Eggnog French Toast Casserole: Have a Jolly Good Breakfast!




I wasn’t always a breakfast person – actually, I wasn’t a morning person, period. It was so hard to get up early and start preparing a meal, not only for myself but for my husband and kids, as well. And I felt bad about myself for letting them get out of the house with just some orange juice and cereal, if they were lucky.
But then I realized breakfast didn’t need to be super complicated to be hearty and delicious. I also searched for recipes that would help me make a breakfast dish for the whole family, instead of trying to prepare all kinds of fancy sandwiches for each family member individually.

Over the years I learned to really love breakfast and it has become a special meal for us, especially during the holidays. This awesome eggnog French toast casserole is what we’re going to have this Christmas, and I can’t wait to serve it to my extended family! The recipe makes 8 servings but you can easily halve or double it, depending on how many people will be gathered around the breakfast table.

The recipe calls for French bread but pretty much any bread will be ok for this. So, for a healthier option you could choose whole grain bread.
If you have homemade eggnog, that’s awesome – but this French toast casserole will turn out awesome even if you’re using store-bought. I like to drizzle this with honey, but you can make sugar glaze, caramel or vanilla sauce to go with this. Oh, and add some fresh fruits and berries for vitamins!

Ingredients

  • 8 Tbsp Land O Lakes butter
  • 1 cup coconut sugar
  • 1 loaf french bread, cut into 1″ pieces
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 8 Eggland’s eggs
  • 2 cup eggnog
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp salt

Instructions:

Spray a 9×13 glass pan generously with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.

In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add coconut sugar and combine. DO NOT BOIL! You will end up with caramel. Remove from heat. Pour into prepared glass pan.

Arrange bread cubes on top of sugar mixture.

In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, eggnog, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and vanilla to make the custard. Pour the custard evenly over bread cubes. Press down gently on bread to make sure it soaks up the custard mixture.

Tightly cover glass pan and refrigerate 2 hours to overnight. It depends on the time frame you are on!

Preheat oven to 350F. Bake covered for 45 minutes. Remove foil. Bake an additional 15-20 minutes or until the entire casserole is puffed and golden brown on top. A knife inserted into the middle should come out relatively clean.

When serving, drizzle with maple syrup, homemade eggnog glaze (powdered sugar and eggnog combined into a smooth consistency), or whipped cream!

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