Brioche French Toast Casserole

This Brioche French Toast Casserole is a perfect breakfast or brunch recipe for a holiday or special occasion. You can assemble it the night before then bake for about 35 minutes and enjoy hot out of the oven. Plus this recipe is delicious as is, but there's plenty of wiggle room to add your own twist.

There may be no better way to serve brunch or breakfast for company than a casserole, especially one you can make the day before, refrigerate overnight and cook the next morning. But this recipe is also versatile so you don't have to leave it overnight before cooking. Just let it sit long enough for the brioche bread cubes to soak up the custard and then bake until puffy and golden brown. We use chopped pecans and a simple brown sugar and butter topping, but you can certainly embellish on this recipe by adding fresh blueberries, more spices like nutmeg or cloves, orange zest or another nut like walnuts or almonds.

Ingredients that Matter

The star of the show here is the buttery delicious brioche bread, but you'll need a handful of pantry staples to make this French toast casserole:

• Brioche. This French bread is known for its rich, buttery flavor. That's because it's an enriched bread, meaning the dough has added butter, eggs and milk. These ingredients work together to make a super tender, light and fluffy bread. It's best to buy a loaf from a local bakery, but you may also find it at your local grocery store. Just note that some grocery store chains may sell a generic brioche loaf that's loaded with ingredients that aren't all that you may not find all that pleasant, like palm oil and monoglycerides. If you can't find brioche, swap in challah.
• Eggs. A French Toast Casserole is really a form of a bread pudding, and like a bread pudding, you'll need both cubes of bread and a custard. For the custard, we use five eggs, which will thicken and hold the bread together as it cooks.
• Milk and Half-and-Half. The dairy component of the custard is whole milk and half-and-half. We find this is a great balance of richness without being too heavy compared to using heavy cream.
• Cinnamon and Vanilla. Both cinnamon and vanilla are used to provide flavor.
• Brown Sugar. While not as sweet as a traditional bread pudding, this casserole is still fairly sweet. It's a French toast casserole, after all! We prefer to use brown sugar here for its molasses flavor.
• Pecans. Chopped pecans are using both in the casserole and as a topping. We like the texture plus it adds a nice savory component. Feel free to swap in walnuts, if desired.
• Butter. The topping is almost a pecan caramel sauce, and it starts with melted butter. It's easiest to assemble the topping if the butter is still hot or warm to help dissolve the brown sugar.

How to make Brioche French Toast Casserole

We love simple recipes like this, especially when hosting a get-together. Here's how it all comes together.

Start by cutting the brioche into bite-size pieces, about 1-inch cubes. Spray a 9- x 13-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Add the bread to the baking dish.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, half-and-half, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and salt until smooth.

To make the topping, stir together the melted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, pecans and salt until well combined.

Add more pecans to the bread gently toss. Pour custard evenly over bread and pecans.

Spoon topping over bread mixture.

Cover with foil and bake in a 375°F oven for 20 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking until the bread puffs and is golden brown, another 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Video: How to Make Brioche French Toast Casserole

Serving and Storage

This Brioche French Toast Casserole is best served hot or warm with a drizzle of maple syrup, some fresh blueberries or strawberries, more chopped pecans and a dusting of powdered sugar.

Consider making some tweaks to the recipe by adding raisins or dried cherries, chopped walnuts or almonds, apples or even fresh peaches or nectarines.

As mentioned, you can make this recipe a day ahead of time. To make this an overnight French toast casserole, simply assemble, cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate until the next morning.

Pro Tip: Remove the casserole from the refrigerate while the oven is preheating to 375°F. This will give the casserole enough time to almost come to room temperature. You can store leftovers in an air-tight container (or simply cover the casserole dish with foil or plastic wrap) and refrigerate for up to 3 days. You can also freeze the casserole after it's baked. To freeze, cut into portions then transfer those portions to a freezer-safe zip-top bag, label, and freezer for up to 3 months.

To reheat, we suggest thawing frozen portions in the refrigerator overnight then reheating in the oven until hot, about 10-15 minutes.

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