Busy mornings can still feel special with this easy French toast casserole. All the warm and comforting flavors of traditional French toast are part of this re-imagined casserole. The ingredients consist of mostly leftover bread and kitchen stock ingredients making it a wonderful low-cost breakfast idea. Topped with a crumb topping, it’s absolutely delicious with some warm maple syrup on top. I hope you’ll try this low-cost and scrumptious recipe.

My family and I love French toast. The flavors of warm vanilla and cinnamon mixed together on top of a warm, custardy slice of bread. I mean what could possibly beat that as a meal.

With my love of French toast in mind, this recipe came about when I had a ton of leftover bread in the fridge. I needed a good way to use it. It seems every other week, my bread shelf (yes, I have a dedicated bread shelf in the fridge.) would be overflowing with a couple of slices of multiple bread loaves, leftover hamburger buns, some hoagie rolls and whatever else didn’t get used throughout the week.

*As a side note, I highly recommend keeping bread in the fridge. It lasts much longer.

I knew I wanted to create a French Toast inspired casserole, but I wanted to make it much easier than other recipes I had seen. This recipe is the best! It has turned out so good that we make it more than traditional French Toast in my house now.

It’s warm flavors of vanilla and cinnamon swirled with the heavy cream and egg custard makes every bite feel like dessert. One of my favorite parts of this recipe is that by using leftover bread you end up with some different textures in the dish, making every bite a little different.

Saving Money with French Toast Casserole

This recipe calls for 6 cups of leftover bread which is approximately 8-12 slices of bread. If you are like me, you easily have this on hand at any given time. Don’t throw out that leftover hoagie roll, English muffin or those end pieces. This is the perfect recipe to use them!

In addition to using your leftover bread, this recipe uses a lot of your kitchen stock items.

Vanilla Extract
Cinnamon
Lemon Concentrate
Salted Butter
Brown Sugar
All Purpose Flour
Sea Salt

If you haven’t already, be sure to grab a copy of my full kitchen stock list. All of my recipes on this blog are created with the kitchen stock in mind. This approach saves both time and money!

Get my kitchen stock list to save time and money!

How to Make French Toast Casserole

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and spray a 9″x9″ baking dish with cooking spray.
Tear 6 cups of bread into bite size pieces and place to the side.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together 6 eggs, 1 cup whole milk, 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1 tbsp vanilla extract, 2 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp lemon extract.
Add bread and gently stir. Pour bread and mixture into baking dish. Mixture should be soggy but not liquid.
Make the crumble topping by combing the flour, brown sugar and sea salt in a medium bowl. Melt butter slightly and drizzle over the flour and sugar mixture while stirring with a fork. Stop as soon as you have crumbs. Do not over-mix or it will become dough.
Add the crumble to the top of the bread mixture.
Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes or until the top is a nice golden brown and the custard has set.

I mean, look at that beautiful slice!

Making French Toast Casserole Ahead of Time and Freezing

Making Ahead: French toast casserole will last in the fridge in an airtight container up to 3 days.

Reheat: Reheat the casserole in an oven safe baking dish at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. Since this casserole has a crumb topping, cover the baking dish with aluminum foil while you re-heat. The other way you can reheat the casserole is by using the microwave in 30 second intervals until your desired temperature. I personally recommend using the oven to preserve the texture of the dish.

Freezing: Allow the French toast casserole to cool completely. Once it has cooled, you can transfer it to an airtight container or portion it out and wrap it in plastic wrap and then place each portion in a ziplock bag. Label and date each container or bag. It will stay good in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Thawing: If the casserole is frozen, let the casserole thaw overnight in the fridge and then refer to the oven reheating method above.

I hope you’ll enjoy this recipe and share it with your friends. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Print Recipe

French Toast Casserole

Prep Time5

Cook Time30

Course: Breakfast

Servings: 6

Author: Julia Head

Ingredients

6 cups Bread Torn to bite size pieces.
6 Eggs
1 cups Whole Milk
½ cup Heavy Cream
1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp Lemon Juice Concentrate
6 tbsp Salted Butter
½ cup Brown Sugar
¾-1 cup All Purpose Flour
½ tsp Sea Salt

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and spray a 9×9″ baking dish with cooking spray.
Tear 6 cups of bread into bite size pieces and place to the side.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together 6 eggs, 1 cup whole milk, 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1 tbsp vanilla extract, 2 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp lemon extract. Add bread and gently stir. Pour bread and mixture into baking dish.
Make the crumble topping by combing ½ cup of flour, brown sugar and sea salt in a medium bowl. Melt butter slightly and drizzle over the flour and sugar mixture while very gently and slowly stirring with a fork. Add in ¼ cup of flour at a time as needed to create a dry crumble but don’t overmix! Stop as soon as you have crumbs that are more dry than wet.
Add the crumble to the top of the bread mixture.
Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30-40 minutes or until the top is a nice golden brown and the custard has set.

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Julia Head

Hi, Friends! Welcome! I’m Julia, the creator of Sweet Tea Meals. I’m a stay-at-home mom of two and a self-taught home cook. I’m on a mission to bring joy back to your kitchen with simple, low-cost and well-organized recipes. I’m so glad you’re here.