Baked Pumpkin Cream Cheese French Toast
So easy with the best cream cheese filling! Prep the night before and bake right before serving!
I finally opened my first can of pumpkin this season! Now it definitely doesn’t feel like fall just yet as it is hitting close to 100 degrees F outside here in Southern California but still – this french toast should be made all year long.
It’s pretty much pumpkin pie in french toast form. Except it’s unbelievably easy to make.
You can even prep everything the night before, toss it in the fridge, and throw it in the oven before serving the next morning.
It’s actually better that you make it ahead of time so those little pieces of bread can soak up all that pumpkin goodness.
And those bread cubes up there – those are King’s Hawaiian rolls. AKA – the best rolls in the world. And the only rolls to use when it comes to baked french toast.
Oh and you can’t forget that oozing cream cheese filling right in the middle layer. Imagine it to be a mini cheesecake filling in the middle of your french toast.
Amazing, right? And there’s no need for syrup here. From the sweet, fluffy King Hawaiian rolls to the cream cheese filling and crumbly crumb topping, you’re set.
Just pop this baby out of the oven and serve. It’s even better when eaten right out of the baking dish too. Why waste time plating?
Baked Pumpkin Cream Cheese French Toast
Ingredients
- ¾ cup milk
- ½ cup pumpkin puree
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 (12-count) package KING'S HAWAIIAN Original Hawaiian Sweet Dinner Rolls, cubed
For the crumb topping
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup brown sugar, packed
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, cut into cubes
- ¼ cup chopped pecans
- 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
For the cream cheese filling
- 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- ⅓ cup confectioners’ sugar
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- In bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat cream cheese, sugar and cinnamon on medium speed until light and fluffy, approximately 2-3 minutes; set aside.
- In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk together milk, pumpkin puree, eggs, pumpkin pie spice and vanilla.
- Lightly coat a 9×13 baking dish with nonstick spray. Place a layer of bread cubes evenly into the baking dish. Pour half of the pumpkin puree mixture evenly over the top. Spread cream cheese filling in an even layer. Top with remaining bread cubes and pumpkin puree mixture to completely cover the filling.
- Cover and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- To make the crumb topping, combine flour, sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Add cold butter and toss to coat, using your fingers to work the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the bread cubes.
- Place into oven and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Serve immediately, sprinkled with pecans and confectioners’ sugar, if desired.
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by King’s Hawaiian. All opinions expressed are my own.
As another reviewer said, I’ve also been making this for years and hadn’t left a review yet! We make this every fall and we love it. Actually I love all of your recipes 🙂 thank you!
I’ve been making this for years, and I realized I’ve never left a review! It’s so good! I look forward to it every fall.
I made it this morning and it was delish!
My family loved it. Another fantastic dish I will be making again and again. Thank you!
Super easy to assemble and full of flavor. I made one in a 13×9 foil pan for work and one in an oval casserole like the pic for Christmas Day (one for my nursing unit and one for my family). The 13×9 needs a few more rolls to fill but came out great. Everyone loves it. Thank you for the gift of your fabulous recipes!
Where in this recipe does it say to use stale bread? I only see it in the reviews.
Hello!!! This dish looks AMAZING! I made it for my family and used a standard 9×13 pan, but I found that the first layer or the cubed Hawaiian rolls seemed really thin and then when I added the pumpkin mixture, it seemed as though there wasn’t enough liquid. I wonder if using a slightly smaller pan might work better? I notice that in the pictures it looks like you used a smaller oval dish??
Hi Sarah! So, it really depends on how small or how large you cut up the Hawaiian rolls. You can certainly use a smaller oval dish if you prefer! 🙂
Hello Chungah- As for taste. Do you prefer this recipe or the crockpot version?
Thank you!
To be honest, I love both! It’s too hard to choose!
When it looks this good, do you even need syrup? lol
(I’m not asking for me, i’m asking for my kids haha)
Made this last weekend. Followed the recipe except I didn’t have confectioner’s sugar so I used regular. It was perfect. Not bland. I used my corningware oval casserole dish and it was perfect for 2 layers. My rolls were fresh, not stale, and I let it sit overnight in the fridge before baking (uncovered). It wasn’t soggy at all. I think I did bake it for about 50 minutes. No complaints here.
I made this for Christmas Eve brunch for family. Put it in a smaller casserole dish instead of a 9×13, but forgot to take into account it would take longer to bake that way. It took closer to an hour to cook all the way through. Also in that shape container, the cream cheese filling was a bit too abundant. We all loved it! I could understand those who felt it was bland, but come on, it’s French toast! The pecans and the topping were fantastic touches. Thoroughly enjoyed, would totally make again!
Should the bread be stale or fresh? Looking to make this for Christmas morning! Someone above asked this and the response was “yes” which doesn’t help!
Yes, the bread should be stale.
This recipe is DELICIOUS!! I could seriously eat the entire thing myself. Fantastic recipe! Also, for a bit of added sweetness glazed pecans are divine on top 🙂
This was the hit of our leftovers brunch this weekend. I made the recipe with a medium challah loaf and half a loaf of cinnamon-raison bread mixed together (I did have to make more of the pumpkin puree mixture to cover evenly as a result). Otherwise kept to the instructions and enjoyed thoroughly after baking. Lived up to your blog name.
Making this for tomorrow morning and just realized I basically tripled the amount of pumpkin I needed..it’s been a long day! Any chance this will still turn out or do I need a plan B? Thanks!
Unfortunately, it’s really hard for me to say. I hope it turned out okay! 🙂
I made this yesterday and I was a little disappointed. Perhaps I had my hopes up a little too high. It was rather blah in my opinion and the topping was not good at all. Even my husband agreed with me and he eats everything.
I was very excited to try this because PUMPKIN AND CREAM CHEESE! 🙂
This dish is really lacking something. I would venture to say it is too sweet where it is sweet and too bland where it’s not. The 9×13 recommended sized baking dish was a disaster. I notice in the photos it looks jam packed and that dish must be considerably smaller. In the recommended size the bread doesn’t even cover the bottom and when you go to spread an even layer of cream cheese… well it’s impossible to do because of how few and far between the bread cubes are. Pouring the pumpkin egg mixture wasn’t working with this size either. You couldn’t cover all the bread and since the cubes were so far apart most of the mixture went between the bread, creating a dense eggy layer on the bottom and a layer of dryer bread up top that had notrouble been able to soak up any mixture despite the 5 hour soak time I allowed.
I would definitely recommend a smaller dish if you decide to try this recipe out. It may make all the ddifference in taste too, who knows! The topping was tasty.
do you know if this recipe can be frozen and cooked at a later time? Looks delicious! <3
It’s December and two years later! Just stumbled upon your recipe during the Christmas season. Subbed the pumpkin and pumpkin spices with eggnog, nutmeg and rum extract—-still DELICIOUS!
Thank you
Other than adding the pecans into the streusel topping itself, I made this as written. It is divine! It only served 6 as part of a breakfast with us all looking forlornly at the empty dish. Next time I will double it.
Thank you for our new Christmas favorite!
Hi I am not a fan of pumpkin. Just wondering if I can use sweet potatoe. Thanks Marie
That sounds like an amazing substitution but without having tried this myself, I cannot really answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment.