Baked Pumpkin French Toast

Pumpkin french toasts is a fall twist on a crowd-pleasing breakfast. Make this the night before, refrigerate, and bake when you're ready!

Tuesday was Chulalongkorn Day here in Thailand.  Frank and I had the day off of work, and though I wanted to start this post with something sickeningly cute like "happiness is a Tuesday off work", for the sake of authenticity, I won't.

Because the truth is, a Tuesday off work seemed like the only logical day to tackle a much-needed and long-avoided chore - cleaning the kitchen.  As much as I use the kitchen, crumbs and flour and over-baked pecans pieces seem to get into everything. And it's been so long since I pulled everything off the shelves and wiped them down that I'm embarrassed to own up to it.

So Tuesday, I cleaned the whole place out.  It felt great.  Although it made me thoroughly grumpy and appreciative of my patient husband and our Wednesday date night which meant the pristine kitchen would stay that way for one day longer.

Buried deep in the back of the freezer I found a bag full of gold bread that I had had the foresight to cut into cubes and freeze.

So I did the only logical thing a person can do with a bag full of bread pulled from the freezer - when Friday rolled around, I made it a lovely little bed of cinnamon, pumpkin, eggs, and milk.

I refrigerated it overnight and this morning after a run, we had this beautiful pumpkin french toast on our kitchen table.

This almost erased the memory of the kitchen clean-out.  Almost.

More Pumpkin Recipes

• Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Snack Cake
• Slow Cooker Pumpkin Cheesecake
• Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Icing
• Pumpkin Cheesecake Bites
• Pumpkin Bread Truffles
• Pumpkin Coffee Cake
• One-Bowl Pumpkin Cider Bread
• Pumpkin Spice Bagels
• Pumpkin Spice Lattes
• Baked Pumpkin French Toast
• Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Pumpkin Spice Pretzel Bites

Favorite Tools

• 3-Quart Casserole Dish
• Anchor 3-Piece Glass Mixing Bowls
• Whisk

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Baked Pumpkin French Toast with Cinnamon-Pecan Topping Recipe

A fall twist on a crowd-pleasing breakfast. Make this the night before, refrigerate, and bake when you're ready!

Prep Time20 mins

Cook Time45 mins

Total Time1 hr 5 mins

Course: Breakfast

Keyword: brunch, easy breakfast recipe, French toast, make ahead, make ahead breakfast

Servings: 6

Calories: 774kcal

Author: Jess Smith via Inquiring Chef

Cost: $4.00

Equipment

• 9 x 13 Baking Dish
• Mixing Bowls

Ingredients

For the French Toast:

• 1 loaf Crusty French Bread (equalling about 1 pound; most any type of bread will work - ciabatta is wonderful)
• 8 large Eggs
• 2.5 cups Milk (2% or skim work fine)
• ¾ cup Pumpkin Puree
• 1 cup packed Light Brown Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

For the Topping:

• ½ cup Whole Wheat Flour
• ½ cup packed Light Brown Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon Salt
• 1 stick Cold Unsalted Butter, cut into pieces
• ½ cup Pecan Pieces, roughly chopped

Instructions

• Grease 9 x 13-inch baking pan. Tear bread into chunks (or cut into cubes) and evenly distribute in the pan. Whisk together eggs, milk, pumpkin, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon. Pour evenly over bread. Cover tightly and store in the fridge several hours or overnight.
• In a separate bowl, mix flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Add butter pieces and cut into the dry mixture until mixture resembles fine pebbles. Stir in pecans. Store in a Ziploc in the fridge.
• When you’re ready to bake the casserole, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Remove casserole from oven and allow to rest on the counter until the oven reaches 350 degrees. Gently press on the bread so that it sinks a bit into the liquid. If it appears at all dry, pour ½ cup milk evenly over the surface of the casserole. Sprinkle crumb mixture over the top.
• Bake for 45 minutes for a softer, more bread pudding texture. Bake 1 hour or more for a firmer, less liquid texture. (I found 45 minutes was just perfect.)
• Serve immediately.

Notes

Adapted from Baked Cinnamon French Toast, a recipe by The Pioneer Woman.

Nutrition

Calories: 774kcal | Carbohydrates: 106g | Protein: 22g | Fat: 31g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 11g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 293mg | Sodium: 651mg | Potassium: 545mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 63g | Vitamin A: 5798IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 271mg | Iron: 5mg