Overnight French Toast Casserole

This is a great recipe to pull out for when you’re having company. It’s delicious, it fills the house with wonderful, heady smells of buttery cinnamon, it needs to be put together the night before and, best of all, it uses up leftover bread. It also heats up beautifully as leftovers. What’s not to love!

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Overnight French Toast Casserole

Author: keriawilliams

Ingredients

Servings

• 6 slices of day-old (or even stale) bread (almost any will do, although I've been hesitant to try this recipe with rye because I'm not sure how it will taste with the cinnamon)
• 6-8 large eggs (beaten)
• 1 stick of butter, melted
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp Amaretto, Grand Marnier, Kahlua or any other liqueur you think might taste good
• 1 cup sugar (I like to use sugar-in-the-raw for this recipe--you could also use brown sugar)
• 2 Tbsp ground Ceylon cinnamon
• 1 tsp Kosher salt

Instructions

1. Pour melted butter into the bottom of a 10 x 15 casserole. Place three slices of the bread in bottom of casserole, on top of the butter.

   

1. Mix cinnamon and sugar together and sprinkle half of the mixture over top of the bread. Place remaining slices of bread over top of the first layer and sprinkle the remaining sugar and cinnamon mixture over top of the second layer of bread.

   

1. In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla, liqueur and salt. Pour the mixture over top of the sugared bread, taking care to moisten the tops of all the visible bread. Place foil on top of the casserole dish and put the whole thing into the fridge overnight.

1. When ready to bake, pre-heat the oven to 350*. This is the only tricky part: remember that the casserole is cold from the fridge, so it will take about an hour and a half to bake. Place the casserole onto a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil for easy clean up and slide the whole thing into the pre-heated oven. After about an hour-an hour and 5 minutes, remove the foil and bake for another 10-15 minutes until the top browns nicely.

   

Note

Please plan accordingly for this casserole--it's wonderful for company or weekends, but it does take about an hour and a half to bake.

This casserole also re-heats beautifully in the microwave, so don't be afraid to make extra!