Pumpkin French Toast Bake
Ingredients
- 6-8 cups of cubed bread (I used gf millet and sweet rice dinner rolls from Abigails Bakery)
- 7 large eggs
- 1 cup of creamer (used: Nut Pod's)
- 1 cup of water
- 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup pumpkin pure (take note whether it has sugar and spices already added)
- Optional: nuts, brown sugar for the top
Instructions
- Preheat the oven 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Cut your bread of choice into 1 inch cubes. I recommend these millet and brown rice flour dinner rolls (gluten-free) from Abigails bakery. You can use any bread you like.
- In a large bowl mix the water, cream, vanilla extract, eggs, pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice.
- Add the cubed bread to a casserole dish and pour the liquid mixture over it. Press down to help the bread absorb the liquid. Allow it to soak over night or at least 1-2 hours minimum.
- Cook in the oven for 35-45 minutes. If you want a golden brown crispy top for a contrast in texture, cook for longer or place under broiler for 30 seconds. * Watch carefully under the broiler, if you walk away it might just burn the top (done this way too many times!)
- Optional: add brown sugar or coconut sugar on top to make a sweet topping.
- Drizzle with maple syrup and a spoonful of whipped cream. I used coconut cream.
- Cover or seal the leftovers with a lid or saran wrap and enjoy for a few days.
Notes
Optional sweet streusel topping with pecans:
Light brown sugar or coconut sugar, flour(cassava flour for gluten-free), butter, pecans.
Calories French toast casserole
Notes:
-Best bread to use for pumpkin French toast bake: Hard bread like French bread or dinner rolls that are stale, brioche, challah, homemade artisan bread, croissant bread, Italian, sour dough or muesli bread. If you use stale bread or dry it out in the oven before use it will help it to absorb more of the liquid.
-Success tips for making the best pumpkin French toast casserole- You can use milk - somewhere around 2% for the correct consistency or if you are doing a dairy-free version I would use a plant-based cream and mixing it with equal amount of water to loosen it up. Many non-dairy milks have things like gums adjust the consistency and disallow separation but these are too thick for this recipe. My ideal was using Nut Pod’s creamer (orginal) and mixing it with water. 1:1 ratio.
-Does this work as a day before French toast casserole recipe? Yes, you can make this a day ahead and allow it to sit in the fridge overnight or you can make it the day of cooking and it and serving.