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Overnight Baked Creme Brûlée French Toast Recipe

Jul 27, 2023 · Leave a Comment

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This amazing Overnight Baked Creme Brulee French Toast recipe makes your weekend mornings so much easier! Prep it the night before, wake up, and stick it in your oven, and a deliciously sweet breakfast is ready in 30 minutes.

overhead view of french toast casserole in a white baking dish with a bowl of berries and maple syrup next to the dish.
Overnight Baked Creme Brulee French Toast Recipe

Weekends should be relaxing and a time to rejuvenate from a busy week of sports, homework, piano lessons, etc. Keyword, “Should be”, right? And this, my friends, is where this easy French toast bake for breakfast (or Sunday brunch!) recipe comes into play.

far away shot of baked creme brulee toast served on plate with berries and maple syrup on top
Overnight French toast with fresh berries.

Prep everything the night before, so when you wake up in the morning, all you have to do is stick your casserole dish into the oven.  That’s it!  It’s perfect for special occasions like Thanksgiving morning, Christmas morning, or family getaways.

I actually first made this for a family trip to the beach many years ago.  I prepped everything at home using a foil baking pan and placed it in a cooler to keep cool on our 2-hour drive.  Everyone raved about the smell while it was baking the next morning. 

close up of unbaked creme brulee french toast with sprinkling of cinnamon powder
Creme Brulee French toast getting ready to go in the fridge overnight.

The key to this Overnight Baked Creme Brulee French Toast recipe is old French bread.  I always know when I buy some French bread, I’m going to be using half of the bread for my 5 Ingredient Cheesy Garlic Bread and the rest for this recipe.  

If you don’t have day-old French bread, you could help out the drying process by slicing your French bread and standing them up on its sides for an hour.

french bread slices on sides to dry out
Thick Slices of French bread ‘drying’ out.

Alright, let’s make this delectable Overnight Baked Creme Brulee French Toast! 


The Players for Overnight Baked Creme Brûlée French Toast

  • French Bread – Using day-old bread is perfect for this recipe. You can also use your favorite bread if you don’t want to use French bread.
  • Butter – I like to use salted butter when baking to create the creme brulee sauce.
  • Brown Sugar – For this crème brûlée french toast recipe, I like to use light brown sugar.  Additionally, you can use dark brown sugar if you want a more pronounced molasses taste.
  • Corn Syrup – Using light corn syrup will create a glossy, silky creme brulee sauce.
  • Eggs –  We’ll need several large eggs to make a lovely custard for our overnight French toast.
  • Whole Milk – I prefer to use whole milk in my recipes but feel free to use 2% milk if you have it.
  • Cream – To make a thick custard, I like to add some heavy cream to my egg mixture.  You can also use half and half to substitute for the heavy cream if you’d like. Or you can even use half cream and the rest milk if you prefer!
  • Orange Liqueur – You don’t need to use much to give this creme brulee French toast casserole a subtle citrusy flavor.  And nope, you won’t taste the alcohol at all!  I love using Cointreau or Grand Marnier.
  • Vanilla Extract – Using pure vanilla extract will bring warmth and sweetness to our overnight French toast recipe.
  • Salt – Just a dash of salt is needed to bring all of the flavors together.
  • Cinnamon –  I, personally, love to use a lot of ground cinnamon in my creme brûlée french toast casserole recipe, but feel free to use as little or as much as you’d like!

How to make Overnight Baked Creme Brulee French Toast

Slice up your French bread into eight 1 1/2-inch slices (doesn’t have to be exact, just thick slices) and place on a cooling rack to allow the bread to dry out slightly. You can cut the bread up to several hours before you start the French toast or you can do this right before prepping the custard and creme brulee sauce.  

Make the Creme Brulee Sauce

In a small saucepan, melt together your butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup until the sugar has dissolved completely. 

creme brulee sauce being made in a small saucepan on the stovetop.
Creme Brulee sauce being made.
creme brulee sauce poured into a white baking dish.
Pour the creme brulee sauce into your baking dish.

To a 9″x13″ baking dish that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, pour in your creme brulee sauce and spread it evenly throughout the dish.  Set aside.

Make the Custard

In a large bowl or shallow pie pan, whisk eggs, whole milk, heavy cream, orange liqueur, vanilla extract, and salt and whisk thoroughly. 

custard being whisked in a pie pan for overnight baked creme brulee French toast recipe.
Whisk together the custard ingredients.
a thick slice of French bread soaking in the custard mixture.
Soak one slice of bread at a time.
one slice of custardy French toast sitting in the creme brulee sauce in the baking dish.
Place your bread down into the creme brulee sauce.

Taking one slice at a time, begin to dip your French toast slices into the egg batter, coating all sides of the bread.  Place your slice of French toast into the bottom of the pan.  Repeat the process with the remaining 7 bread slices.

Refrigerate the French Toast

Take your remaining custard batter and pour it all over the tops and sides of the French bread in the baking dish.  The bread will continue to soak up all of the custard while it is sitting in the fridge overnight. Cover with foil and keep it in the fridge anywhere from 24-30 hours. 

pouring the remaining custard mixture over the top of the French toast slices.
Pour remaining custard mixture over the bread.
French toast slices completely covered with the remaining custard in a white baking dish.
The remaining custard will get soaked up by the bread overnight.
lots of ground cinnamon over the tops of unbaked French toast slices.
I sprinkle extra cinnamon over the top of mine!

Bake the French Toast

When you are ready to bake your overnight breakfast casserole, pull it out of the fridge and allow it to sit on your counter for 30 minutes before baking. It doesn’t have to fully come to room temperature before baking.

the next morning, the custard has completely soaked into the slices of French bread for our French toast casserole.
Getting ready to bake our Overnight French Toast the next morning.

Place your French toast bake into an oven that has been preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and bake uncovered for 15 minutes.  After 15 minutes, take a spatula and flip your french toast and continue to bake uncovered for an additional 15-20 minutes. 

Broil the French Toast

While this next part is optional, I highly recommend broiling your overnight creme brulee French toast once it’s fully baked. This creates a wonderful, slightly crunchy texture, resembling creme brulee, due to the caramelized sugar that we’re broiling.  

If you’d like to broil the top, set your oven to the Broil feature, and broil anywhere from 3-5 minutes, taking care to not burn the tops.  

overnight baked creme brulee French toast once it's done baking, resting it it's dish on the counter.
Once the French toast has been broiled for several minutes. Yum!

Let your French toast rest for a few minutes before serving.  Serve with fresh berries, warm maple syrup, and whipped cream if desired.   It’s sweet enough that you don’t need maple syrup, buuuuutttt, I personally enjoy just a small drizzle.  

Can I use other Types of Bread?

You can absolutely use your favorite type of bread for this recipe!  Challah bread and brioche bread are other great options.  While I’ve never tried it before you could take bread cubes and make your own bread pudding with this recipe!  Hmm, might have to try that out in the future haha!

Do I have to use Orange Liqueur in my Creme Brulee French Toast?

You absolutely do not have to use orange liqueur if you don’t want too! You’re certainly welcome to substitute for orange extract or even orange juice extract! You don’t taste the liqueur whatsoever but it does give the dish a taste that makes you go, “Wow, what is that?!”

Check out how I use my Creme Brulee French Toast as a make ahead breakfast for our vacation!

Do I Have to Broil the Top?

You definitely don’t have to broil the top. I know the smells coming from your oven is torture and you can’t wait another 5 minutes to eat it, but trust me!  The broiling gives it such a nice, crispy texture when you bite into it.  But you do have to watch it!  My oven can be a bit finicky, so sometimes 5 minutes isn’t enough and other times 2 minutes is too much!

picture of various berries and maply syrup
Top with your favorite French toast toppings!

Pin it for later!

I truly hope you enjoy this Overnight Baked Creme Brulee French Toast recipe like my family does. If you try it, please leave me a comment! I’d love to hear from you!

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Looking for other Breakfast recipes? Check out these ideas next!

  • The Best Brioche Cinnamon French Toast Recipe (with video)
  • The Ultimate Fluffy Homemade Pancakes Recipe
  • Easy Butter Croissant French Toast Recipe
  • The Best from Scratch Belgian Waffles Recipe
  • The Best Copycat Starbucks Blueberry Muffins Recipe
  • Healthy One-Bowl Dark Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins
overhead picture of overnight baked creme brulee french toast in a white baking dish on the counter.

Baked Creme Brulee French Toast

A deliciousy sweet and easy breakfast that is prepped the night before and baked off the next morning!
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes mins
Cook Time 35 minutes mins
Total Time 50 minutes mins
Course Breakfast
Servings 4 people, 2 slices per person

Ingredients
  

  • 8 (1 to 1 1/2 inch slices) old french bread
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 3 tbsp light corn syrup
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1/2 cup half and half or heavy cream
  • 2 tbsp orange liqueur (I like Cointreau)*
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • pinch of kosher salt
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Instructions
 

  • Using day old french bread (or even up to a few days old), cut bread into 8 slices, into 1 inch slices.
  • In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt butter. Add in brown sugar and light corn syrup, whisking until brown sugar is completely dissolved. Pour into bottom of greased 13X9 baking dish.
  • In a pie pan (or other shallow bowl), whisk together eggs, whole milk, cream, orange liqueur, vanilla, and salt.
  • Take one slice of bread and dip into the egg/milk mixture, then flip bread. Transfer to the baking dish. Continue with remaining 7 slices of bread.
  • Once all bread is in the baking dish, take the remaining egg/milk mixture and pour evenly across the french bread in baking dish. Sprinkle the tops of bread with ground cinnamon.
  • Cover and chill overnight.
  • The next morning, remove the baking dish from the fridge and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  • Bake uncovered for 15 minutes, then flip the bread and continue baking for another 15-20 minutes.
  • Serve warm with maple syrup and fresh fruit

Optional but highly recommended

  • Once done baking, turn the broiler on high and broil for about 2-5 minutes, but watch it to ensure it doesn't burn.

Video

Notes

  •  You do not have to use orange liqueur if you don’t want to!  You can substitute orange liqueur with orange extract or even orange juice concentrate!
1 Corinthians 15:10 - "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me."

Breakfast baked creme brulee french toast, creme brulee french toast, french toast

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