This Easy French Toast Casserole bakes up with it’s own crème brulee layer complete with caramelized sugar! The luscious breakfast casserole can be put together the night before and baked in the morning for a no fuss breakfast! 
I love a good fancy breakfast or brunch but also love to ease into my morning instead of hitting the kitchen at a dead run. This easy French toast casserole is a heavenly overnight French toast recipe that always impresses my family, out of town guests, and whoever else shows up at my breakfast table. The casserole has a wonderful crème brulee layer over a caramelized sugar bottom that is decadent and amazing for that special Saturday breakfast or Christmas morning.
Easy French Toast Casserole – A Make Ahead Breakfast for a Hassle- Free Morning
French toast isn’t exactly hard to make but if you need to feed a crowd it can be time consuming. Enter the French toast casserole! Whisk together the batter, dump over favorite bread and plop in the fridge for next day baking! Got 15 house guests? Make two pans!
Crème Brulee style is my favorite of all French toast bakes. As I serve each piece I flip it upside down so the caramelized sugar layer is on top – just like crème brulee! The presentation is beautiful. It turns out you really can knock people’s socks off with just a bit of bread and some eggs and cream!
What is the Best Bread for Overnight French Toast Casserole?
The truth is you can use any kind of bread in a French toast casserole. I’m partial to thicker breads than the usual sandwich bread. Day old French bread is always wonderful. My favorites are brioche and challah bread. They are both richer breads that are sturdy enough to hold their texture well in a breakfast casserole.
Often I bake my own bread for French toast. I happen to make good bread and I want the bread a day or two old – not a week old so I find it easier to whip out a loaf of my own instead of running to the store.
And for the cherry on top you can always chunk up a pile of croissants for the most epic French toast ever!
Tips for the Best French Toast Casserole
Bread: Pick a good quality bread that tastes good by itself. In other words don’t buy the cheapest white sandwich bread. Try to avoid standard slices of thinner sandwich breads in general.
Soaking: Make sure the bread has time to fully soak up the custard. Sure, usually we make it the night before but you don’t strictly have to! You just need to let it sit a good three hours. If you rush it there will probably be dry spots. But you can make it same day and serve it for a late morning brunch or breakfast for dinner.
Consistency: Cooking the casserole less gives you a wetter texture. Cooking the casserole more gives you a more crunchy top and firmer texture. This is all up to personal preference!
Mix Ins: All French toast casseroles are wonderful with mix ins. This crème brulee style bake is no different. Toss in chopped nuts, your favorite berries, slices of apples or pears, or even chocolate chips for fun new flavors!
Toppings for Overnight French Toast
You can absolutely serve this French toast bake just the way it is – because crème brulee style is SO lovely. You can also jazz it up a bit with any of the following if you like!
- powdered sugar
- seedless blackberry syrup
- Fresh Berries
- Homemade Whipped Cream
- Blueberry Syrup
- Maple Syrup
- Sticky Bun Syrup
More Top Shelf Breakfast Recipes
- Easy Buttermilk Waffles
- Blueberry Pancakes
- Crispy Oven Hash Browns
- Better than Cinnamon Cinnamon Rolls
- Oatmeal Muffins
- Sour Cream Coffee Cake
- Apple Crisp French Toast Casserole
- Breakfast Lit’l Smokies and Caramelized Onions
Easy French Toast Casserole Crème Brulee Style
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 Tablespoons corn syrup
- 1 pound bread French, challah, or croissants
- 8 large eggs
- 1 1/4 cups milk
- 1 1/4 cups cream
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- In a small saucepan cook the butter, brown sugar and corn syrup over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until smooth and tawny. Pour the mixture in an even layer into a 12"x 8" baking dish. (You can use a slightly larger baking dish but adjust the cooking time.)
- Tear up bread into ragged chunks or cut into cubes about 1" in size (I cut). Add all the bread on top of sugar mixture and press lightly so the bread compresses a bit. Don't squish more than about 1/4 of the air out.
- In a medium bowl or giant measuring cup with a spout whisk together the eggs, milk, cream, vanilla, and salt until combined well and pour evenly over the bread. Cover the casserole with cling wrap and refrigerate a few hours or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350 F and bring bread to room temperature.
- Bake casserole, uncovered, in middle of oven until puffed and edges are pale golden, 35 to 40 minutes. The simplest method to check for doneness is with a digital thermometer. The casserole is ready when the internal temperature is 160.
- Serve hot French toast immediately with fresh strawberries, butter, favorite syrup or whipped cream. It looks prettiest when pieces are served upside down.
Nutrition
I read each and every comment and I try to respond to questions asap, so ask away! If you’ve made a recipe, I would love to hear about it! Please come back and share your experience and give the recipe a 5-star rating so other people will know how much you loved it!
This recipe was originally shared in April of 2015. It was updated in January of 2021.
Kristen @ A Mind Full Mom
YUM! YUM! I am so in love with creme brulee and french toast is my favorite. I can’t wait to try it!
Mirlandra
Its a match made in heaven!
Marye
OH! Creme Brulee French toast sounds perfect for breakfast! or lunch… or dinner… or …
Mirlandra
Midnight snack? 😉
Ariel
Mirlandra this looks like the perfect breakfast for when you have company! Whenever I have friends or family over, I’m a huge advocate of having everything prepped as ahead of time as possible too; you want to be able to spend time with your out of towners! (As much as being in the kitchen is a blast!) I can’t wait to try this; what an interesting take on crème brûlée! Thanks for sharing!
Mirlandra
I could not agree more. Time is the one thing in life you can’t buy more of and spending it with the people you care about is therefore priceless.
Valerie | From Valerie's Kitchen
Love the idea of using challah! Perfect for Mother’s Day 🙂
Mirlandra
Thanks! This would be a great Mother’s Day recipe – maybe more so because older kiddos could make it with minimal supervision.
Abigail
Wow! Looks like the ultimate breakfast treat – am sure there won’t be any left-overs! Pinning, too. 🙂
Mirlandra
Not at all! In fact, I might have been known to lick the pan… 🙂
Chrisy @ Homemade Hooplah
Looks delish! I’m a sucker for all kinds of french toast 😀
Mirlandra
As am I!
Lily Lau
So yummy! Tomorrow I won’t eat breakfast until I get them to look like in your photos! 😉
Mirlandra
I hope it worked well for you! I just cut a square out and flip it over on the plate. To be totally honest I have been known to drop the square while flipping but not too often. Smaller squares are easy to flip over though and less likely to make a leap for it.
Daniel
This looks absolutely delicious!!! My mouth is watering just looking at the picture.
Mirlandra
Thanks, Dan! It is a wonderful simple way to make something stunning! I’m working on a new French Toast Casserole that I hope will be out this fall. It should also be pretty awesome 🙂
farahfutom
Hi! I plan on making this tonight but don’t have corn syrup. Is there anything I can use to substitute with considering my pantry items are pretty basic (granulated sugar, white sugar, brown sugar, honey, flour, corn flour)?
Thank you so much in advanced for your response!
Mirlandra
Try some syrup instead if you have some. You could also search online for ways tonuse sugar and water to make a substitute. Let me know how it goes!
Stella
Maple syrup works great in place of the corn syrup!
Mirlandra
Oh yum! Thanks for sharing.
Melanie
I look forward to trying it. Unfortunately, I don’t have company that often, but I may half or quarter the recipe, and divide it into individual servings in mini-loaf pans.
Mirlandra
Sorry, it is a big pan! I think doing it as individual servings would be wonderful 🙂
Gale
I went to someone’s house who made this with some modifications that make this even easier than the original. Instead of making the milk mixture, buy egg nog and use that. The nice thing with egg nog is you can get flavored egg nog. Also try adding blueberries to the mixture, even though the above recipe states to add them outside the recipe and OMG!
Mirlandra
Yes there are many variations on this theme.
Sherry Weekley
Made this Like five times last Christmas and everyone raved about it and one of the recipe! I think this time will make it once so I don’t gain 10 pounds LOL
Mirlandra
LOL! It is a very rich treat but so, so, so good! I am glad you all enjoyed it so much. Happy cooking!
jerry
Q 12 x 8 casserole dish is uncommon. Do you use that size as a rule?
Mirlandra
No I use all sorts. I used to play the field a bit more but have started trying to make sure my recipes are primarily developed for a more standard size. Sorry about that! Sometimes us kitchen nuts get a little carried away with our dishes 😉
Susie Ledesma
Hi Mirlandra, I have been making a French toast casserole for years, for Christmas and Easter. I make mine slightly different, I slice French bread and lay them in a buttere 9 by 13, then pour the egg mixture over the them. Then the caramel mixture over the top before baking. I also flip the bread before it gets baked which really helps to incorporate the egg mixture!
Mirlandra
Thanks for sharing, Susie! That sounds like a great method. I want to eat breakfast at your house 🙂
Lissa
If I use a standard 9×13 dish, how would I modify the cooking time, please? Thank you!
Mirlandra
It will probably cook a bit faster depending on the temperature when you put it in the oven. Try checking it at 20 minutes and then keep an eye on it until it is done. Enjoy!
Sandy
My sister made this for a Sunday brunch a couple of weeks ago. Delicious! I am making it for our Christmas brunch.
Mirlandra
Wonderful! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. I always love finding those fun new recipes that are worth making again!