French Toast Casserole is a classic breakfast/brunch dish for family gatherings or holidays. With this small batch recipe, you can easily make it for two or a crowd.
A Christmas morning tradition in many families, it is simple to make ahead in one dish, refrigerate overnight, and bake it in the morning.
Ingredients
Bread—French bread or other
Eggs
Milk
Pantry ingredients—salt, cinnamon, sugar, vanilla extract
Topping—butter, sugar, cinnamon
Jump To (scroll for more)
Featured Comment from Anne:
"5 stars. This one is a winner, Dr. Dan! Very easy to put together the night before, dead simple to finish in the morning, with a great presentation. Thank you!"
Time to make your life easier. This easy French toast casserole is the perfect breakfast casserole for Christmas morning, so the cook (you) can participate in the family activities.
This traditional overnight French toast casserole recipe is simple to make the day ahead and oven-baked in the morning. Just follow the step-by-step photo instructions.
How to Make a Small French Toast
1️⃣Coat a 6 by 9 baking dish with butter.
2️⃣Cut 8 oz of crusty French bread into 1-inch cubes and add to the pan.
3️⃣Whisk 4 eggs, 1 ½ cups milk, 2 teaspoons sugar, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon vanilla, and ½ teaspoon cinnamon. Mix lightly.
4️⃣Pour the egg mixture over the bread cubes, cover with foil or plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight, or you can proceed to the next step and cook now.
5️⃣In the morning, remove it from the refrigerator and uncover it. Preheat the oven to 350°. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in the microwave and brush top.
6️⃣Mix 2 tablespoons sugar with 1 teaspoon cinnamon and sprinkle on top.
7️⃣Bake until golden brown and an internal temperature of 165°—about 40-45 minutes. Helpful hint: the bread will puff up some near the end. When the center is puffed, that is about the minimum time, but it will be soggy still. Go a little longer to get a dryer casserole.
8️⃣Allow to cool for 5 - 10 minutes before serving. Top with butter and maple syrup, fresh fruit, or a dusting of powdered sugar.
For more details, keep reading. See the Recipe Card below for complete instructions and to print.
✔️Tips to make it right every time
Baking without the overnight soak is OK, but it misses the point of having a dish to toss into the oven with little fuss in the morning while you enjoy the fun. But still, it is OK to mix and bake.
For food safety, please bake until an internal temperature of 165°.
You can bake the casserole covered with aluminum foil for the entire time, but I wanted some crispiness and baked entirely uncovered. Again, a matter of taste.
🥖What type of bread to use
While the most common bread recommended was a crusty French, almost any bread should be fine. If you buy a loaf of bread for this recipe, get a small loaf or baguette of French, but sourdough, Italian, or brioche bread are also good choices.
The best choice is mildly stale, crusty bread cut into cubes. A softer bread will tend to get mushy. If you have a soft bread you want to use, toss it on a tray in a 200° oven for about 10 minutes first to dry it some.
Breakfast Recipes
Check out these other breakfast recipes, like Baked English Muffins, Blueberry Breakfast Cake, Cinnamon Roll Cake, and Healthier Sausage Gravy and Biscuits.
🥣Options and variations
Step up your game with this easy breakfast casserole with fresh blueberries, diced apples, nuts, or a streusel topping.
Use blueberries on top or mix them with the bread cubes. A half cup will do. Fresh can be used or frozen if you are delaying cooking. Mixed berries or other berries may be similarly used.
Add some small chopped apple bites mixed with the bread cubes or sprinkled on top. Give them a light sprinkle of brown sugar and cinnamon before adding them.
Top with a drizzle of cream cheese frosting or a streusel topping of brown sugar, cinnamon, and nuts like pecans or walnuts, which is a good touch.
📆Making ahead
According to the USDA, you can safely make this casserole up to 24 hours ahead. Refrigerate covered with foil or plastic wrap.
When ready to bake, remove it from the refrigerator and set it at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes while the oven preheats.
↕️How to make French toast casserole for two or double for family size
This is an easy recipe to cut in half or double to fit your needs
The full recipe needs a 6 X 9 baking dish for six servings. You can also use a 9-inch round or 8-inch square baking pan. A double recipe needs a 9 X 13 casserole or cake pan. A half recipe needs a 6-inch round baking dish or something similar.
- Use the recipe card and adjust the number of servings to half or double.
- Use the amount of ingredients in the ingredient list, not the instructions—those do not adjust.
- Use the pan sizes discussed above.
- Cook until browning and 165° for safety. Baking time for a half recipe will be 25 to 30 minutes, depending on thickness. A double recipe will need 50 to 60 minutes.
🍴How to serve French toast casserole
Serve with breakfast meat, which is easy and quick. If you have not tried it, learn how to bake bacon in the convection oven or cook sausage in the oven.
Serve with butter and a generous amount of Maple syrup for topping. Sides of breakfast meats like bacon or sausage
❄️Storage and Reheating
After cooking, it can be stored, covered, and refrigerated for 2-3 days. Or freeze for 3 months.
If frozen, thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating. It is best if reheated in the oven or an air fryer at 350° for 10 to 15 minutes. This will help crispen the crust some more. When reheating it with a microwave, it will be soft.
❓FAQs
The obvious source of gluten is the bread, so a gluten-free bread is required. The other ingredients are usually gluten-free, but please read all labels before using.
To prevent a soggy casserole, try these steps.
1) Use stale bread.
2) Use a fully preheated oven.
3) It is better to use a "too large" baking dish than a "too small" one. The thicker casserole will tend to be more soggy.
4) Do not undercook—better over than under.
Once it has been baked but is soggy, you can spread the soggy casserole on a rimmed sheet pan and bake a bit longer.
Have you tried this recipe, or have a question? Join the community discussion in the comments.
📖 Recipe
Smaller French Toast Casserole
Ingredients
- 8 oz French bread - cubed about 1 inch, but other bread would do
- 4 eggs - large
- 1 ½ cup milk
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Topping
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Coat a 6 by 9 baking dish with butter.
- Cut 8 oz of crusty French bread into 1-inch cubes and add to the pan.
- Whisk 4 eggs, 1 ½ cups milk, 2 teaspoons sugar, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon vanilla, and ½ teaspoon cinnamon. Mix lightly.
- Pour the egg mixture over the bread cubes, cover with foil or plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight, or you can proceed to the next step and cook now.
- In the morning, remove it from the refrigerator and uncover it. Preheat the oven to 350°. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in the microwave and brush top.
- Mix 2 tablespoons sugar with 1 teaspoon cinnamon and sprinkle on top.
- Bake until golden brown and an internal temperature of 165°—about 40-45 minutes. Helpful hint: the bread will puff up some near the end. When the center is puffed, that is about the minimum time, but it will be soggy still. Go a little longer to get a dryer casserole.
- Allow to cool for 5 - 10 minutes before serving.
Want to save this recipe for later?
Get the recipe link via email to comeback later.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips
- I suggest a crusty bread; if it is a little stale, that is good. If you opt for softer bread, you might want to dry it out a bit in a 200° oven for about 10 minutes.
- This uses a 6 by 9 casserole dish, but an 8 by 8 pan will also work fine.
- Instructions for half and double recipes are in the post.
- The endpoint of cooking is nicely browned and has an internal temperature of 165° due to the eggs.
- Storage before cooking is limited to 24 hours for safety due to the eggs.
- After cooking, this can be stored, covered, and refrigerated for 2-3 days. Or frozen for three months.
- It is best if reheated in the oven or air fryer at 350° for 10 to 15 minutes. This will help crispen the crust, whereas reheating with a microwave will make it soft.
Your Own Private Notes
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
© 101 Cooking for Two, LLC. All content and photographs are copyright protected by us or our vendors. While we appreciate your sharing our recipes, please realize copying, pasting, or duplicating full recipes to any social media, website, or electronic/printed media is strictly prohibited and a violation of our copyrights.
Based on a Taste of Home recipe with changes.
Editor's Note: Originally Published December 22, 2016. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
G Padilla says
All I can say is awesome! I halved the recipe and cooked it for shorter amount of time until 165 in center. So easy. didn't even wait for it to sit in fridge, and it came out perfect. thank you. 😁
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi,
Thanks for the comment and welcome to the blog. I'm a big fan of breakfast with syrup.
Dan
SLP Mom says
I’ve made this twice. First time I followed directions and it was slightly dry. Today I added one more egg as bd that did the trick. I wasn’t picky about the bread either time. I had rock solids hamburger and hot dog buns, some wheat bread and a few slices of Italian bread. Broke them into a Pyrex bowl and let sit out to stale over night. I did not combine everything and put it in the fridge overnight. Very tasty.
Brittany says
I'm so glad I found your site, now that our kids are grown up, it's just me and the hubby here. So it's been alot of trial and error trying to make smaller versions of our 5+ serving meals lol.. Until I found your site.. Shoot to today's delimma lol.. Was craving French toast bake but with just use here I was like to much work for just us. Then remembered you had this.. So here I am putting into oven now.. So thank you so much.
John says
I found using the following sequence of steps makes for a more uniform distribution of ingredients.
Break eggs into bowl. Use whisk to break up eggs thoroughly..
Add cinnamon, salt and sugar to eggs using whisk.. The cinnamon will stay uniformly distributed.
Slowly add milk, whisking. Add vanilla. .
Pour over bread.
Joanne says
Making tonight for my daughters requested birthday breakfast tomorrow, and using a chocolate chip brioche small loaf (her request) which I plan to dry up a bit in the oven first. Can’t wait to see how it turns out!
Michelle G. says
This was great! I made it for dinner tonight, without the long soak. I sprinkled a generous handful of blueberries over the bread before adding the egg mixture and we loved that addition! My 7 year old even asked for this to be added to his favorites list!
Linda Gimnich says
My small casserole is 11X8 vs 9X13. Will the smaller on work for this recipe?
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Linda,
he
Welcome to the blog.
Let's do the math. We go on the volume. We will take the depth as approximate the some in all the dishes. So we use the "area". Suggested is 6X9=54 sq. inches. 11X8=88 9X13=117 So the 11X8 will be ok if you increase the recipe by 50% but very thin if you don't increase it. Also, the bigger 9X13 is a double recipe size.
So, my answer is no—increase the recipe by 50% to use that dish.
Hope that makes sense.
Dan
Sue Shortley says
Hello! Dr. Dan, what do you think about adding some breakfast sausage to this and how would you do it? Thanks, Sue
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Sue,
I probably would not add it in the dish. Raw would have too much drainage and cooked probably would dry out. Try cooking it in the same oven https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/cook-sausage-oven/ You can vary the oven temp on both these dishes. Maybe go up to 375 and put to sausage in at about 10 minutes. You are cooking both to a final internal temperature so you can fudge around a bit.
Dan
Kathy says
I like that this is in a small dish. By 9 x 5 do you mean a large loaf pan? Thanks.
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Kathy,
Welcome to the blog.
I used a small casserole that is 5X9 os a large loaf pan will usually by 9X5 so that is fine.
When substituting pans, many times just the area of the surface will tell you if you are fine. Here both those are 45 sq. inches. But some smaller loaf pans are 8X3.5 so only 28 sq. inches. An 8 inch round is 50 sq. inches - close enough. I try not to vary by over 20%.
Dan
Kelly says
Does the bread need to be dried out beforeahand?
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Kelly,
Welcome to the blog.
The answer is no, the liquid in the recipe will rehydrate the bread if it is dry but there is really not much water in bread after it is baked so it doesn't really matter if it is dry or not.
Dan
Katy Flaherty says
Just...Yummy. My picky husband loved it - even had a 2nd helping. Definitely a keeper. Thank You!
Anne says
This one is a winner, Dr. Dan! Very easy to put together the night before, dead simple to finish in the morning, with a great presentation. Thank you!
Jessica Waters says
I made this for AirBnB guests, added bacon and cheese to make it hearty!
Sprinkled lemon cardamom sugar on top. Oh yeah.
Janet says
Can this be frozen after baking? If yes, for how long?
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Janet,
Welcome to the blog.
It should freeze well for 3-4 months.
Dan
Jen says
Baked for longer. Top was crunchy and bottom was soupy :(
Want to try again, maybe original recipe in a 9 x 13 pan.
Andrea says
Not bad but after it was made we noticed that something was missing, the vanilla. It calls for it in the ingredients but if your reading through the instructions it fails to mention it in the mixture. I should have realized it was missing but unfortunately I was making it by reading the instructions only. Without the vanilla I would give it a 2 out 5. With the vanilla it would probably get a 4 out of 5
DrDan says
Sorry about that... Fixed
Dan
Amanda says
If we needed to make it same day due not having overnight availability, can it be done? If so for how long or does it Have to be refrigerated for 8 hours? Before cooking?
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Amanda,
A few hours should be fine.
Dan