Plate with a slice of our Pumpkin French Toast Bake recipe

Pumpkin french toast = breakfast of champions. Take my word.

Slice of Pumpkin French Toast Bake for a delicious make ahead breakfast

Remember my 7-ingredient muesli bread? Well, it’s making another appearance in this pumpkin french toast. Chopped up into cubes, it makes the perfect base for a very fall breakfast.

Cubes of bread and eggs for making Pumpkin French Toast Bake

I’ve always made french toast the traditional route: dip bread into egg batter and fry right when you’re ready to eat. But, making it the day before and baking in the morning is actually a lot easier. Plus, it doesn’t require a griddle and allows the bread plenty of time to soak up the pumpkin-y goodness.

Pouring egg mixture onto a batch of our Pumpkin French Toast Bake recipe

The ‘batter’ consisted of several free range eggs, a healthy dash of milk, a scoop of pumpkin butter and plenty of pumpkin pie spice. Topped with brown sugar and it was good to go.

Series of photos showing the progression of making our Pumpkin French Toast Bake

You guys, it’s possible that I’ve never been so excited to hop up out of bed on a Saturday to preheat my oven. The anticipation nearly stole precious hours of sleep, but it was so, so worth it.

Using a spatula to grab a slice from the pan of our Pumpkin French Toast Bake

As you can see, it turned out phenomenal. The crusty, raisin-dotted bread soaked up the batter and yielded a custard-like french toast bake that smelled like heaven in the oven.

Plates with squares of our Pumpkin French Toast Bake for a simple make ahead breakfast

Topped with a little maple syrup (agave or honey) and it’s phenomenal. Not to mention it could feed your entire family and most of your neighbors. I ended up driving mine around to several friends and sharing a healthy portion. Now they think I’m the “french toast fairy” – not sure that’s a reputation I’m willing – or able – to keep up. Either way, it was fun while it lasted.

Drizzling maple syrup onto a slice of our Pumpkin French Toast Bake recipe

If there’s just two of you dining on this breakfast, simply cut the recipe in half or even one-fourth for a more appropriate serving size. Either way, this recipe should be on your fall bucket list. I’m so glad I’ve already crossed it off of mine.

Plates with slices of Pumpkin French Toast Bake for a simple breakfast

Prep Time 10 10

Cook Time 40

Total Time 10 50

Servings 10

Course Breakfast

Cuisine Vegetarian

Freezer Friendly No

Does it keep? 1-2 Days

Ingredients

US Customary – Metric

5 1/2 – 7 1/2 cups 1-inch bread cubes (depending on type of bread)*
7 large eggs
2 cups milk (any kind)*
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 cup pumpkin butter (or sub double the amount of pumpkin puree)*
3-4 Tbsp brown sugar (for topping)
Nuts (like pecan or walnuts // optional)

Instructions

Cut any kind of bread into 1-inch cubes – I recommend a crusty, whole grain variety, but sandwich bread will work, too. Just use enough slice to fill a lightly greased 9×13-inch baking dish quite full.
In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla, pumpkin butter and pie spice until well combined. Pour over bread and push down with a spoon or your hands until it's all soaked and mostly covered. Cover with saran wrap or lid and refrigerate overnight.
In the morning, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (176 C), uncover and top with brown sugar, additional pumpkin pie spice and nuts (optional). Bake for 35-45 minutes or until golden brown and no longer wet.
Serve immediately with maple syrup, honey or agave nectar. Store leftovers in the refrigerator covered for up to a couple days.

Notes

*For the bread cubes, just use as much bread as it takes to fill the bottom of your dish generously, plus up about 1 to 1.5 inches. If you’ve added too much to soak up the liquid, just remove some. And if it looks too wet, add some more bread.
*I used 2%, but use skim or low-fat for a lighter recipe. Alternatively, use non-dairy such as soy or almond.
*I HIGHLY recommend using pumpkin butter, as it has a concentrated pumpkin flavor and is much sweeter than puree. But if using puree instead of butter, it’s important to compensate the flavor by adding a bit more puree, pumpkin pie spice, and a little agave nectar, brown sugar or maple syrup to the batter. Otherwise, it will lack that delicious fall, pumpkin flavor you’re going for.

Nutrition (1 of 10 servings)

Serving: 1 g Calories: 122 Carbohydrates: 13.7 g Protein: 7.8 g Fat: 4 g Sodium: 145 mg Fiber: 1.3 g Sugar: 7.4 g

* Some commenters have tried this recipe and varied the amount of pumpkin butter or bread they used for a better result. Because different breads can have different levels of sponginess and the pumpkin butter can vary in taste if it’s store bought or homemade, play with this recipe and make it your own! If you need more bread cubes, add more. And do the same with pumpkin butter. Please let me know if you have any questions in the process as I’d be glad to help!