A make-ahead New Year’s Day family breakfast that doesn’t taste like dessert
French toast casserole is the perfect New Year’s Day breakfast. It serves the whole family at once, can be dressed up with sweet or savory sides, and, with our recipe, can be prepped ahead of time and baked off when everyone wakes up.
But there’s one problem with this sunny scenario: Most versions look and taste a lot like bread pudding — soft and squishy and nothing like conventional crisp-crusted French toast. And though they usually deliver decent flavor, most are too sweet, even before you pour on the syrup. We wanted this to look and taste like breakfast, not dessert.
Our recipe uses sturdy potato bread instead of white bread or challah. The robust slices are just big enough to fit cleanly in the dish and they soak up the egg mixture and bake into a tidy casserole that is easily divided into portions. We developed this recipe using Martin’s Potato Bread, which has 16 slices per loaf, so you’ll need to buy two loaves. With other brands, it may also be necessary to trim the slices to fit six in a single layer.
We used the familiar flavorings — brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg — but in quantities that didn’t overly sweeten the dish. And we call for a final sprinkle of toasted sliced almonds for a satisfying crunch.
We also made sure the casserole could be assembled and soaked in the custard overnight, so you can do the work the night before and reap the benefits in the morning. Good news for planners, procrastinators and late sleepers.
French Toast Casserole
Serves 6 to 8
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened, plus 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup packed (5 1/4 ounces) brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
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