Pumpkin French Toast Bake is the perfect warm, inviting fall brunch recipe to make for the whole family or for guests. Try for the holidays!
The perfect Breakfast recipe to kick off the start of fall. Try out more of my Pumpkin Pancakes and Starbucks-inspired Pumpkin Bread. Prep my Pumpkin Puree and use it for all of these recipes.
Sabrina’s Pumpkin French Toast Bake Recipe
This is a fall flavored pumpkin take on my favorite brunch recipe, Easy French Toast Bake. It is officially all things pumpkin in the house and I’m loving every second of it. The fall baking season is here and I went to my local pumpkin farm and bought a half dozen of the most amazing sugar pumpkins to make Pumpkin Purée. I freeze them in 15 ounce batches so it is easy to use it in recipes that call for canned pumpkin.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 1 loaf French bread (I also routinely use a loaf of Texas Toast)
For Egg Mixture:
- 8 large eggs
- 2 cups whole milk
- 15 ounces pumpkin puree
- 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 ground nutmeg
For the Topping:
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter cold and cut into small squares
- 8 oz cream cheese cut into little chunks
Instructions
- Spray a 9×13-inch pan with cooking spray and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, add the eggs, milk, pumpkin puree, heavy cream, sugar, ½ cup brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.
- Chop the bread into ¾ to 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, 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 half the bread and egg mixture into the pan, dot in half of the cream cheese chunks, add the remaining mixture and then add the rest of the cream cheese chunks. 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
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Table of Contents
About this Recipe
Pumpkin French Toast Bake is like the perfect hybrid of french toast, cheesecake, and a cheese danish. It’s quite a treat for your breakfast or brunch spread, especially on Thanksgiving or Christmas when pumpkin is so popular!
Chef’s Note: Fresh 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. Purchase a whole nut and grind some fresh with a microplane whenever a recipe calls for it. If you don’t own a microplane, the zester on your box grater will do the trick!
What to Pair With
- Maple Syrup: You will love serving this with real maple syrup. I like to use organic, real maple syrup.
- Caramel Sauce: Try drizzling your serving of French Toast Bake with a drizzle of caramel sauce instead of syrup. It will taste great with the pumpkin in this recipe.
- Creme Anglaise: This vanilla sauce will make your French Toast look and taste so decadent. It’s easy to make, too. The custard comes together in just 10 minutes.
Variations
- Bread: Any bread with a nice crust will work well such as sourdough, brioche, baguette, or challah.
- Chocolate Chips: Dot the topping or cream cheese filling with chocolate chips for an extra bit of sweetness mixed in! You can use any type of chocolate chips you like.
- Dark Brown Sugar: Substitute dark brown sugar in this recipe for a richer flavor.
Related Recipes
More Baked Pumpkin Recipes
Images used in a previous version of this post:
How much French bread does this need? Your regular long stick loaf of French bread?
Yes, that would work! Enjoy!
This recipe turned into a bread pudding and that was not the intention. Unless you’re going to use a large loaf of bread or one and a half to two Texas toasts loafs you’ll need to decrease the liquids.
Maybe the author could suggest a weight amount needed for the bread rather than a loaf. I saw others comment with the same struggle and it seems depending on regions and products available this recipe will vary. I’d also recommend adjusting the cream cheese. It didn’t melt nicely into the bread as I would have liked it to. Maybe making a cream cheese filling with an egg and sugar would be a better approach to get the pumpkin cheesecake like flavor. Or switch the cream cheese to a cream cheese icing drizzle on top.
Where do I find Texas Toast? Can I substitute and, if so, how many ounces of bread do I use?
You can find Texas toast in the frozen section of your grocery store. They should offer it fresh in your bakery as well.
Can I use pumpkin pie filling instead of the puree and take out all the spices in the recipe. Not the crumble but the rest
Can I make the pumpkin cream cheese French toast casserole ahead of time even though it says you don’t have too?
Yes 🙂
Can this me frozen to be be used later?
Yes, if carefully sealed, you can store your French Toast Bake in the freezer for up to 3 months. Let it defrost in the fridge before you reheat it in the oven. Enjoy!
My family loves this recipe. I used the ingredients as listed no changes, added an additional 10 minutes to firm up the center. I believe if my loaf was a little larger it would have soaked up all of the mixture. Cream cheese was really nice to find those bites. I have already been asked to make this again.
Thank you for a great breakfast!
You’re welcome!
Very tasty! I make this and send a piece with my teen boys for breakfast at school (they work out before school and get hungry!)
Awesome! It’s a great breakfast after working up an appetite!
seems like a lot of cinnamon—2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon Is this correct????
My recipe calls for 2 teaspoons and then 1 additional teaspoon later. I think you may have read it wrong, as it’s still showing that amount on my recipe card. Hope this helps!
Ok, this is the second French toast casserole I’ve made from this website, and there’s entirely too much liquid in this recipe. This thing has been in the oven for an hour and 10 minutes and it’s a soggy mess. I made it exactly as instructed, to the letter. I won’t trust anything else I see on this website.
I’m so sorry to hear that! I’ve made the recipe several times without that happening so not sure how to troubleshoot it with you but I hope one day you’ll be back and give some of my other recipes a try.
Same!!! Mine was in the oven for an hour and 20 minutes tonight and still wet.
Can this be refrigerated overnight and baked in AM?l
Yes 🙂
This is EXACTLY what I want on fall weekends!!
This looks like a great way to start every morning! My boys would devour this!
It’s definitely a family favorite here too!
This looks like the perfect Fall breakfast!
Thanks Krista!
This is the reason fall is my favorite. I can not get enough pumpkin.
Just curious about the cream cheese that is in the title, but not in the recipe.
Thank you! I edited it show correctly now.
This pumpkin recipe looks great but I don’t see cream cheese in the recipe. How much and when is cream cheese added? I would love to make this for an ‘anything pumpkin’ loving friend.
Thank you so much for letting me know it was missing. Not quite sure how that got left out but I revised the recipe card to show so hopefully that sticks.
Am I missing something…no cream cheese in the recipe?
Thanks for catching that! I edited it but you’ll want to add 8 oz of cream cheese to this recipe. I also updated the instructions to walk you through where to add it in at. So sorry.
I love pumpkin season! Your french toast bake look great!
Thanks Catalina!
Where is the cream cheese in this recipe?
I’m so sorry about that. I’m not sure it there was a glitch or if it was a case of needing more coffee before posting. I edited it to show correctly now.
What a delicious breakfast idea for a fall weekend! Looks amazing! 🙂
Thanks Carrie!
I will definitely be making this during the fall!!
The picture looks as though you put dollops of pumpkin throughout just like you did the cream cheese. Is this what you did?
I didn’t but you definitely could. Enjoy!
I think a good brunch is the perfect excuse to eat some sinful and delicious like this dish!