Sourdough French Toast Casserole (A Sunday Morning Favorite)
This cozy sourdough French toast casserole is our go-to for slow weekend mornings—especially Sunday breakfast. If you’ve got leftover sourdough bread that’s gone a little stale or was over-proofed and didn’t quite make it to the table, don’t toss it! This is the perfect way to give it new life.
As the saying goes: “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Well, one baker’s stale sourdough is another family’s warm and delicious breakfast. 😉
❤️ Why You’ll Love This Sourdough French Toast Casserole
This sourdough French toast casserole is all about making the most of every loaf—especially the ones that didn’t turn out quite right. Got a flat loaf? Too many air pockets? Bread that’s gone a little stale? Don’t toss it. Chop it up, soak it in a sweet egg custard, and let it work its magic.
Once it’s baked, you’d never know that bread was once headed for the compost bin. It comes out golden, soft in the center, and totally delicious.
And the best part? You make the whole thing the night before. Just pop it in the oven the next morning—no prep required. It’s perfect for Sunday mornings before church, holiday brunches, or any day you want breakfast ready without the rush.
🍲 Ingredients
Stale Sourdough Bread – This can be any bread in your house that wasn’t eaten for any reason. Whether that be an over proofed loaf, under proofed loaf, a loaf you forgot to add the salt too (I’ve done that before), it doesn’t matter, because once it’s soaked up all that egg mixture overnight there is no difference. It’s only delicious.
Custard- this is just a fancy way to describe the sugar, eggs, milk and cream that you whisk together. This will be soaked up by the sourdough bread and turned into a fluffy, chewy, delicious breakfast.
👩🍳 How to Make Sourdough French Toast Casserole
I would say that the hardest part about this recipe is getting together a whole loaf of bread to use, but you put this entirely together the night before. First, dice up your bread into 1 – 1 1/2 inch pieces and place them in a greased 9×13 baking dish. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs, milk, cream, vanilla and cinnamon until it’s all incorporated and pour it directly over the bread. Cover with plastic wrap and place in your fridge overnight.
In a small mixing bowl, add grated or chopped butter, flour, sugar, and a touch more cinnamon. Mix that together until a crumble topping starts to form. Put that in a small Ziplock bag or airtight container and place it in the fridge overnight.
In the morning, preheat you oven to 350 degrees. Take your soaked bread and crumble topping out of the fridge and top casserole with the topping and bake for 40-50 minutes. Serve with maple syrup, just like you would with regular French toast.
🪄 Tips and Tricks
- If I have cold butter for the crumble topping, I use a cheese grater and grate the butter.
- If you don’t like crispy edges while baking, cover the top of the dish with aluminum foil for half of the baking time.
- Add whatever flavor combinations you like to the casserole.
- If you don’t have enough sourdough bread, you can use whatever bread you have on hand. I’ve used half sandwich bread, half chopped English muffins before and its worked just fine.
🗒 Variations
This is such a versatile dish that you can add so many different flavors to. You could easily add chopped apples, or a flavored loaf to make a zesty and special French toast casserole.
- Cinnamon Apple French Toast Casserole
- Cranberry Orange French Toast Casserole
- Cinnamon Raisin French Toast Casserole
🗒 Substitutions
There’s a lot of ways this casserole will work. If you don’t have cream, you can add extra milk. If you’re short an egg, you’re short an egg. This breakfast is very forgiving which makes it a staple in our home.
🗒 Best Served With
- maple syrup and fruit
- powdered sugar
- a cup of coffee
👝 How to Store Leftovers
Transfer whatever casserole you have left to an airtight container, or Tupperware, and store in the fridge where it will stay good for up to 3 days.
🤔 Common Questions
Use whatever bread you have! It can be a combination of sandwich bread, English muffins or sourdough.
French Toast Casserole
Sourdough French Toast Casserole
Equipment
- Metal baking dish
Ingredients
- 1 loaf of sourdough bread
- 8 eggs
- 1 ½ cup milk
- 1 cup half and half cream
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 TBS vanilla
- 2 tsp cinnamon
Crumble Topping
- 1 stick of grated butter
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
The night before
- Cut sourdough into pieces and place into greased baking dish.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, half and half, sugar, and vanilla.
- Pour evenly over the diced bread, cover with plastic wrap, and place in refrigerator overnight.
Prep the crumble topping
- In a small mixing bowl, grate the butter and toss with flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon. Transfer to Ziploc bag and place into the refrigerator overnight.
The next morning
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sprinkle crumble topping over the soaked sourdough. Bake for 40 – 50 minutes, or up to an hour if you like crispy bits!
Nutrition
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My 2 year old sat on our grocery bag and smooshed two loafs of store bought bread, making them unusable for sandwiches. I remembered seeing this recipe on Instagram and decided to use those smooshed loafs for a Saint Nicholas day treat. This recipe was so good!! My son is lactose intolerant so I did use vegan butter and almond milk (to replace both normal milk and the cream) and it still turned out great 😊
So easy and delicious! I had half a loaf of stale sourdough, so I cut this recipe in half and added some blueberries on top. It was the perfect amount for my family of 4! Thank you!
Have you tried leaving this in the fridge for less than 8 hours? Does it have to sit for that long? Thanks!
It doesn’t have to sit for the full 8 hours, I would say as long as it sits for two hours it will be good 🙂
I made this recipe for my co-workers and it was a huge hit! This recipe is simple and easy to make. And the payoff is fantastic. I love that it’s a make-ahead recipe. I’ll be adding this to my rotation for special occasion breakfasts.
I’m so happy everyone liked it!
I don’t have a metal baking pan, but I do have corningware or glass! What do you recommend and would I need to adjust time/oven temp? Thanks!
So easy & yummy for the whole family!