Easy Overnight French Toast Casserole

This overnight French toast casserole is incredibly easy and perfect for your next brunch get together! Dairy free, gluten free, and refined sugar free modifications available! 

One of my favorite brunches of all time is French toast, and when in casserole form, it’s just insane. This overnight French toast casserole is sure to please all ages, all taste buds, and even a variety dietary needs and preferences!

That’s what I love about these types of recipes 🙂 They’re very easy to customize for whatever you want or need!

The best part of this casserole is that all you need is 10 minutes the night before, and then it’s so low maintenance in the morning- just turn on your oven and place it in to bake!

Easy, right? Let’s go over ingredients, then I’ll talk about how to prepare it, modifications, and choosing the best bread 🙂

Overnight French Toast Casserole Ingredients

Bread: we’ll go over choosing the best bread down below, but I highly recommend choosing a hearty loaf! One that you’ll slice yourself 🙂 I think it yields the best overnight French toast casserole. However, you can also use your favorite bread here too. This recipe is very customizable!

Almond or Coconut Milk: this is what keeps this healthy French toast casserole dairy free! I love using almond milk because I think it adds a nice nutty taste to the French toast. However, if you have a nut allergy, feel free to use coconut milk or your favorite dairy free milk in it’s place! Or if you’re not dairy free, add in regular organic milk in its place 🙂

Eggs: for this recipe, we only need 4 eggs! Because what’s French toast without the eggs?! Then it’s just soggy bread that we’re trying to cook ha!

Maple Syrup: my absolute favorite sweetener, maple syrup is like gold to me haha! This is what keeps this healthy French toast casserole refined sugar free! Because maple syrup tastes sweeter than regular sugar, we actually don’t need that much to make this overnight French toast casserole sweet!

Cinnamon: we’ll be using a lot of cinnamon here because what is French toast without cinnamon?!

Sea Salt: just a dash to help with flavor!

Vanilla: my secret weapon to the best French toast! Just a teaspoon here really ups the sweetness of this French toast casserole! You can use either vanilla extract, vanilla bean seeds, or vanilla bean powder! Up to you 🙂

How to prepare your oven baked French Toast Casserole

First, you’re going to need all of your ingredients: some bread, eggs, almond or coconut milk, cinnamon, and maple syrup. Also, make sure you’re making this casserole the night before, as, well, ya know, this is overnight French toast casserole ha!

To start, make sure your bread is sliced nice and thick. Thick French toast always tastes better in my opinion! Grease your baking dish with some coconut oil (or butter if not dairy free), and line your bread one on top of the other in the dish.

Set aside the bread and begin to whip together the egg and milk mixture. Crack your eggs in a medium bowl and beat them like scrambled eggs. Add in your almond or coconut milk, maple syrup, and cinnamon to the mixture and beat until well combined.

Pour your cinnamon egg and milk mixture over your bread in the dish. Make sure to hit every slice, but don’t worry if it doesn’t full cover. You’ll flip the bread over to soak it.

Speaking of which, now flip your bread over, going one slice at a time, to make sure that every slice has some batter on it and is evenly coated.

Add an extra dash if cinnamon if desired here (I always do hehe).

Cover and place in the fridge, then go do your normal nightly routine haha!

In the morning, just make sure to turn on the oven to 375F an hour before you’d like to serve your casserole, place the baking dish with soaked bread into the oven, and bake for 45 minutes covered in tinfoil (this ensures that your bread doesn’t become too hard)!

And voilà! You have a beautiful healthy French toast casserole to please your guests 🙂

What bread should I use for my casserole?

So French toast actually originated from using “lost bread” or bread that was stale and going to be thrown out. It was a way of not wasting food!

That’s why they always say to use day old bread, as it really does hold up better texture wise too. I’ve noticed that using fresh bread, or a bread that is not as dense, but rather fluffy, makes the oven baked French toast casserole a little too soggy.

I would opt for using a hearty bread loaf, like this one! Slice it into thin or thick slices (personally, I opt for thick!), and get on to making your overnight French toast casserole!

Can I make this healthy French Toast Casserole gluten free?

Absolutely! There are plenty of amazing gluten free bread loaves out there that would be perfect for this French toast casserole!

One of my favorites happens to be Cocobakes. Coco is based in LA and ships nationwide- she makes a fantastic organic sourdough loaf that is just out of this world good. The best sourdough I’ve ever tasted!

You can also use a Paleo loaf if you’d like and you’re sticking with a Paleo diet, as the rest of the ingredients are indeed Paleo friendly.

However, if you can do gluten, I personally love just a regular good loaf of bread from my favorite bakery. We have an amazing one in Brooklyn, and that’s where I get all of my bread, from sliced to loaves to rolls!

I hope you love this overnight French toast casserole as much as I do! Make it for any holiday or brunch get together, and it’s sure to be a hit 🙂

Enjoy, and happy baking!

Additional brunch recipes that you might like:

Paleo Spring Vegetable Quiche

Gluten Free Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

Vegan Buckwheat Pancakes

Paleo Sweet Potato Waffles

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Scones

Want to save this recipe for later? Add it to your favorite recipe board on Pinterest!

Print