Pumpkin French Toast Casserole
- By Amy Dong
- Updated Nov. 6, 2024
This Pumpkin French Toast Casserole boasts a moist crumb, tons of pumpkin, and a crispy streusel topping. It’s the perfect way to start the morning on weekends and holidays.
In This Article
- Video: Watch us Make This Recipe
- Why This Recipe Stands Out
- Key Recipe Ingredients
- Substitutions And Variations
- Step-By-Step Recipe Instructions
- How To Prep Ahead
- What To Serve With Pumpkin French Toast Casserole
- Commonly Asked Questions
- Did you make this?
- Pumpkin French Toast Casserole Recipe
- More To Bake And Eat
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Video: Watch us Make This Recipe
Why This Recipe Stands Out
Our original Baked French Toast Casserole 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. Here’s why we love this recipe:
- All the Autumn Flavors: Just like these Pumpkin Energy Balls, this Pumpkin French Toast Casserole is packed with comforting fall spices, pumpkin puree, and pepitas.
- Amazing Streusel Topping: The marvelous streusel topping is out-of-this-world delicious. Buttery with brown sugar, pecans, and pepitas – such crunchy, sweet splendor!
- Perfect French Toast Texture: This French toast casserole turns out unbelievably moist and tender thanks to the pumpkin and the kind of bread we use.
- Can Be Made In Advance: Pumpkin French Toast Casserole can be assembled the night before, making it the perfect meal-prep dish.
Key Recipe Ingredients
- Eggs – Eggs work a beautiful golden color into the French toast and hold everything together.
- Pumpkin Puree – Pure Pumpkin Puree (different from pumpkin pie filling) not only adds its signature fall flair, but also helps make our French toast extra tender.
- Spices – Cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg add the perfect dose of warm, comforting flavors and heavenly smells.
- Bread – Say no to generic, airy sandwich bread. For baked French toast, the bread needs to be dense enough to soak up all the custard. We like sturdy French Bread.
- Streusel Topping – Brown sugar, pecans, pepitas (pumpkin seeds), butter, and cinnamon combine to make a rich, crispy topping for Pumpkin French Toast Casserole.
Substitutions And Variations
Here’s some of our favorite variations to Pumpkin French Toast Casserole:
- Find your Favorite Toast: Feel free to play around with the kinds of bread you use in this recipe. We recommend French bread, brioche, sourdough, challah, or Texas Toast like we use in this recipe for The Best French Toast Casserole.
- Add Some Berries: Seeing this recipe in the summer? Swap out the fall ingredients for fresh berries and cream cheese like we do in this Strawberry Cream Cheese French Toast Bake.
- Double the Recipe: This recipe serves about 12. To make twice as much, use a 13×9 baking dish and double the ingredients. Bake time will be approximately 5-10 minutes longer.
Step-By-Step Recipe Instructions
- Combine all streusel ingredients in a bowl and chill in the fridge.
- In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, vanilla, sugar, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg; whisk in pumpkin until smooth.
- Add bread cubes to pumpkin mixture and gently toss to fully coat.
- Transfer bread and pumpkin mixture to a buttered 8×8 baking dish and top with chilled streusel.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes at 350F.
- Let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes before serving with maple syrup. Enjoy!
For full list of ingredients and instructions, see recipe card below.
How To Prep Ahead
Like we mentioned earlier, Pumpkin French Toast Casserole is a great make-ahead holiday meal! Here’s how we do it:
- Chill Casserole Overnight: The entire casserole can be assembled the night before and chilled in the fridge till the next morning. But, we do recommend holding off on adding the streusel topping until right before you bake.
- Make the Topping In Advance: The streusel topping can be mixed several days in advance and stored in the fridge until you’re ready to bake.
- Keep Leftovers: Another way we like to meal-prep this casserole is by completely baking it and letting it cool. Then, you can either store it in the fridge for up to 3 days or freeze it for up to 3 months.
What To Serve With Pumpkin French Toast Casserole
Eggs
- This Mini Crustless Quiche is great served with French toast casserole and can also be made in advance.
- Another mouthwatering savory dish to serve for brunch is this no fuss Eggs Benedict Casserole.
- We also love keeping things simple with Easy Poached Eggs and Easy Boiled Eggs.
Oatmeal
- For another sweet ad starchy brunch side, check out this delicious Baked Oatmeal!
- Serve these Chewy Apple Oatmeal Bars alongside Pumpkin French Toast for a truly scrumptious fall breakfast.
Potatoes
- This Cheesy Tater Tot Breakfast Casserole is the perfect savory side to balance out this sweet dish.
- Cheesy Potato Breakfast Casserole is also always a hit in our house.
- We don’t just save these Garlic Herb Roasted Potatoes for dinner. They’re also a great brunch side!
Commonly Asked Questions
While we usually use some milk or cream cheese in French toast casseroles, we find that the pumpkin puree really does the job at leaving our French toast ultra-moist without becoming soggy. So, in this case, we find it’s best to just stick with the eggs and pumpkin.
For French toast casserole, you’ll want a bread that’s sturdy and durable. While regular soft, white bread will work fine for normal French toast, you want something that will really hold up and absorb all the moisture when making it baked. Slightly stale bread is actually great for this! For some specific bread suggestions, check out the Substitutions and Variations section above or check out this French toast article from Food Network.
As long as you thoroughly toss the bread in the pumpkin mixture, you shouldn’t need to let it sit at all, since it is a thicker mixture. However, you can totally let it sit in the fridge overnight for a super easy breakfast or brunch the next morning.
If the top of your French toast casserole starts looking too dark while it’s still cooking, tent some foil over it. We’d still take the foil off in the end to really let the top crisp, but this will allow the center to catch up on cooking while keeping the top from getting too crisp.
Did you make this?
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Pumpkin French Toast Casserole
Ingredients
For the French Toast Casserole:
- 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
- 8 oz pure pumpkin puree
- 6 ½ cups bread, cubed, such as a thick French bread, hearty wheat, or fresh Texas Toast
For the Streusel:
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- ¼ cup roasted pepitas, pumpkin seeds, optional
- ¼ cup salted butter, cold and sliced
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Combine all streusel ingredients in a bowl, mixing well until resembles chunky, damp sand.* Cover and keep in fridge to chill.
- Preheat oven to 350F with rack on lower middle position. Grease a 8×8 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.
Notes
- 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.
- *It’s easiest to mix streusel with clean hands or disposable gloves, but don’t overwork the mixture.
- Feel free to sprinkle powdered sugar on top of your baked pumpkin French toast, along with a drizzle of maple syrup.
- For a summery version of this recipe, check out this Strawberry Cream Cheese French Toast Bake.
- If you’d like to double this recipe, use a 13×9 baking dish and double the ingredients. Bake time will be approximately 5-10 minutes longer.
Nutrition (per serving)
More To Bake And Eat
- Pumpkin Bread Pudding – This make-ahead Pumpkin Bread Pudding is irresistible for breakfast, brunch, or dessert.
- Pumpkin Scones – We despise dry, crumbly scones, which is why we made sure this recipe for Pumpkin Scones turned out ultra-moist and tender. It doesn’t disappoint!
- Pumpkin Coffee Cake – Not only is this coffee cake with buttery streusel unbelievably delicious, it also uses a whole can of pumpkin, so there’s no waste!
- Fluffy Pumpkin Pancakes – These pumpkin pancakes are big on flavor and surprisingly healthy.