Easiest Overnight French Toast Bake
You can easily prep this the night before in only 10 min. Then just pop it in the oven right before serving. So easy!
I am a huge fan of brunch. If I could, I’d brunch every day, especially since you can sleep in a bit yet still indulge in all of its breakfast glory, like this baked French toast.
Now this French toast is super simple, super easy and basically fool-proof. Best of all, this can be made the night before. No wait, scratch that, this is meant to be made the night before. Sure, you can make it a couple of hours in advance but you really want to give it a full night so that your bread slices can soak up all that goodness.
When you’re ready to serve, go ahead and pour on that epic maple glaze. It replaces the need for syrup, and in my opinion, just makes it 100000x better.
Easiest Overnight French Toast Bake
Ingredients
- 3 small French baguettes, ends trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch slices
- 1 ½ cups milk
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
For the maple glaze
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- ¼ cup brown sugar, packed
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup, or more, to taste
Instructions
- Lightly coat a 9×13 baking dish with nonstick spray. Place bread slices evenly into the baking dish.
- In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, vanilla bean paste, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pour mixture evenly over the bread slices. Cover and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place the bread mixture into the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in brown sugar and maple syrup until well combined and slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Pour mixture evenly over the bread slices.
- Serve immediately, sprinkled with confectioners’ sugar, if desired.
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
I made this and it was delicious. I doubled the wet ingredients and filled a large rectangle pan with walmart French bread. I soaked each piece before placing it in the pan. I baked it for 35 min and it was perfect. The top had a slight crunch to it and the rest was like a bread pudding. We loved it. My young kiddos ate it up.
Bake covered or uncovered
This was delicious! I let it soak overnight on one side and then flipped it all in the morning and baked it face up. It came out perfectly. The glaze is key.
I loved this recipe. We have kiddos that are very allergic to cow milk, so we used Cashew milk. It changes the color a bit, but the taste was great. We thought it would also be yummy to sprinkle some pecan pieces on top because that glaze would be amazing with that as well. Very nicely spiced, also. Our bag. was quite dried out, so I just made the mixture with 4 eggs and 2 cups of the milk. It worked great. Thanks for sharing!
I made it last night, and the whole family had it this morning. So easy and incredibly delicious! Thank you again for all your great recipes.
We have a big gathering that stays overnight and French toast has always been a traditional choice. This recipe was a BIG hit. Everyone requested it for next year!!
That’s so awesome!
We are a dairy free family, so I subbed out for unsweetened vanilla almond milk for 1 cup and a half a cup of maple almond milk coffee creamer!!! Soooo delicious! Thank you
Great!
I made this yesterday so we’d have an easy delicious breakfast for Christmas morning. It wasn’t edible unfortunately. I followed the recipe exactly. The top of the bread was dry and the bottom wet and soggy. I don’t know how I could have fixed it. 🙁
I have a small family and host all the holidays in our home. I’d like to make this to serve Christmas morning. How many hours in advance can I prepare this and leave it in the refrigerator before baking?
You can cover and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.
I worded that wrong, I ment could I make it much earlier then that. Will it still be good?
It would be best up to overnight, not more than that. Hope that helps!
Would you bake this covered with the foil or uncovered?
Uncovered. Recipes typically specify when a cover is needed.
This is delicious, and it’s easy to make! My suggestion is to take the time to individually dip each piece to ensure each piece gets a good amount. Our came out A bit soggy on the bottom too, but it wasn’t terrible. The maple sauce on top help with the top of the pieces.
Overall, definitely will make again with a few adjustments.
I followed this recipe exactly and mine came out tasting like nothing. It Just tasted like French bread, honestly was disappointing.
Made this for a large family week vacation. lots of restricted diets and picky eaters. Everyone loved it and agreed it was even better the second morning. (I mixed up some more liquid and spices, soaked it and prepared on a griddle) will definitely use French bread and will lightly soak each slice before baking when I make it again for special occasions.
I’m going to add chopped toasted pecans and crispy bacon pieces. Love the sweet and savory combination.
Thank you!
I know you have mentioned in other comments that it is best to use the ingredients as listed, but I was wondering if you think almond milk would suffice for the 1.5 cups of milk? Please let me know your thoughts, I have never baked with almond milk before and don’t know if it would not absord properly or something.
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
I haven’t made this yet, but will soon! Reading all the comments…could I possibly make this recipe and cut the bread in cubes instead of slices? Wondering if it would still turn out and not be too soggy.
Yes, absolutely.
I made this for my family on Christmas morning! Everyone was more interested in this than the presents! I love all of these recipes because I know I don’t need to try them out at home first. Every single recipe I’ve made from Damn Delicious comes out soooooo good! Chungah-you need to make a cookbook!
I love this recipe, but I put the bread in the pans then dip each piece in the egg milk mixture separately. It only takes a few minutes and the results are wonderful. The flavor is great, but when I pour the egg mixture over as described the bottom is soggy and the top is dry. I also just use vanilla extract and it works great.
i used 3″ diameter supermarket french bread. (2) 2′ long baguettes filled the pan. i allowed a tiny bit of room between the slices. i made the liquid mix in a large bowl, dumped in the slices and then once soaked i transferred to baking dish for 2 hrs in the fridge. if you just line dry bread in a dish and pour liquid over, this recipe will come out badly. the bottom will be soupy and the top will be like croutons. an extra step is worth it.
I made this for my holiday brunch at work and it was a hit!! It was so delish. I read the comments where some said the bread was soggy on bottom and dry on top, so I dipped each slice in the egg batter before putting it in the pan. Then I drizzled the remaining egg batter over that. I also put the brown sugar topping on then put it back in the over for about 10 minutes for it to caramelize and keep the bread from getting soggy again since I had to drive it to work and eat it an hour later. It came out PERFECTLY!
I used one long French bread loaf. I also baked it on 375 as I prefer a more well done French Toast than most. There was no sogginess, just sweet goodness. 🙂
Not sure where I went wrong we had it soaking overnight but it came out as SUPER, SUPER SOGGY bread on the bottom and hard bread on top after baking. I had to flip them just to make it edible… even then it was disappointing and visually unappealing… I love breakfast so I was looking forward to this! Suggestions???
Kirsten, which recipe are you referring to?
Did you bake this covered or uncovered?
Uncovered. Recipes typically specify if a cover is needed.
Do you think I could make a much larger batch in a roasting pan? I am feeding a large group and need more baked at once.
Yes, absolutely! Although you may have to adjust cooking time as needed.
I used 3 day old French baguettes so that may have been the issue…..but, did anyone else have to rotate their bread so that it evenly absorbed? I let mine soak overnight and found the the tops were still hard and bottoms were soggy. I rotated and added more egg mixture. It helped, but added to prep time and complicated the recipe. Anyone else? Or was it just the hard baguette?
Jw, I imagine the baguettes to be super hard after 3 days – it is really best to use day-old bread for best results. Bu thank you for trying my recipe!
I made this for Mother’s Day. It was very good but I had the same issue as the previous poster. Next time I will coat the individual slices with the egg mixture then arrange in the dish. Beautiful presentation and the glaze is over the top delicious, it really makes the recipe special. Thank you for a great recipe!
I made this recipe this weekend and it was very good but the top of the bread had no egg mixture.The bottom was really soggy and the top hard and dry. I followed the recipe to the “T”! How does this not happen for you?
It’s really best to get every single bread slice completely soaked so that all the custard mixture does not sink to the bottom.
I had the same issue when I did it the first time. We ended up wasting the top half of it because it was way too hard to eat.
To remedy the issue, I doubled the egg mixture and flipped the bread right before I baked it. Turned out great! Still haven’t gotten the amount of bread just right yet, but it’s still super tasty!
hello, I do not have vanilla bean paste, may I sub with vanilla extract?! Thanks!
Yes, absolutely! The conversion is typically 1 tbsp pure vanilla bean paste to 1 tbsp vanilla bean extract.
I’m excited to make this! I have vanilla egg challah bread. Can I use that?
Yes, of course!
I made this recipe for our breakfast this morning and found that the egg mixture did not get absorbed well into the bread. It did sit in the fridge overnight. The flavor on the edges of the bread was great but the center was dry. Any tips for how to remedy my issue?
Amanda, it is best to have the bread slices stacked with a little bit of space in between to ensure that the egg mixture coats everything.
Same thing happened to me, Amanda. Gonna use a few less slices of bread next time. Made a test batch this AM so I could perfect it for a Sip n’ See tomorrow. So glad I saw your comment!
I pour the egg mixture trying to get in between the slices and let it sit about an hour then flip the bread over so the top is now on the bottom. Then before I bake it I flip it right side up again. I have made this many times and it’s always a hit especially because of the clever presentation!
This was very tasty and very easy to make. We substituted coconut milk for milk and yielded great results. Also, after making and adding the glaze, I put it back in the oven for 2 minutes(watching it carelfully) on broil and it was delightful. Thx for this super easy, super tasty treat.
Do you recommend baking it covered or uncovered?
It is best to bake uncovered.
For freezing, would you recommend freezing unbaked or after it has been baked?
Unfortunately, I cannot answer this with certainty as I have never tried freezing this. Please use your best judgment for freezing and reheating.
Ok, when I first looked at the prep time of 2 hours and 10 minutes I was turned off…but I continued to read and was happy to see that majority of that time was for the bread to absorb the liquid! Plan to make this very soon! Thank you!
This looks divine!!! I was thinking about trying this for an elderly gentleman that I cook for, and was wondering if this would be able to be reheated.
Yes, these reheat just fine.
The ONLY reason that i can’t make this is because i would eat the WHOLE thing, LOL
Yessssssssssssss! So in love.
So perfect for brunch, I love the vanilla bean paste and maple glaze!
I am not at all an early riser so this is just perfect for me!! I will so seriously wait for it all night!! Yumm!!
I’m just getting into cooking and receiving your daily recipes have been extremely helpful. I’m a novice when it comes to cooking so this may be a crazy question but can you utilize margarine instead of unsalted butter?
I honestly don’t have much experience cooking with margarine so I can’t really say for sure if this will change the overall taste/texture of the dish without further recipe testing.
Butter all the way. Margarine just doesn’t taste the same and reacts differently than butter.
I think people that have commented are confused regarding the bread based on your pictures. It appears that you actually used a French Baguette, the long, narrow bread versus a French loaf which is about 4-5″ wide. You have 3 rows of “baguette” in the 13×9 pan.
Thanks for clarifying, Stephanie! But the great thing about this recipe is that you could really use any kind of loaf – French loaf, baguette, ciabatta, sourdough – it’s up to you!
Do you bake it standing up like that? Looks like the egg mixture would just be on the bottom of the bread. I usually lay it down flat but would prefer your method if it works.
Thank you
Yes, I baked it “standing up” – it works just fine if you pour the egg mixture evenly between the bread slices and let it soak overnight. But, of course, please do what works best for you.
Loving that this recipe calls for an entire loaf of bread, and it sounds and looks absolutely fantasmic 😀 x
SO purrrrdy! Your overnight pumpkin baked french toast is my all-time favorite. Excited to try this for non-pumpkin season!
Where can I purchase vanilla bean paste? Could l substitute vanilla extract? If so how much? Thanks!
Looking forward to making this recipe.
Vanilla bean paste comes in a small jar of the scraped-out vanilla pod, giving you a super sweet and fragrant end product with the convenience of a quick scoop. You can read more about it here. As for conversions, 1 tablespoon of vanilla bean paste = 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract.
well THIS would be great for houseguests, awesome. looks friggin’ tasty, as always!
le
I’ve never heard of vanilla bean paste. Is it something I can make myself or where do you purchase it? Could pure vanilla extract replace it?
Vanilla bean paste comes in a small jar of the scraped-out vanilla pod, giving you a super sweet and fragrant end product with the convenience of a quick scoop. You can read more about it here. As for conversions, 1 tablespoon of vanilla bean paste = 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract.
This is perfect when having overnight guests! We have a brunch at our church and this is going to be the dish I take.
Looks amazing – your photos are so good! 🙂
– Talia
Hi Is it one loaf of French bread or 3. I want to make this for company on Saturday. I LOVE YOUR SITE!
It really depends on the size of your loaf and the type of bread you are using. You can use one large loaf of French bread or 3 mini loaves – it’s really up to you and how much you can fit into the baking dish.
Is it possible to use half & half instead of milk?
Mary, you can certainly try substituting half and half but without further recipe testing, I cannot speak for how much this will change the overall taste/texture of the dish. It is always best to use the ingredients listed in the recipe to obtain the best results possible. Also, using half and half instead of milk will add in much more unnecessary calories!
What about using the round cinnamon bread loaves that are already sliced. You could just take it out of the wrapper and put it in the pan.
You can certainly use round cinnamon bread loaves but the beauty of this recipe is using “plain” bread from scratch and adding in the flavors to your liking!
I am so happy to see the nutritional info provided
An overnight french toast bake sounds heavenly!! LOVE this idea!
Is your photo one loaf or more? Love your blog. Love your recipes. Haven’t had a single one not exceed my expectations. So glad I found you!
I used one very large loaf of French bread.
I love make ahead recipes. Waking up to this would be divine.
I would definitely jump out bed for this breakfast and waking up early is really not my thing. Beautiful!
What is vanilla bean paste, and where do I get it?
Vanilla bean paste comes in a small jar of the scraped-out vanilla pod, giving you a super sweet and fragrant end product with the convenience of a quick scoop. You can read more about it here.
Oh! Heavens to Betsy that looks deeeelicious!
This is one of my all-time favorite breakfasts, but I’ve never made it with the bread arranged like yours! It’s so pretty – I can’t wait to try this version!
I love it when you make sweeter-ish kind of recipes. Right up my alley 🙂