Cinnamon Roll Casserole (Overnight French Toast)
This easy Cinnamon Roll Casserole is an overnight French toast casserole with gooey cinnamon filling and a drizzle of sweet cream cheese icing.
Whether you are hosting a brunch, making breakfast for the family, or trying to get the kids fed before sending them off to school this super easy, Cinnamon Roll Casserole is the right answer! No one can resist this delicious overnight french toast casserole packed full of cinnamon sugar flavor.
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Table of contents
I think we can all agree best part of a cinnamon roll is the way the cinnamon, sugar, and butter bake together into this ooey gooey, sweet cinnamon filling. My Cinnamon Roll Casserole is a little different from other recipes. Instead of using store-bought cinnamon rolls I’ve combined that awesome cinnamon-sugar filling with delicious brioche bread to make an overnight French toast that brings French toast and cinnamon rolls together.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Brioche Bread – this slightly sweet, fluffy bread is perfect for making French toast
- Butter – We use salted butter to offset the sweetness of the other filling ingredients.
- Sugar – White granulated sugar is all you need to sweeten your french toast bake.
- Cinnamon – a generous helping of cinnamon makes the perfect cinnamon sugar filling.
- Eggs – Eggs help bind everything together and adds a little fluffiness to your French toast.
- Dairy – Whole Milk and creamer combine to make a perfectly creamy custard to soak your bread in.
- Salt – A little salt helps bring out the flavors.
- Cream cheese – Every good cinnamon roll needs cream cheese frosting. This tangy cream cheese is blends perfectly with the powdered sugar.
- Powdered sugar – This sweetens your cream cheese to make your cream cheese icing.
Other Variations: the great thing about a French toast bake is that you can easily change up the ingredients to give you a totally different flavor. Our Overnight French Toast Bake uses fresh fruit and syrup for a more traditional french toast casserole. To make our holiday Egg Nog French Toast Bake we use creamy egg nog to flavor the casserole.
How to make Cinnamon Roll French Toast Casserole:
Step 1 – Prepare the bread. Cut or tear bread into large chunks. You want them to be about 1-1.5 inch cubes.
Step 2 – Make the cinnamon sugar. In a bowl mix together the softened butter, sugar, and cinnamon. Set aside.
Step 3 – The cream. In a separate bowl add eggs, milk, vanilla creamer, salt, and cinnamon. Whisk together until fully combined. Set aside.
Step 4 – Assemble. Place half of the bread in a greased 9×13 inch casserole dish. Top with half of the butter, sugar, and cinnamon mixture. Just scoop small spoonfuls of the mixture out and dot it all over the bread.
Add the rest of the bread and top with the remaining butter, sugar, and cinnamon mixture.
Step 5 – Add the liquid. Pour the egg mixture over the bread making sure to moisten all of it.
Step 6 – Soak overnight. Cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight.
Step 7 – Bake. When ready to bake preheat oven to 375 degrees F. when it reaches the correct temperature place the casserole in the oven and bake for 45 – 55 minutes. Once done remove from the oven and let cool for 10-15 minutes.
Step 8 – Cream cheese icing. While the Cinnamon Roll French Toast Casserole cools make your icing. Mix together cream cheese and powdered sugar until it is fully combined and there are no lumps. Add the vanilla creamer (this makes it extra rich and creamy!!). Whisk until smooth then pour over slightly cooled casserole.
Tips for making Cinnamon Roll French Toast Casserole:
- Choose the right bread – The best bread for French toast has to be Brioche or Challah bread. It is thick and slightly denser than other bread, so it can hold up to all of the liquids you add to this recipe. If you can’t find either of those, I recommend French bread.
- Coffee Creamer – This is my secret ingredient! Coffee creamer isn’t just for coffee! It is made with real cream and real sugar; it’s the ultimate way to make your breakfast extra special. The rich, creamy flavor of vanilla creamer takes this overnight French toast casserole to a whole new level.
- Make it ahead of time – This is a dish that is best when it is made the day before. You put all of your ingredients together, cover it tightly, and let it sit in the fridge overnight. This gives the bread time to soak up the custard, giving it that great French toast flavor and texture. Then, the following day, you pull it out of the refrigerator and bake it until it is light, fluffy, and perfectly toasted.
Does a French Toast Bake Have to Sit Overnight?
No. While you can totally make this french toast bake and let it sit overnight to save yourself some time in the morning you certainly don’t have to.
If you don’t have all night, or even 3 hours, to let this casserole sit in the refrigerator just combine your bread and the egg and milk mixture according to the recipe and then gently press down on the bread to help it absorb more of the liquid.
Don’t press it flat or anything, you don’t want to mash the bread together, but press down lightly and then let it spring back a little. Do this a couple of times to help the bread suck up the liquid like a sponge.
Let it sit for at least 30 minutes and then bake. You’ll have a delicious french toast and no one will be the wiser.
How to Store and Reheat
If you manage to have any leftovers (it rarely happens in my house) you can store this casserole in the refrigerator in an airtight container for 3-4 days.
When you are ready to reheat microwave for 1-2 minutes or place in the oven at 300 degrees F for 7-10 minutes or until warmed through. The oven method will dry it out more than a simple reheat in the microwave but add a little extra syrup on top and it’s still delicious!
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Cinnamon Roll French Toast Casserole
Ingredients
French Toast Casserole
- 1 loaf Brioche Bread
- 1 stick Unsalted Butter
- 1 cup Sugar
- 2.5 tablespoons Cinnamon
- 6 large Eggs
- 1 cup Whole Milk
- 1 cup Vanilla Creamer
- ⅛ teaspoon Salt
Icing
- 6 ounces Cream cheese
- ½ cup Powdered sugar
- ¼ cup Vanilla creamer
Instructions
French Toast Casserole
- Cut bread into large cubes (about 1 – 1.5 inch cubes).
- In a bowl mix together the softened butter, sugar, and 2 tablespoons of cinnamon. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl add eggs, milk, vanilla creamer, salt, and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Whisk together until fully combined. Set aside.
- Place half of the bread in a greased 9×13 inch casserole dish. Top with half of the butter, sugar, cinnamon mixture.
- Add the rest of the bread and top with the remaining butter, sugar, cinnamon mixture.
- Pour the egg mixture over the bread making sure to moisten all of it.
- Cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight.
- When ready to bake preheat oven to 375 degrees F. when it reaches the correct temperature place the casserole in the oven and bake for 45 – 55 minutes.
- Once the casserole is done baking remove from oven and let cool for 10-15 minutes.
Cream Cheese Icing
- While the casserole cools make the icing. Combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar, stirring together until there are no lumps.
- Add vanilla creamer to the sugar & cream cheese mixture and whisk together until smooth.
- Drizzle the icing over the cinnamon roll french toast casserole and enjoy!
Nutrition
It may be my oven but this is yet another pin that failed for me.. the top was pretty much burnt after 45min so I took it out thinking it was done (kinda hard to know for sure) after cooling the inside was not even done and I didn’t put it back in to keep cooking as I turned everything off and had starving kids to feed, plus I really didn’t want it to burn on the top even more or no one would have eaten it. It was still good just disappointed it didn’t turn out, maybe next time I’ll cook it with foil covered over it.
This happened to me and I did not follow my intuition to COVER the pan with foil as it cooked! Of course it wasn’t mentioned in the instructions but anyone who reads this should COVER their casserole with foil as it bakes at least for the first 30 mins. Maybe that would avoid the top from overcooking before the inside starts to cook. I currently had to put my dish back in the oven, COVERED, hoping that this will cook the inside of the dish and not have it so gooey. If it doesn’t work, oh well.
Hi Jessica, did you use a 9×13 dish to bake it in? Did you leave it overnight or for a few hours?
This is the bomb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love this so much.
Can you use a loaf of sourdough bread instead?
Sure, let me know how it turns out!
Changed this up a bit and it was fabulous. Instead of brioche, I used half large croissants and half Hawaiian sweet bread. Then I added a layer of cut strawberries and canned pears in three nurses and also on top, under the icing! Really out if this world!
I am so excited!! Cinnamon rolls are my favorite thing!!!
Can you suggest a substitute for the Dunkin Donuts Extra Extra Creamer. I live in Canada where it is not available.
You can use heavy cream with 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
I love this recipe! I’ve made it twice so far and plan on using it as a Christmas Breakfast tradition! I did add zest of one orange to the egg mixture before pouring it over the bread. It adds a bit of brightness in flavor to the dish, and helps to balance the sweetness. Thanks again for a great recipe!
This recipe is sooo good. I made it for Christmas morning, and i will definitely make it again. It tastes just like cinnamon rolls.
This recipe is terrific! I just made it for today (New Year’s Day). It came out perfect and was just right for a special occasion. Thank you for sharing this great french toast with us!!
Hello ladies,
If one were to add raisins (and this raisin lover does), would about a cup added to mixture before refrigeration be fine?
Thanks, Bonita
I like that idea! Yes I think 1 cup will be plenty and adding it before refrigerating is fine.
Is it necessary to let it sit overnight? Can you let it sit for an hour instead before baking if you’reshort on time?
You don’t have to let it sit overnight. If I’m in a hurry I pour the liquid on and then press gently down on the bread to help it absorb the liquid. Then let it sit for however long you can before baking. Still delicious!!
This was amazing .. I actually had some leftover bread that I accidentally made too dense .. this recipe worked perfect! Especially because we usually have Dunkin creamer on hand.
Hi – so I couldn’t find extra extra creamer anywhere…I bought sweet cream creamer instead. Should I add anything to it to sub for the extra sweetness or leave as is? I’ve made this before with the correct creamer and it was amazing and I was truly bummed out when I couldn’t find it again!
I think it would taste pretty similar. I use sweet cream creamer in my coffee and it’s pretty sweet.
Super good. Used left over hamburger buns, dried out in the oven a little. Thanky for this.