Wake up Christmas morning with this delicious make-ahead French Toast Breakfast Casserole!
For as long as I can remember I’ve been making this make-ahead French Toast Breakfast Casserole. It’s super easy to make and one that can be thrown into the oven Christmas morning while you and the family are opening up all of your presents from Santa!
This recipe is super versatile as you can add whatever you want in it or omit stuff. Don’t like raisins? Leave them out! Want pecans? Add them! This works best with an enriched bread (a bread that’s made with eggs and dairy in it!).
This is also really, REALLY good with rum soaked raisins (add 1/2 cup dark rum to 1 1/2 cup raisins. Fill the rest with water just so the raisins are covered. Let sit for 30 minutes. Drain). I’ve also used toasted pecans in this too. AMAZING! Want a surprise in it? Add 8 slices of cooked, crumbled bacon in it as you’re assembling it!
PrintFrench Toast Breakfast Casserole
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Ingredients
- 1 Loaf of baked cinnamon swirl bread cubed or any enriched bread (bread that has eggs and dairy in it
- 2–3 tablespoon of good cinnamon
- 6 large eggs, slightly beaten
- 3 cups of Half & Half
- 2–3 teaspoon really good vanilla
- Cinnamon & sugar mixture for sprinkling (see below)
- Real butter
- Real Maple syrup
- Cinnamon/Sugar Mixture
- 2 tablespoon white sugar mixed with 1-2 teaspoon cinnamon. I like a lot of cinnamon so start off with less and add more if you want a more pronounced cinnamon taste.
Instructions
- Spray an 8×10 GLASS pan with Pam
- Cube bread and put 1/2 of it in the pan
- Sprinkle 1 1/2 tablespoons of cinnamon over bread
- Add remaining bread and sprinkle with remaining 1.5 tablespoons of cinnamon
- In another bowl mix half & half with vanilla and eggs until blended.
- Pour wet mixture over bread and gently press down so all pieces are wet.
- Cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge. This MUST sit over night.
- The next morning, remove the plastic wrap and put in a cold oven (middle rack).
- Turn to 350 and bake for 45 minutes or longer (until a knife comes out clean). DO NOT OVERBAKE though!10.
- When it’s done, sprinkle with the cinnamon/sugar mixture.
- Serve with butter and real maple syrup.
Notes
This is also really, REALLY good with rum soaked raisins (add 1/2 cup dark rum to 1 1/2 cup raisins. Fill the rest with water just so the raisins are covered. Let sit for 30 minutes. Drain).
I’ve also used toasted pecans in this too. AMAZING!
Want a surprise in it? Add 8 slices of cooked, crumbled bacon in it as you’re assembling it!
Is this the same as a Bread Pudding? Or is it a close relative? 😉
It’s a close relative. Bread pudding tends to not rest overnight and does not have as many eggs. Plus, bread pudding uses stale or toasted bread.
Best Kitchen Wishes!
I made this French Toast casserole for New Year’s Day first breakfast of the year! It was a long night so having prepped it earlier in the day made it so simple in the morning. I followed the recipe exactly as written! It was easy to follow and assemble! I added chopped pecans on top only and liked having the extra flavor and crunch! When I looked through the oven window I was amazed at how high the middle had risen! I baked it for 40 minutes then turned the heat off but let the casserole set up inside the oven as cool off gradually for 5-7 minutes! It was perfect and tasted oh so good almost like a custard dessert! I will definitely save this recipe and make it for special occasions! I’m considering a chocolate chip version! Why not?
★★★★★
DELICIOUS!! Can’t say enough! Freezes well too.
★★★★★
My daughter makes this for every holiday breakfast as part of a huge buffet – this is my favorite dish
Thanks for stopping by. This would be so good for a holiday brunch. Have a great holiday.
Linda
I give alternatives in here (use FF milk in lieu of heavy cream). I’ll be adding more healthy recipes as times goes on. For this one recipe above, I only make it once a year because it’s so unhealthy (well the half and half). Now granted you can use fat free half and half but with this recipe I really don’t recommend substituting milk for the half and half. It won’t be thick enough. Thanks for the suggestion!
Eggnog would be even better in place of half and half!
Looks sinfully delicious!! Where are the Weight Watchers versions of your recipes? lol