French Toast Casserole Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How do you keep French toast casserole from getting soggy? ›

If you find yourself with a soggy casserole, for whatever reason, try baking it a bit longer until it firms up some. What's the best bread to use for baked French toast? A loaf of crusty sourdough or French bread makes the best bread for French bread.

If the pan isn't hot enough when you put your first slice in, the custard spreads out, forming a "foot" on the bottom of the French toast. When the pan is hot enough, the batter won't have time to seep; the custard will start cooking as soon as it hits the pan. Give the pan a light coating of neutral oil and butter.

Bread: I recommend using thick sliced bread, like Sara Lee Artesano, Texas Toast, or leftover homemade bread. It's nice (but not necessary) if the bread is a few days old, or slightly stale. We also loving using thick slices of cinnamon bread or brioche!

Ideally, the bread should be slightly stale. A drier bread will soak up all the custard. Bread can be left out with the wrapper open the day before cooking. If you find yourself in a pinch, dry your bread slices in a 275°F oven for 10 minutes before soaking them in the custard.

The reason? "If you use fresh bread, it will soak up the [custard] so quickly that you run the risk of your French toast falling apart," explains Traci Weintraub, founder and head chef at Gracefully Fed. Alternatively, "slightly stale bread tends to hold up better in the liquid mixture," she says.

The first is using fresh bread, which soaks up too much of the egg mixture and doesn't cook through, remaining eggy and soggy in the middle. Leaving the bread in the egg mixture for too long is another route to soggy French toast.

A creamy custard is the key to incredible French toast, so skip the watery skim milk and go for whole milk or half-and-half. Straight heavy cream turns French toast into dessert, so lean that way if you're looking for decadence.

If the balance is off and you include too many eggs or not enough milk, the finished French toast will have a scrambled egg-like flavor. When scaling this recipe up or down, keep in mind that you need 1/4 cup of milk for every egg.

The secret ingredient in this fluffy French toast recipe: all-purpose flour! Flour binds the liquids together, which creates a more traditional “batter” and helps prevent soggy results. This extra ingredient ensures the French toast is crispy on the outside, but soft and fluffy on the inside.

A basic rule of thumb is about 1/4 cup of milk and one egg per two-slice serving—and if you want to avoid that "scrambled" taste, use only the yolks of some or all of the eggs. (Sulfur compounds in the whites are what give eggs their unique "egg" taste.)

How do you know when French toast is done? ›

This allows you to sear the French toast without burning it, while ensuring it's fully cooked in the center. "You know when your French toast is done when the center is set and doesn't have a runny consistency once cut," Oliveira says.

In the United States, a casserole or hot dish is typically a baked food with three main components: pieces of meat (such as chicken or ground meat) or fish (such as tuna) or other protein (such as beans or tofu), various chopped or canned vegetables (such as green beans or peas), and a starchy binder (such as flour, ...

To make a breakfast casserole you beat some eggs, add milk and cheese, add cubed bread, add "mix-ins" like mushrooms, veggies, sausage, and herbs, put it in a casserole dish, and bake.

A French Oven is a more modern version of the Dutch Oven made in France from enamelled cast iron. A Casserole dish is a shallower dish, designed for slow cooking or baking in the oven.

“A casserole dish and a baking dish are the same thing, an oven-safe piece of cookware, usually made of ceramic, porcelain, or glass,” says Anthony Contrino, Emmy-awarded culinary producer and food stylist. "They can come in various shapes, with the most common being rectangular, oval, or square.