I used the rest of my brioche loaf to whip up a pan of Brioche French toast. I love French toast anything and I also love casseroles, so I figured that a French toast casserole would be pretty fantastic. My brioche French toast bake is eggy, sweet, and crunchy. I like to add in pecans and serve it with a drizzle of maple syrup and a side of fresh fruit. If you can’t eat nuts, feel free to leave them out.
Brioche is a great option for French toast. It’s really dense and eggy, so it soaks up the wonderful egg and milk batter. And it gets crispy and crunchy once you bake it. You could also swap out challah or another egg bread. If you have the time, I would recommend that you try making your own Brioche from scratch at least once. Fresh, homemade bread has a flavor that’s hard to beat. But you don’t want your bread to be too fresh. Stale bread really does make better French toast, so I cubed the loaf and let it sit out overnight until it staled. If you don’t have time for the bread to stale overnight, you can cube it and bake it at 250 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Make sure that you watch it to prevent it from burning.
French toast starts with a custard base. You’ll whisk eggs and milk together then stir in the vanilla, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Fold in the dried-out bread. I would recommend switching from a whisk to a large spoon. The bread tends to get stuck in the whisk tines. Then, spread the French toast into a greased 9×9 casserole dish. This bakes for about 35-40 minutes or until your French toast bake sets. Start checking around 30 minutes of baking to make sure you don’t over bake it.
This brioche French toast is also a perfect make-ahead breakfast for guests or just a day when you want something a bit fancier to eat. If you want to make this ahead of time, you can refrigerate it without the butter topping. Make the butter topping when you are ready to bake the casserole. Be sure to stir the bread to re-moisten the top pieces before you add the topping. You may want to add five to ten minutes baking time to make sure it heats through.
Brioche French toast bake
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 9 1x
Ingredients
French toast
- 1 loaf of day old Brioche, cubed
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup of milk
- 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon or pumpkin pie seasoning
Topping
- 1/4 cup of brown sugar
- 1/3 cup of chopped pecans
- 1 stick of softened butter
- Optional powdered sugar for dusting
Instructions
- Spray a 9×9 casserole dish. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Whisk eggs, milk, and vanilla together in a large bowl. Stir in brown sugar and cinnamon or pumpkin pie seasoning.
- Toss bread with egg and milk mixture, making sure all bread is covered.
- Spread in casserole dish. Optional: cover and refrigerate overnight until needed.
- Combine butter, brown sugar, and pecan with an electric mixer. Spread evenly as topping over the bread mixture.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes. Sprinkle powdered sugar and serve.
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 35
mmm…love, love, love me some french toast!! Never woulda thought about using stale bread though. It looks really good…guess I’ma have to try it out!! I’m a new subscriber to your blog thanks to the blog hop!!
oh good gosh that looks good!!!!