An easy and absolutely delicious recipe for Overnight Pecan Pie French Toast! It’s the perfect breakfast or brunch recipe for the holidays!
Pecan Pie French Toast Recipe
Happy Friday! The weekend is just hours away and you know what that means, right?! BRUNCH. AKA the best meal in the entire world.
3 of my girlfriends are in town for the weekend and I can’t wait to surprise them with this overnight pecan pie french toast on Saturday morning. This is the ultimate holiday brunch recipe!!! It’s super easy, super impressive, and – of course – super delicious. It also goes great with mimosas and coffee, which are both brunch essentials in my opinion!
Pecan French Toast Casserole
Let’s talk about ingredients. To make this overnight pecan pie french toast you’ll need: french bread, milk, heavy cream, eggs, vanilla, brown sugar, maple syrup, corn syrup, and pecans. You should be able to easily find all of these ingredients at your local grocery store, and with any luck… you may already have them in your kitchen! The french bread is soaked in a vanilla cream mixture overnight which provides incredible taste and texture. Once it’s soaked overnight you’ll coat your baking dish in butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, and pecans! As the french toast bakes, one side becomes encrusted with the pecans while the other side slowly caramelizes… it’s so dreamy!
What I really love about this recipe is how perfect it is for sharing. Once it comes out of the oven, it’s ready to go. You don’t even need to serve it with syrup! It’s 100% sweet enough on its own.
Tips and Tricks for Recipe Success:
- I highly suggest using French bread for this recipe, however if you cannot find it, brioche would be a good substitute. I don’t recommend using sandwich bread, since it’s very thin and may become soggy as it soaks overnight.
- You can make 90% of this recipe ahead of time, which is perfect for busy hosts. OXO’s Glass 3 Qt Baking Dish with Lid is perfect for this recipe! The super sturdy raised lid makes it easy to assemble and store stress free. I’ve been using this dish for everything from french toast to sheet cake to lasagna! I can’t tell you how many times I tried wrapping a dish with foil only to find something in my fridge fell on top and ruined the presentation. OXO was kind enough to send me their 14 Piece Glass Bake, Serve & Store Set and I use it every single day! It’s perfect for holiday cooking, baking, and gifting!
- You’ll want to soak the bread in a large, shallow bowl OR you can use a second 3 Qt baking dish, which is what I did. It’s very important that the bread isn’t overlapping as it soaks and that each piece is covered in the vanilla cream mixture.
- For a genuine pecan pie flavor, I suggest using maple syrup and corn syrup. That said, if you only have one on hand, you may use ALL corn syrup or ALL maple syrup.
- Once baked, this overnight pecan pie french toast is best served right away. However it will keep, covered tightly in the fridge, for up to 3 days.
- For an extremely decadent treat, serve with vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream!
Pecan pie in french toast form… what are you waiting for? Make this ASAP and enjoy:)
More French Toast Recipes:
If you try this Overnight Pecan Pie French Toast, let me know! Leave a comment below and don’t forget to snap a pic and tag it #bakerbynature and #holidaybakingbonanza on instagram!
Overnight Pecan Pie French Toast
Prep
Cook
Inactive
Total
Yield 4 servings
A super easy recipe for Overnight Pecan Pie French Toast!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup whole milk
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 6 large eggs plus 3 egg yolks
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
- 1 loaf French bread, cut into 8 slices
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1/3 cup light corn syrup
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 cup pecans, chopped
Instructions
- In a large bowl combine the milk, cream, eggs, yolks, and vanilla, beat well and set aside. Arrange sliced bread in a large shallow bowl. Pour the liquid mixture over the bread. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 6 hours, or overnight.
When ready to bake...
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). In a small saucepan over medium heat melt the butter. Remove from heat and whisk in the brown sugar, corn syrup, maple syrup, and pecans.
- Spread this mixture evenly across the bottom of a 3 quart casserole dish. Carefully arrange the soaked bread on top. Bake for 35 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes, then serve warm!
Courses Breakfast
Cuisine French
Since the pecans are placed on the bottom of the baking dish, do you flip each piece over once it’s taken out of the oven so the pecans are on top for serving?
Hi Jessica! Exactly! I mean, you don’t have to flip it over, but it makes for a pretty presentation 🙂 I’ll add a note in the recipe about this now! xoxo
Wow, I did not know I needed this in my life so much, will be trying soon!
What do you mean the top side is carmelized? The sugar mix is on the bottom. Did you pour the whole mixure on the soaked bread or turn it over onto the sugar/butter/syrup?
Hi Luana. The syrup goes on the bottom, then you add the bread, then you bake it. Since the bread is still wet from the egg mixture it will caramelize as it bakes. Please let me know if you have any other questions 🙂
Holy cow this was SO good. Your gorgeous photos convinced me to make it and I’m so glad I did!!!
This sounds like such an incredible breakfast! Perfect for fall!
This looks so amazing!!
Could this be any more perfect?! I cannot wait to make this … and eat the whole entire thing MYSELF. <3
Making this for the weekend!! Looks amazingly delicious
Looks wonderful! Great pictures too.
Could I leave the corn syrup out to make this more healthy? And if I did, what would I substitute in it’s place?
You can disregard my question, as I found the answerin this article that tells what to substitute for corn syrup. If anyone is interested here is the link: http://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/how-to-substitute-corn-syrup-article Thanks for this great recipe. Can’t wait to try it !
That’s a killer recipe Ashley! You nailed it.
It looks delicious. Can’t wait to give a try!
Keep it up 🙂
GIRL. This french toast is the french toast to end all others!!! I love the pecan pie spin, pinninggg!
Amazing! Will be making it a second time for brunch with girlfriends.
Love this French toast!!
This reminds me of the cinnamon rolls we used to have in the bakery I worked in years ago. They were so good and this looks scrumptious!
You nailed it.
It looks delicious. Can’t wait to give a try!
Keep it up
Do you think stale croissants would work?
How many calories are in them? I’d like to try
Have you ever tried this recipe with gluten free bread (I.e. would the bread soak and bake the same way, or would it fall apart?). I’ve been trying to cheer up my recently diagnosed celiac husband with gluten free food that still tastes great, and your French toast pics took absolutely devine
Great recipe, Ashley. Our family made this last night and it came out great!
I wouldn’t change a thing. The family LIVES it!
How big of a loaf of French bread are you using? I bought a 1 lb loaf and it’s rather long, so the slices would be really thick if I cut it into eight pieces. How thick are the slices supposed to be?
My loaf was about 12 inches long, and quite thick. My slices were about 1 and 1/2 inches each.
After 3 days of hesitation, I have finally decided to try this recipe out, although I failed to make it looks exactly like yours but it turned out to be very tasty,
Thank you Ashley
This is a great recipe! Used 2/3 cup brown sugar instead of a full cup and it turned out perfectly.
Thank you!
This looks absolutely wonderful. Do you know if you can freeze it in individual servings after cooking. I live alone and sometimes have a grandson with me. I obviously can’t eat the whole batch at wants lol. Thank you
Thanks for the great recipe. I tried it, I didn’t get as beautiful as you. But it tastes amazing. I hope I can get closer to your kind someday.
I need to make this for my Sunday school class (about 12 people). I wonder if you could cube the French bread, or even sourdough bread and make it kinda like a casserole?