. That way, the total amount is given and the reader knows that it will be split up and used in different parts of the recipe. That is how I see it written in many recipes. The reader knows then, that they should read the directions carefully to see how it is divided and used. Hope this helps!!
This looks phenomenal! I cannot wait to try it. I bought the ingredients; I got Texas Toast bread to make it. I want to half the recipe (just two of us will be enjoying it for breakfast!) but I want to make sure I understand the “loaf” size. My Texas Toast is 1lb, 12oz. Is that the size loaf you use for this recipe when you use Texas Toast? TYVM! I found your blog through Printetest and I am IN LOVE!
Ashley that size loaf is perfect for the whole recipe so definitely use half. And welcome! I hope you hang around a while!
If I’m cutting the recipe in half, do I need to reduce the cooking time? Thanks!
No you’ll still want to bake it for at least 40 minutes. Just watch it the last 5-10 minutes to check for doneness.
I have made this every Sunday and my son eats it every day for breakfast! It’s great warmed up if you don’t finish it all on a Sunday!! Love it!!
What a great idea for busy weekday mornings! So glad you guys love it!
I am wanting to make this for my brother and sister in law as a thank you for watching our kids. If I put it together around 10 am and they don’t eat it until dinner around 6pm will it still work or be too soggy? I’m wondering if an overnight recipe may work best in this scenario
So sorry I’m just now seeing this. Such a sweet gesture for them 🙂 You can definitely put this together ahead of time.
This was delicious! I made it with my granddaughters. It was easy to make.
Thanks for taking the time to come back and let me know how much you guys enjoyed it!
what about with challa bread?
That sounds absolutely amazing!
Hello! I just bought ingredients today and will be making it for girls breakfast tomorrow! Was wondering if I could put it all together tonight in dish, then cook tomorrow??
So sorry I’m just now seeing your question. You can definitely put this together ahead of time. BTW, a girls breakfast sounds like such a fun idea!!
I made it and it was delicious! I didn’t have the right pan so the texture ending up being like bread pudding but the flavors were like French toast. I had to cook it much longer-about an hour- since my pan was deep and the last five minutes I put foil on top to cook it thoroughly. Next time I’ll try again with the right pan
Glad you were able to make those adjustments for using a different pan but still having an amazing outcome!
Do you think I could throw it together, freeze it, then bake if off the day I want to eat it?
I would recommend putting it together the night before and refrigerating it to bake the next morning instead of freezing it.
Would those long French baguettes work as well? If so, how many of the baguettes do you think I’ll need? One or two?
Yes, those would work too. Depending on how big, you’ll probably want at least 2. Enjoy!
Hi,
I just made it and it’s baking now. I didn’t look down at comments until now. I used soft bread and chopped up some apples. It smells heavenly. I can’t wait for it to be done. I hope it comes out good even though I used soft bread.
I made this for Christmas morning breakfast since I forgot to prep and refrigerate the usual over-night french toast. Everyone absolutely loved it. No way are we going back to the overnight french toast, this is sooo much better. Thank you so much for sharing.
Yay!! I’m so glad you guys enjoyed it! Thanks for coming back to let me know!
Been craving french toast. Found this recipe and gave it a try. I made a couple changes. 1 cup milk and 1-1/2 cups half n half since we drink 2%. No french bread but I had Texas toast I bought to do traditional french toast. Used one loaf minus 4 slices. Actual amount depends on how dry the bread is. For the topping I only used 1/4 stick butter softened in the microwave. After baking we drizzled a little maple syrup on it when serving. Be careful though. It is already pretty. I needed a really big bowl to mix it all in so I used the top of a plastic cake carrier. Don’t over mix or the bread will turn to mush and screw up the texture of the finished dish. This will be made for the next church brunch. Super simple and tasted really fantastic.
Thanks for dropping by to let me know! I’m so glad you guys enjoyed it!
This easy french toast bake is so Instagrammable and adorable! I’m also gonna pin this post on my Pinterest board my followers will love it. Thanks for sharing!
You’re so sweet! Thanks for the pin!
Was wondering if i could use a substitute for heavy cream ?
Half and half works well too!
So glad to find a recipe that did not require being made the night before! I cut the recipe in half and used a deep dish pie plate. The extra liquid that was not absorbed was poured right on top before baking and it made a really nice, barely there custard. Baked for 40 minutes. Turned out great!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for coming back to let me know!
I found this and made it for a group of hikers. It was wonderful and easy! Most of us didn’t even need syrup and we were in VT! Awesome!
Yay! This just made my day!! So glad you all enjoyed it!!
I made this for my family it’s the best baked French toast!!
Thanks for coming back to let me know, Linda! It makes me happy to know that everyone was able to enjoy it!
This looks great! If I half this recipe, what kind of pan would you recommend using and how long should I bake it for?
I would use an 8×8 pan and bake for 30-35 minutes. Enjoy!
This was great with some stale rolls I had. I left out the white sugar because I wanted to have it with the syrup and wanted to make sure it wasn’t too sweet. Also added blueberries to the bread mixture and walnuts to the topping. Definitely a keeper.
So glad you were able to customize it to your liking!
I stumbled upon this recipe this morning and I must say that I LOVED IT! I had italian bread to use up and extra people in the house so this made the perfect breakfast for us. I left out the cinnamon and nutmeg because my my husband is allergic and added fresh blueberries and it was amazing. thanks!!
This was AMAZING, I omitted the vanilla because I am out but didn’t miss it!! I have a family of 6 here, we usually make overnight french toast casserole and have left over, we ate the entire thing making it this way! Usually I put it in a 9×13 pan, dump the egg mixture over it but this time I stirred the bread and egg mix in a bowl a few times while I made the crumble, I swear that made a difference, the bread soaked up the mixture making it custard like all the way through. When dumping it on top and leaving it overnight the top is dry and the bottom custard like, I will be making this a staple!
This makes me so happy to read! I’m so glad you all loved it!!
I made this for my guest! Omg it was perfect! Thank you!! So easy to make!
I’m so glad you guys enjoyed it! Thanks for coming back to let me know!
Why flour? Want 2 make this with rasin cinn bread. Can’t wait 2 do my own version!!
The flour is for the topping mixture to sprinkle on top. 🙂
I made this tonight for supper. Holy cow is it filling! Your picture sure looks a lot better than mine did, but it was my first time. First, I loved that it didn’t have to sit overnight. The change I will make for the next time I make it is to use a little less cinnamon. I love cinnamon but it was a little to much for me. I may also leave the crumble off of the top, but not sure yet. I put crumbled bacon on top of my piece because, well, because I love bacon, and it was a fun extra flavor. While I have leftovers I am laughing because I want to make it again. It was so light and fluffy. Thanks for the recipe post and I hope to improve on the looks of mine next time! 🙂
I’m so glad you enjoyed it…..and btw, love that you added bacon 🙂
Thanks for sharing! Can this be made very far ahead of time? Or prepped ahead of time!
Yes, Prep the topping mixture and the egg mixture and keep refrigerated. In the morning, combine it all with the bread and pop it in the oven.
Do you know if Portuguese sweet bread would work?
I haven’t tested it but as long as it’s not fresh and soft, it should work. If it is soft, you can always pop it in the oven prior to making it to get it a little crispy before cutting it up to use. I’d love to know how it turned out if you decide to try it.
Hi, I’m making this for a big crowd and am doubling the recipe. Any idea how much longer I should bake in the oven for? I’m assuming two pans worth will require more time and there might be a quiche or two also warming up at the same time (precooked but warming). Thank you! It looks great!
I’d say it might need to be in the oven an additional 15-20 minutes.
Sounds like a yummy spread!!
This turned out wonderfully and I’m actually making it again for another brunch tomorrow! DELICIOUS!!
This was delicious! I actually prepped this the night before. I used brioche bread from the bakery instead of texas toast. I also substituted half the cream with greek yogurt. I Mixed all ingredients with the exception of the topping and refrigerated over night. I sprinkled the topping on right before placing it in the oven. It baked for approximated 45 mins. The casserole was so fluffy and rose to the brim of the dish. It was beautiful…but devoured shortly thereafter! Needless to say it was a hit with my family! My husband who doesn’t care much for french toast LOVED it!
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed it, especially your husband!
I made this recipe for Easter and my family loved it. I made it exactly as the recipe said and it was amazing. I was worried that the middle wouldn’t cook all the way and end up soggy but to my surprise it was done perfectly. Thank you for the recipe!!!!
Yay!! Thanks for letting me know how much you all loved it!
Just made this with challah yesterday for breakfast and it was amazing. I have teens who know their way around good food and they said that it was by far the best version of this kind of recipe they’ve ever had (one even asked if I had brought it in from a restaurant!). I replaced 1/2 the cream with greek yogurt, took out the white sugar entirely and cut the brown sugar in the french toast in 1/2, as we like to put real maple syrup on top. Will definitely be making it again.
Thanks for dropping by to let me know! I’m so glad you guys enjoyed it!
My bakery said White House sour dough bread wold be great. Are they correct??
I never tried it so it hasn’t been tested but I’m sure it would be fine. I’d love to know how it turns out!
I made this to take to work. I prepped everything the night before, and even though it says you don’t have to refrigerate overnight, I did because I wanted this to be warm and gooey when everyone ate it. I didn’t have any vanilla on hand but happened to have almond extract in place. I had a hard time getting the topping to crumble, but it was still soooo delicious. Everyone loved it! Thanks for sharing your recipe. I will be checking out more from you 😉
So glad everyone loved it, Mandy! Thanks for coming back to let me know!!
I used pumpkin spice seasoning, and it was a hit! Thank you for this great recipe 🙂
You’re welcome, Teeka! Glad you enjoyed it!
I made this today for Mother’s day brunch and everyone flipped over it and said it was unbelievably delicious!! I would rate this 6 stars of I could.? Thank you so much for posting. This will now be my #1 sweet item for breakfast, brunch AND deasert! This is a scrumptious brown sugar bread pudding too! ????????????
I made this today for Mother’s day brunch and everyone flipped over it and said it was unbelievably delicious!! I would rate this 6 stars if I could. Thank you so much for posting. This will now be my number 1 sweet item for breakfast, brunch and dessert! This is a scrumptious brown sugar bread pudding too!
????????????
How awesome!! Thank you for taking the time to come back and let me know.
Hey there, I’m a huge fan of toasts look way awesome! Definitely these easy french toast bake will be yummy!
Can this be made the night before and put in the oven in the morning? Or would you not recommend that?
Yes, you can make this ahead if you’d like. 🙂
Hello! I am back again for Father’s Day brunch after using your fantastic recipe for Mother’s day brunch!
I do have a question. If I am using regular white bread which I have allowed to get a bit dried AND will be making it a day in advance to send with my son to his Dad’s, should I use a bit less liquid so that it doesn’t turn to mush? I get this feeling it will it will, but already promised my son and I cannot get a different bread. Any advice would be appreciated!!
My suggestion if you want to make this in advance is to make each step and place it into a tupperware container separately in the fridge. Then in the morning, all you would have to do it pour the egg/milk/cream/spices/etc over the cut up bread and sprinkle with the brown sugar-butter topping and pop it in the oven. Hopefully this helps for next time!
My daughters and I made this french toast this morning for our Father’s Day breakfast. We loved it; restaurant quality for sure! I plan on making this my go to breakfast for special mornings. Thank you!
I’m so glad you guys enjoyed it! Thanks for coming back to let me know!
I made this over the weekend and it was absolutely fabulous! But, I also made another delicious discovery. There were leftovers. That evening, my fiance and I were thinking that we would love something sweet to nibble on for dessert. I remembered that we had ice cream. Then the idea popped into my head that the warmed up French Toast bake with ice cream might taste great. I had mine with maple syrup over it and my fiance had chocolate sauce. IT WAS SOOOO DELICIOUS! Breakfast became dessert!!
That sounds absolutley amazing!! What a great idea!