I have a great Overnight French Toast Casserole recipe that I love to pull out for potluck brunches and overnight guests. You put it all together the night before, let the liquids soak into the bread in the fridge, then pop it in the oven the next morning for an elegant no effort meal that can feed a crowd.
I mentioned to my mother in law that I was planning on serving the French Toast Casserole on Christmas morning, since I’ll have my dad, my sister, her baby, my brother & my mom all in attendance this year.
“Oh!” she said. “Have you tried the one that has orange juice in it? It’s lovely!” Then she pulled this little gem out of her recipe file.
Photo by toastforbrekkie
Orange French Toast Casserole*
4 Eggs
2/3 C OJ
1/3 C milk
1/4 C sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
8 slices of bread
1/4 C butter
1/2 C chopped Pecans
Beat together eggs, juice, milk, sugar, vanilla and nutmeg.
Melt butter and pour into an 8×10″ pan.
Arrange bread in a single layer on top of the butter.
Top bread with egg mixture and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.
Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, sprinkle with pecans and bake 10 more minutes.
*note: That is not actually the Orange French Toast Casserole-but a picture of regular French Toast with a slice of orange-it was the best I could fine 🙂
That sounds delicious! I don’t think I can wait for Christmas to try it – sounds like something I’ve got to have this weekend! Thanks for sharing.
This looks really tasty, but I want to clarify that when you write 2/3 OJ, you mean 2/3 cup of OJ as you note cup for the other parts of the recipe.
Alyssa~hope you like it!
Rita~Woops! Thanks for pointing that out. It was indeed “cups” and I went back and fixed it in the post. Glad someone is paying attention, if we had to rely on me we would apparently be in a lot of trouble 🙂
I can tell you from personal experience that this is super yummy!
Thank you! I had a recipe for overnight orange french toast which just required soaking over night and cooking like reular french toast. This will be our Christmas breakfast instead seeing as I can pop it in the oven and get back to my family while it cooks! Much Better!
ooooh, that sounds super yummy!! I bet the oj makes it really good!! Thanks for pointing me to your recipe! I’ll let you know if we try it!!
~TidyMom
This sounds amazing!! (and easy!) Can’t wait to try it for Christmas!
I’ve never made French toast hotdish before, but this sounded perfect for the Winter Solstice. I changed the name to Sunrise French Toast and used fresh squeezed juice (with ALL the pulp) and it was delicious! I don’t know how you’d fit 8 slices of bread in an 8×10 pan. I had a 9×13 and fit 3 + 3 1/2 slices. That didn’t look like enough for 3 people, so I put 1.5 on top. It worked quite nicely with the partial second layer and there was plenty of liquid for them.
Next time, I’d use half the nuts. Even on this size, there were enough nuts to completely cover each piece, and that seemed like too many.
We make a similar version of this without the OJ though. And I have one made with sausage too. We make both for Christmas morning. No cooking – just pop it in and it cooks while we open gifts. Have a Merry Christmas!
Just thought I’d check back in now that I’ve actually made the recipe… I used texas toast (the thick sliced bread) and ended up having to do a second layer just like AnnMarie, it worked out fine!! I also altered the recipe by using walnuts (which I already had) and mixing them with a little brown sugar and butter before putting them on the toast to bake the last ten minutes or so. The taste was delicious and the best part was not having to stand in the kitchen cooking on Christmas morning with all of the family here~ I would definitely recommend this recipe!