Baked Pumpkin French Toast Casserole
This Baked Pumpkin French Toast Casserole is chock full of pumpkin! It has a deliciously crunchy streusel topping and a moist crumb. This is the perfect way to start the morning on weekends and holidays.
It’s possible some might feel all pumpkin-ed out by now, but the one (or two) final pumpkin recipes I’m putting up are SO great, they are just begging not to be left out.
After all, pumpkins get to shine only one season a year, and we’re making the most of it here in our kitchen.
Our original Baked French Toast Casserole with Streusel is such an enormous hit that
…we decided to pumpkin-fy it. One can’t go wrong in taking something already 100% awesome and adding seasonally-fueled ingredients to it.
We even tossed pepitas (roasted pumpkin seeds) into the crunchy streusel topping. Just so there’s no question about the pumpkin domination that lies underneath.
We start out with a thick, dense, hearty bread. Just say no to generic, airy sandwich bread. For baked French toast, the bread needs to be dense enough to soak up all the custard.
I use my usual hearty, thick wheat bread. A dense French bread or Texas Toast loaf would work well also.
Load up on the cinnamon and spice. Plenty of pure pumpkin puree goes into this morning chow.
In fact, it will seem like the pumpkin custard is super thick, but it’s all part of the plan. As long as your bread is nice and dense, it will soak up beautifully.
We save the best for last. The marvelous streusel topping. It’s out-of-this-world delicious. Buttery with brown sugar, pecans, and pepitas. Such crunchy sweet splendor.
This Baked Pumpkin French Toast Casserole is so exquisite all by itself, it doesn’t really need the maple syrup.
But we’re talking want, not need. We won’t say no to a pretty pour of pure maple syrup.
Enjoy!
Did you make this?
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Baked Pumpkin French Toast Casserole
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 4 TB granulated sugar
- ⅛ tsp table salt
- 3 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 8oz can pure pumpkin
- 6 ½ cups cubed dense bread, such as a thick French bread, hearty wheat, or fresh Texas Toast
For the Streusel:
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- ¼ cup roasted pepitas, pumpkin seeds
- ¼ cup cold salted butter, sliced
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Make the Streusel: Combine all streusel ingredients in a bowl, mixing well until resembles chunky, damp sand. Use clean fingers mix if needed, but don't overwork it. Cover and keep in fridge to chill.
- Preheat oven to 350F with rack on lower middle position.
- Grease a 8x8 baking dish with butter on bottom and up sides.
- In a large bowl, combine eggs, vanilla, sugar, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Hand-whisk to thoroughly incorporate. Whisk in pumpkin until smooth. Add bread cubes to pumpkin mixture and gently toss to fully coat all bread cubes in bowl. It will seem thick and gloppy, which is ok.
- Transfer bread/pumpkin mixture evenly into buttered baking dish. Sprinkle chilled streusel evenly over the top. Bake uncovered 40-45 minutes, or until a knife inserted in center comes out mostly clean. The topping should be bubbling at the edges, and the center should feel set.
- Let stand at room temp 10 minutes. Serve warm with pure maple syrup.
Nutrition (per serving)
Source: Chew Out Loud
Here are a few of our tried and true breakfast/brunch bakes!
- Texas French Toast Casserole. This is always, always a crowd pleaser. It’s oh-so-good.
- The original Baked French Toast Casserole. Every time I make a huge dish of this for any brunch, I get no leftovers.
- Apple Texas French Toast Casserole. Apples and cinnamon take this baked French toast to a whole new level.
- Nutella Croissant Bread Pudding. I’m not sure if this meant for mornings or evenings, but it really doesn’t matter. I’ll take it with my cup of joe any time of day. You might agree.
- Hawaiian Apple Bread Pudding. While we’re debating whether bread pudding can double as breakfast and dessert, why not try this awesome recipe? AM or PM, we’re pretty sure you won’t be sorry.
