French Toast Brioche Casserole
For the ultimate breakfast, whip up a batch of this easy brioche French toast casserole! Made with buttery brioche bread and a smooth custard filling, it’s the perfect breakfast for special occasions!
Whether you’re planning for the holidays, a weekend brunch, or want something special for your weekend mornings, you’ve got to try this brioche French toast bake!
This recipe tastes just like French toast but can easily be made ahead so you can focus on the rest of the dishes for your special breakfast! It can even be made the night before and baked the next morning for a super easy brioche casserole!
Honestly, it’s so much easier than making regular French toast, and the custard mixture gives the brioche pieces the most wonderful texture and flavor. Your whole family will love this special bake!
What is Brioche French Toast Casserole?
Like regular French toast, this French toast casserole with brioche bread starts with the same ingredients: fresh bread, eggs, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, etc. Instead of dipping each of the bread slices into the egg mixture and griddling them, we dice them into cubes and toss them in the egg mixture before baking them in a casserole dish.
There, the ingredients meld together. The inside of the bites as tender and moist and the tops are crunchy and flavorful thanks to the sugar topping!
Equipment
You really don’t need anything special for this brioche bread french toast casserole! You’ll need:
- 9 x 13 baking dish
- Cutting board and serrated knife
- Small mixing bowl and whisk
Ingredients for Brioche French Toast Bake
For the French toast bake with brioche:
- Brioche: Slice your loaf of brioche bread or challah into 1 inch cubes. Stale bread is the best!
- Eggs: As the base of the custard, you’ll want to thoroughly whisk together your eggs before adding the other ingredients.
- Milk: To rehydrate the bread cubes, you’ll need to add milk. I prefer to use organic whole milk when possible.
- Heavy cream: To make this French toast brioche bake even more decadent, supplement the whole milk with fresh cream.
- Vanilla extract: Vanilla is a key ingredient in the traditional French toast recipe, so it’s key in this overnight brioche French toast casserole too.
- Maple syrup: Although you don’t need to sweeten the egg mixture, I prefer to add a little bit to the French toast casserole and enjoy it with fresh berries for a mild sweetness.
- Cinnamon: Cinnamon really tastes wonderful in classic French toast! Feel free to swap it out with different warming spices to change your flavor profile.
- Kosher salt: A pinch of salt will help highlight the sweet flavor in this French toast breakfast bake, so don’t skip it!
For the topping:
- Butter: To get a crispy, crunchy bite on top of each bite, add small cubes of unsalted butter over the top.
- Demerara sugar: This sugar has larger crystals and adds a fantastic crunch when baked with a little butter. Feel free to use brown sugar instead
How to Make French Toast Brioche Casserole
- Butter your baking dish and set to the side.
- Cube your brioche and add it to your prepared baking dish. Press down to ensure there are no gaps.
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the milk, cream, maple syrup, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and salt.
- Pour egg mixture over the brioche. Gently stir or toss the brioche to make sure every piece is coated.
- Let the soaked bread rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes up to overnight. When you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
- Add small cubes of butter over the top of the casserole. Right before baking, sprinkle the demerara sugar.
- Bake the French toast casserole with brioche for 35-40 minutes or until puffy and golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and let it rest for 10-15 minutes before serving.
- Serve with your favorite toppings and enjoy!
Storing
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. To reheat, you can either microwave your leftovers or pop a serving back in a hot oven (350 F oven) to get a nice texture on top.
Serving Suggestions
There are so many fun ways to serve this easy French toast casserole! At the simplest level, you can top it with a little powdered sugar or maple syrup and enjoy it with some scrambled eggs or bacon.
Since it’s subtly sweetened with maple syrup and crunchy sugar topping, I prefer to eat it with a bunch of fresh fruit and berries and a nice, strong cup of coffee. So good!
- Whipped cream
- Syrup
- Berries and fresh fruit
- Chopped nuts
- Pie filling
- Chocolate chips
Tips for Success
- Be sure to let this French toast casserole brioche rest for a minimum of 30 minutes before baking.
- To make this overnight brioche french toast bake, make the recipe following the instructions like normal. Then, stick the baking dish in the fridge covered in aluminum foil or a plastic wrap alternative. Just before baking, top with the butter pieces and sugar.
- Tweak the seasonings to make this French toast casserole recipe your own! Replace vanilla extract with cardamom extract or cinnamon extract, etc. Instead of cinnamon, use Chinese five spice or apple pie spice!
- Prefer to make this in individual servings? Butter some ramekins and bake them until fully cooked (165 degrees F).
- Instead of cubes, you can cut the loaf of bread into slices and layer them together.
- The best French toast comes from stale bread. Make any bread “stale” by baking the cubes on a baking sheet at 350 degrees for 10-20 minutes, stirring halfway.
- No brioche? Try French bread, sourdough, or really almost any other type of bread. To highlight the flavors in the custard, stick with a neutral-tasting bread.
- Feel free to skip the cream and use half and half or more whole milk.
- To make it easier to toss the brioche cubes in the mixture of milk and egg, you can add everything to a large mixing bowl, stir, then place it all in the casserole dish
Variations
- Lemon Blueberry French Toast Bake: Replace the vanilla with lemon extract, add the zest of 1-2 lemons, and add up to 1 cup of fresh blueberries. Yum!
- Apple Cinnamon French Toast Casserole: Add 2-3 diced tart apples and double the cinnamon. You can even use cinnamon extract!
- Raspberry Chocolate Baked French Toast: Mix 1/2 cup of chocolate chips and 3/4 cup of fresh raspberries before baking this easy breakfast casserole.
FAQs
Absolutely! Brioche is a fantastic type of bread for French toast casserole, as it’s naturally tender and flavorful.
Yes! It does really help to let the casserole soak for a while, but you definitely don’t need to wait overnight. Give it at least 30 minutes to an hour, then bake!
Yes and no. After enjoying lots of French toast throughout my life, I’ve found that you can really make French toast out of any type of bread. However, the best French toast comes from bread that has some kind of texture, like sourdough, crusty French bread, brioche or challah, or even baguettes.
Other breads can be overly dense or too soft. If you have bread on hand and you’re not sure how it will work, it’s probably worth a shot!
Related Recipes
- Green Chile Egg Casserole with Sausage & Roasted Squash
- Banana Bread Baked Oatmeal
- Light and Fluffy Cheese Scones
- White Chocolate Matcha Scones with Raspberry Glaze
- Vanilla Overnight Oats
Brioche French Toast Casserole
Equipment
- 1 9×13 baking dish buttered
- 1 small mixing bowl
- 1 Whisk
Ingredients
- 1 loaf brioche, or challah; cubed
- 6 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 2 tbsp butter, cubed
- 2 tbsp demerara sugar, or brown sugar
Instructions
- Butter your baking dish and set to the side.
- Cube your brioche and add it to your baking dish. Press down to entire there are no gaps.
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the milk, cream, maple syrup, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and salt.
- Pour the egg mixture over the brioche. Gently stir or toss the brioche to make sure every piece is coated.
- Let the soaked bread rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. When you're ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
- Add small cubes of butter over the top of your soaked brioche French toast casserole. Right before baking, sprinkle the demerera sugar.
- Bake the French toast casserole with brioche for 35-40 minutes or until puffy and golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and let it rest for 10-15 minutes before serving.
- Serve with your favorite toppings and enjoy!
Notes
- Be sure to let this french toast casserole brioche rest for a minimum of 30 minutes before baking.
- To make this overnight brioche french toast bake, make the recipe following the instructions like normal. Then, stick the baking dish in the fridge covered in aluminum foil or a plastic wrap alternative. Just before baking, top with the butter pieces and sugar.
- Tweak the seasonings to make this French toast casserole recipe your own! Replace vanilla extract with cardamom extract or cinnamon extract, etc. Instead of cinnamon, use Chinese five spice or apple pie spice!
- Prefer to make this in individual servings, Butter some ramekins and bake them until fully cooked (165 degrees F).
- Instead of cubes, you can cut the loaf of bread into slices and layer them together.
- The best French toast comes from stale bread. Make any bread “stale” by baking the cubes on a baking sheet at 350 degrees for 10-20 minutes, stirring halfway.
- No brioche? Try French bread, sourdough, or really almost any other type of bread. To highlight the flavors in the custard, stick with a neutral-tasting bread.
- Feel free to skip the cream and use half and half or more whole milk.
- To make it easier to toss the brioche cubes in the mixture of milk and egg, you can add everything to a large mixing bowl, stir, then place it all in the casserole dish.
Nutrition
Brioche, is such an awesome bread. Love this and pinned it.
I visited you via Homestead Blog Hop
My entries this week = 15+16.
If you have not joined us at SSPS yet, this is a personal invite to come and share your awesome post/s with us
You will find the linkup information (1) In the Top bar under Blogging: Weekly Senior Salon Pit Stop OR 2nd image In the sidebar.
We hope to meet you there virtually.
What a delicious twist to the usual French toast. This recipe worked out so well. I made it with brioche bread and it was yumm.
5 STAR! what a beautiful treat to wake up to. Love this recipe and site
Yum. This like having bread pudding for breakfast and that’s alright with me. The coarse sugar on top gave it a nice crunch.
This French toast casserole is simply divine! The whole family loved it! We will definitely make it again!
Tasty brioche recipe. It’s the perfect brunch item. Everyone loved it.