Recipes › Breakfast & brunch› Overnight french toast casserole with cardamom
Breakfast & brunch · Easy · Serves 8

Overnight french toast casserole with cardamom

A make-ahead french toast bake with a cardamom vanilla custard. Assemble it the night before, bake it while the coffee brews, feed a whole table without breaking a sweat.

Anna Lind Harper
by Anna Lind Harper
Tested twice · Published 2026-07-03
A golden baked french toast casserole in a white ceramic baking dish on a folded striped tea towel, the bread cubes puffed and browned at the edges, dusted lightly with powdered sugar and scattered with fresh berries, with a small pitcher of maple syrup beside it in soft morning light.
Prep
20 min
Cook
45 min
Serves
8
Difficulty
easy

This is the breakfast I make when people stay over: a french toast casserole that does all of its thinking the night before. Cubes of day-old bread soak overnight in a cardamom vanilla custard, and in the morning the whole dish goes into the oven while the coffee brews. Forty minutes later it comes out puffed and golden, custardy in the middle with crisp edges.

No standing at a griddle flipping slices while everyone else eats. That is the entire point of a french toast bake, and why it has permanently replaced the pan version in this house for anything more than two people.

“The bread soaks while you sleep. The oven works while the coffee brews. Nobody flips anything.”
Why this one earns a weeknight

What you'll love about it

  • 01All the work happens the night before. The morning is just an oven timer.
  • 02One dish feeds eight, which is the difference between hosting brunch and performing it.
  • 03Cardamom keeps it from being a sugar bomb; it tastes like a kanelbulle and french toast had a very good idea.
  • 04Day-old bread is the star, so it is also quietly the best use of the loaf you did not finish.
Anna, in an oatmeal cardigan over a white tee, pouring pale cardamom custard from a glass bowl over cubed bread in a white baking dish at her kitchen island, with her bright farmhouse kitchen, open shelves, and stove behind her.
Pour it slowly and press the cubes down after. Every piece gets a turn in the custard overnight.
Ingredients

For the casserole

  • 1large loaf day-old bread, about 1 lb, torn or cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 8large eggs
  • 2½ cupswhole milk
  • ½ cupheavy cream
  • ⅓ cupmaple syrup
  • 1 Tbspvanilla extract
  • 1 tspground cardamom
  • ½ tspground cinnamon
  • ½ tspfine salt
  • 2 Tbspunsalted butter, for the dish and dotting

To serve

  • a light dusting, not a snowstormpowdered sugar
  • 2 cupsfresh berries
  • warm maple syrup
  • optional, for tang against the sweetnessa spoonful of skyr or creme fraiche
Method

How I make it

  1. 01
    Cube the bread (the night before).
    Butter a 9x13 baking dish. Tear or cut the bread into rough 1-inch cubes and pile them into the dish. Day-old bread is not a compromise here; it is the requirement. Fresh bread drinks the custard and collapses, stale bread soaks and holds.
    Hands in oatmeal knit sleeves tearing a brioche loaf into rough cubes over a speckled baking dish already half filled with bread, with the rest of the loaf on an oak board beside it.
    Torn beats cut here. Ragged edges catch more custard and bake up craggier.
  2. 02
    Whisk the cardamom custard.
    In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, then whisk in the milk, cream, maple syrup, vanilla, cardamom, cinnamon, and salt until completely smooth.
  3. 03
    Pour, press, and chill overnight.
    Pour the custard evenly over the bread, then press the cubes down gently with a spatula so everything gets a turn in the liquid. Cover and refrigerate overnight, or at least 4 hours. A couple of presses whenever you happen to open the fridge do not hurt.
  4. 04
    Bake it in the morning.
    Heat the oven to 350°F. Uncover the dish, dot the top with the butter, and bake 40 to 45 minutes, until puffed, golden, and just set in the center; a knife should come out mostly clean with a little custard cling. If the top browns before the middle sets, tent loosely with foil.
  5. 05
    Rest, dust, serve.
    Let it rest 10 minutes (it finishes setting and nobody burns their mouth). Dust lightly with powdered sugar, scatter the berries over, and bring it to the table with warm syrup and, if you like, something tangy like skyr on the side.
A close-up of one corner square of french toast casserole on a speckled plate, crisp golden peaks on top and a soft custardy interior at the cut face, with a thread of maple syrup dripping down and a raspberry beside it.
A note from Anna

The overnight soak is not just convenience, it is texture. A short soak gives you dry cubes sitting in scrambled custard; a full night gives you that bread-pudding middle with crisp peaks on top. And trust the rest at the end. Ten minutes out of the oven, the center goes from wobbly to sliceable, and the difference on the plate is real.

What to serve with it

Round out the table.

  • ·01
    Crispy bacon or breakfast sausage
    Something salty next to something custardy is the whole brunch equation.
  • ·02
    A big pot of coffee
    It bakes for 45 minutes. That is exactly two cups.
  • ·03
    The sausage and hash brown casserole
    If it is a proper crowd, make both and cover the sweet and savory ends of the table.
Storage & reheating

Keeping the leftovers good.

Fridge: Leftovers keep for 3 days, covered.

Reheat: Single squares in a 325°F oven for 10 minutes, or a short microwave burst in a pinch. The oven keeps the edges crisp.

Make ahead: Built for it: assemble up to 24 hours ahead. You can also bake it fully, cool, and rewarm the whole dish at 325°F, covered, for 20 minutes.

Freezer: Baked and cooled squares freeze for 2 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge, then reheat in the oven.

Recipe card

Overnight french toast casserole with cardamom

A make-ahead french toast bake with a cardamom vanilla custard. Assemble it the night before, bake it while the coffee brews, feed a whole table without breaking a sweat.

Prep
20 min
Cook
45 min
Serves
8
Total
65 min
Ingredients
  • 1 large loaf day-old bread, about 1 lb, torn or cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 8 large eggs
  • 2½ cups whole milk
  • ½ cup heavy cream
  • ⅓ cup maple syrup
  • 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp ground cardamom
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp fine salt
  • 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, for the dish and dotting
  • a light dusting, not a snowstorm powdered sugar
  • 2 cups fresh berries
  • warm maple syrup
  • optional, for tang against the sweetness a spoonful of skyr or creme fraiche
Method (short version)
  1. 01Cube the bread (the night before).
  2. 02Whisk the cardamom custard.
  3. 03Pour, press, and chill overnight.
  4. 04Bake it in the morning.
  5. 05Rest, dust, serve.

Nutrition information is an estimate. See full nutrition disclaimer.

Featured in
If you liked this

More from the weeknight table.

A stack of four golden brown butter cardamom pancakes on a small cream-speckled stoneware plate with a pat of butter melting on top, a slow drizzle of maple syrup, a scatter of fresh blueberries and raspberries, a small pinch of flaky salt, and a folded striped cream-and-blue linen tea towel beside it on a white marble counter.
new
Breakfast30 min
Brown butter cardamom pancakes
Brown butter and a small pinch of cardamom turn a Saturday-morning stack of pancakes into something cozy and a little Nordic. Easy enough for a slow weekend.
A cooling rack on a white marble counter crowded with golden-brown twisted Swedish cinnamon buns, their knotted tops glossy from egg wash and scattered with white pearl sugar, the cinnamon-cardamom swirl visible in each bun. One bun is pulled slightly apart to show the soft layered crumb. A folded striped cream-and-blue linen tea towel and a stoneware mug of black coffee sit beside the rack. Soft morning light from the kitchen window.
new
Bake2 hr 30 min
Kanelbullar (Swedish cinnamon buns)
Cardamom-scented Swedish cinnamon buns, twisted into knots, brushed with egg, and finished with pearl sugar. The classic fika bake, less sweet and more fragrant than the American kind.
A 9x13-inch parchment-lined ceramic baking dish on a white marble counter, holding a finished spinach and feta egg bake: a thick fluffy custard cooked through, deep green wilted spinach folded throughout, generous crumbles of white feta scattered across the surface and browned at the edges, a snow of finely chopped fresh dill, sliced scallions, and a few cracks of black pepper. One corner has been cut into a tidy 3-inch square and slightly lifted. Beside the dish: a small cream-speckled stoneware plate holding one cut square, a small ceramic dish of more crumbled feta, a small bunch of fresh dill, a folded striped cream-and-blue linen tea towel, and a halved lemon. Soft mid-morning kitchen light.
new
Breakfast50 min
Cottage cheese spinach and feta egg bake
A make-ahead breakfast bake with eggs, cottage cheese, wilted spinach, and feta. Forty minutes in the oven, six servings, and quietly 22 grams of protein per slice.