This Overnight Baked Brioche French toast is the perfect make-ahead breakfast to feed a crowd for a weekend brunch, Christmas morning, or anytime you have guests staying with you. The cinnamon spice mix sprinkled and baked throughout makes this perfect to go with a morning cup of cocoa or coffee, too!
Family holiday traditions are the best, aren't they? Especially the ones that involve food!
At our house, we like to open presents on Christmas morning. While the coffee is flowing for us parents, everyone is chowing down on Banana Crumb Coffee Cake, Banana Chocolate Chip Waffles, or Air Fryer Cinnamon Rolls. We lounge in our pajamas, chowing down on breakfast throughout the lazy long morning, while enjoying our gifts and each others company without any stress or hurry.
Many years, I'll do at least one make-ahead breakfast so that we can focus on the Christmas morning festivities. I've made Overnight Breakfast Casseroles and Overnight Orange Cardamom Cinnamon Rolls before, as well as this Overnight Oven French Toast recipe!
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🌟 Why this recipe works
This overnight breakfast recipe is perfect for the holidays!
- You can either make it the morning of or assemble it the night before, then bake in the morning.
- It's made with basic ingredients you can find in any grocery store.
- There are lots of ways you can customize it with different flavors and toppings.
- It's a rich, hearty, super satisfying breakfast!
🍞 Ingredients
The full list of ingredients and measurements is in the recipe card at the bottom of this post. Here are some notes about some of the key ingredients:
Bread - Use Brioche bread or sliced French toast bread. You want a thick bread that can nicely soak up the milk mixture.
Milk - You can use regular milk, or almondmilk. I've found that the almond flavor in almond milk works beautifully with the cinnamon and vanilla of this dish.
✅ Step-by-step instructions
To make this overnight:
- Start by mixing all of the wet ingredients with the spices in a large bowl.
- Layer the bread slices over each other in a pattern. Then, pour the mixture as evenly as possible over all of the bread.
- Refrigerate overnight.
- When you get up in the morning, you can toss into the oven and bake. It will be ready by the time the troops are dressed and ready for breakfast before heading off to school or work!
To make this the morning of:
- Start by mixing all of the wet ingredients with the spices in a large bowl.
- Layer the bread slices over each other in a pattern. Then, pour the mixture as evenly as possible over all of the bread.
3. Bake at 350° degrees for 30-35 minutes. I usually rotate my baking pans and dishes halfway through the cooking time in order to ensure even baking.
The result is a deliciously crisp bread crust top, and flavorful French Toast center. This is SO good. And, it's so easy and fast to make ahead of time. The ingredients come together in just 10-15 minutes.
🍽 Serving ideas
Top this baked brioche french toast with sifted powdered sugar, maple syrup, and cranberries.
Other ideas:
- Crushed, sliced or ground almonds
- Cranberry-orange maple syrup
- Chocolate sauce
- Cinnamon sugar sprinkles with maple syrup
👩🏻🍳 Recipe Tips & FAQs
For this recipe, I've found that Brioche bread is best. You can also use sliced French Toast bread, sliced French bread, or baguette. You want a bread that is thick enough to stand up to the soaked milk mixture.
It's not recommended. Sliced white or wheat bread is usually too thin for this recipe, and can fall apart during baking.
- When pouring the mixture over the bread, be sure the mixture reaches ALL of each piece of bread. Depending on how you layered the bread, this may mean lifting up some parts and pouring the mixture in order to reach corners and pockets covered by other slices.
- If you are working with a larger loaf or larger slices, feel free to bump the Almondmilk mixture up to 1 cup.
- Don't forget to spoon the mixture that has settled on bottom of the baking pan overnight over the bread before baking. And be sure to double check that ALL of the bread has some of the milk mixture over it.
- If you find that the mixture has solidified slightly because of the temperature of your fridge, take out and let it thaw out a bit at room temperature so it's easier to spoon the mixture from the bottom over the bread.
More breakfast recipes
Did you make this recipe? Don't forget to leave a 5-Star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card, and if you really loved it, please leave a comment further down on the page. Thank you!
Overnight Baked Brioche French Toast
Ingredients
- 1 loaf sliced brioche bread
- 5 large eggs
- ¾ cup almondmilk
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground all-spice
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Grease a 9 x 13 baking dish with butter or nonstick spray.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine all remaining ingredients (eggs through vanilla extract). Whisk vigorously until well blended.
- Lay out bread slices evenly into the baking dish, overlapping slightly.
- Pour mixture over bread slices as evenly as possible.
- Cover and refrigerate for at least four hours or overnight.
- When you are ready to bake the bread, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and remove baking dish from the refrigerator.
- Use a spoon to gently scoop up any remaining liquid on the floor of the baking dish and spoon over the top of the bread or cover any visible dry, unsoaked spots.
- Place in oven and bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes, until the tops are just golden brown.
- OPTIONAL: top with sifted powdered sugar, maple syrup, and any other goodness your heart desires!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is a general estimate. Actual nutrition details may vary depending on the exact foods & brands you use to make this recipe. It does not take into account any substitutions, toppings, or optional ingredients.
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Trust me: if you have just 10-15 minutes to prepare this the night before, this make ahead breakfast is SO much easier than the traditional way of making French Toast one or two at a time!
Do you have any holiday food traditions?
This post is sponsored by Almond Breeze Almondmilk.
Munchkintime says
Oh my, this looks mouth- watering! Thank you so much for sharing with this recipe and amazing tip to prepare it before sleep. Love it! Pinning it!
Mama Munchkin says
I love a French Bread casserole and I am all about the make ahead breakfasts on Christmas morning. Love the festive cranberries too ;)
Marlynn Jayme Schotland says
Make-ahead breakfasts for Christmas morning are the best! :)
Erin says
I am so excited to try this! I have a brunch coming up next week... I might experiment with this recipe before I do it for Christmas! We LOVE french toast - this would be so nice to have one less thing to cook in the morning.
Marlynn Jayme Schotland says
Please do and let me know how it goes!
Susan | LunaCafe says
This looks simply fabulous. Love the way you arranged the bread in the baking dish. Very pretty!
Marlynn Jayme Schotland says
Thank you so much, Susan!
Dawne says
I was reading this and my Mom came up behind me and so "oooh" when I told her how easy it looks, she said "oh we are doing that on Christmas Eve... so thank you for that. it normally takes hours for breakfast on Christmas day....now I don't have to starve all morning. Bookmarked and ready to go.
Marlynn Jayme Schotland says
Oh I love that! :) If you do make it, please let me know how it goes!
Sabrina says
This is a great timesaver for making french toast, and delicious too!
Marlynn Jayme Schotland says
It is a great time saver, for sure, which is always a plus on Christmas morning! More time for the family fun :)
Lisa says
Yum - this is delicious, not to mention easy to prepare!
Marlynn Jayme Schotland says
Thanks, Lisa! It is REALLY easy - and fast to pull together!
Kelley says
We usually have a French toast casserole on Christmas morning, and it's so nice to not have one person (*cough* Mom) spending all their time in the kitchen instead of around the tree. This one looks very user-friendly!
Marlynn Jayme Schotland says
Yes! Anything that doesn't keep the cook away from family time on Christmas morning is a win in my book, and this is definitely that recipe :)
Rachel Lloyd says
SO festive!!! I love the look of this dish. I've never tried any of the overnight casserole recipes- this looks too good not to try!
Marlynn Jayme Schotland says
Thanks Rachel! I hope you try it someday and let me know what you think!
Linda says
Great dish for Christmas morning!
Aubrie LeGault says
Seriously, I love any version of French Toast. This sounds amazing. I'm pinning it for later. Thanks.
Marlynn Jayme Schotland says
French Toast is such a comfort food, isn't it? Thanks for pinning and commenting, Aubrie!
Pech says
A big breakfast dish that can feed many and prepped beforehand sounds like a winner in my book! It's perfect for holiday family feeding with ease or anytime you have guests over visiting!
Marlynn Jayme Schotland says
Exactly - so much easier than making a couple at a time in the morning!
heather says
we're traveling this year for Christmas, but I am definitely saving this recipe for next year! sounds yummy
Marlynn Jayme Schotland says
Thanks, Heather! Safe travels over Christmas this year!