What’s better than french toast on Christmas morning? French toast prepared the night before and ready to bake in the morning! French toast on Christmas morning became a tradition in my family while I was growing up. Being able to prepare it the night before, left my parents free to enjoy their holiday morning while breakfast baked in the oven. This vegan french toast casserole can serve 6 and hopefully add to your holiday tradition!
Quick to prepare
Leave it overnight in the fridge
Bake it for 40-50 minutes in the morning
And enjoy!
The Taste
This vegan french toast casserole is:
Sweet but not too sweet
Crispy on the outside
Soft but not mushy on the inside
Buttery
Slightly caramel-y from the cane sugar
With a delicate cinnamon spice
Ingredients For Vegan Baked French Toast
The “custard” for this recipe is made from a combination of silken or soft tofu and full fat coconut milk!
Silken tofu is the softest variety of tofu and has the most mild flavour. Its high water content makes it almost like a jelly that is perfect for blending into smooth “creamy” dishes. It is also high in protein just like eggs!
Combining the silken tofu with coconut milk provides the fat content that is missing from the lack of the eggs and creates a really thick “custard”.
To create the crispy and buttery coating on french toast I add a sweetened butter drizzle just before the french toast goes in the oven.
Any brand of vegan butter that you like will work!
To this melted butter drizzle I add more cane sugar for that crunchy “caramel-y” texture and flavour. Plus a dash more cinnamon and nutmeg for a warm and festive flavour!
What Bread Is Best
Last but certainly not least… you will need bread!
Another great thing about this recipe is that it works best when the bread is hard and stale!
That means you can take advantage of buying a “day old” loaf from your bakery which is usually sold at a discounted price!
If you have a loaf that is fresh it is best to leave it out and exposed to air for at least a few hours but preferably overnight. I like to lay my slices on a wire cooling rack. This way air can circulate all around the slices and they dry out quite quickly.
Any thick sliced bread will work! And you can stack or slice your bread however best suits the bread you are working with!
A crusty loaf of sourdough would be lovely and if the slices are too big to fit nicely in your casserole dish you can chop the loaf into thick cubes and pile all the cubes into the dish. The presentation of the french toast will be different but still tasty!
For these photos and for the video in the recipe card I used a simple and inexpensive loaf of white sliced bread. The slices were nice and thick but they were also even which makes them easier to fit in a casserole dish. I have made this recipe with sourdough but for the purpose of being able to control the presentation I skipped the rustic loaf!
How To Prepare Ahead
The “custard” for this recipe can quickly be blended up in 5 minutes or less. Then just dunk your slices of bread in the custard, lay them in a casserole dish, and slide that in your fridge for a few hours or overnight if you’d like!
You can also move right to the next step and bake the french toast right away but the thick “custard” of tofu and full fat coconut milk will help it hold up well in the fridge overnight.
Making sure your bread is stale and very hard also ensures it will bake nicely and not end up soggy.
When you are ready to bake your french toast casserole:
- Remove the casserole dish from the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature.
- During this time, quickly melt the sweetened butter topping on the stovetop or in the microwave.
- Pour the sweetened butter over the french toast.
- And bake in your preheated oven for 40-50 minutes!
When you add the sweetened butter drizzle:
Don’t be afraid to lightly run a spoon through the drizzle and guide it more evenly over the slices of bread.
It won’t fully cover every piece but take a look at the photo below for how you can marble it through.
Make The Blueberry Sauce Ahead
Bryan is a huge fan of blueberries so he really wanted to top this french toast casserole with a blueberry sauce. You can follow these same basic steps for any warm fruit topping you would like!
This is a great opportunity to use frozen berries which can often be a thriftier option if you make this outside of berry season!
- Add the frozen berries to a small pot.
- Dissolve 1 ½ teaspoon starch in ¼ cup water.
- Pour the starchy water over the berries, stir frequently, and heat until the sauce has thickened!
- I love splashing the warm fruit sauce with a bit of lemon juice to add just a bit of acidity and strengthen the flavour.
Take a look at our Make Ahead Crepes which we top with a warm strawberry sauce that I make in the same way!
You can allow your fruit sauce to cool completely and then store it in the fridge until you are ready to serve your french toast. Reheat the blueberry sauce on the stovetop or in the microwave when you are ready!
Recipe Cost For Vegan French Toast Casserole
This vegan french toast casserole serves 6 with 2 slices of french toast per person and costs us approximately:
$10.56 CAD or $1.76/serving!
Let me know in the comments below if you try this delicious and convenient french toast, how you top it, and if it will be a holiday breakfast tradition for you too!
Vegan French Toast Casserole For An Easy Morning
- Total Time: 70 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Delicious vegan french toast casserole with a convenient overnight option! Quick preparation, 45 minutes in the oven, and ready to enjoy!
Ingredients
- 12 slices bread of choice, thick slices and a stale loaf work best*
- 300g silken or soft tofu
- 400ml can full fat coconut milk
- 2 tbsp arrowroot starch (or cornstarch)
- 4 tbsp cane sugar
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- Pinch of nutmeg
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tsp lemon juice
Sweetened Butter Drizzle
- 4 tbsp vegan butter, melted
- 3 tbsp cane sugar
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- Pinch of salt
Warm Blueberry Sauce
- 2 cups blueberries, frozen or fresh
- ¼ cup water
- 1 ½ teaspoon arrowroot starch (or cornstarch, dissolved in a splash of water)
- ½ tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp maple syrup, optional
*Ingredients you need that are not part of our pantry and freezer tips.
Instructions
*If you have a fresh loaf of bread it is best to leave it out and exposed to air for at least a few hours but preferably overnight. I like to lay my slices on a wire cooling rack so air can circulate all around and dry the bread out quite quickly.
- To make the “custard” to dip your bread in; add the silken tofu, coconut milk, starch, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt to your blender and blend until smooth.
- Pour the blended mixture into a deep bowl and soak each piece of bread individually in the mixture. Press the bread into the mixture and hold it down for 3-5 seconds. Flip the piece of bread over and do the same on the other side. Allow the excess “custard” to drip off the bread and then lay the bread in your casserole dish. You can organize the slices how you’d like. You can fan them one on another or lay one slice flat and lay another slice directly on top like you are making a sandwich (in the photos for this blog post I lay two slices one on another and in the video for this recipe I fan them!). At this point you can cover the casserole dish and store the french toast in the fridge overnight or until you are ready to bake it.
- When ready to bake the french toast, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and heat the sweetened butter drizzle in the microwave or on the stovetop until the vegan butter is melted.
- Pour the sweetened butter over the slices of bread (you can spread it gently with a spoon to more evenly coat all the slices if needed). Bake, uncovered, for 40 – 50 minutes until the edges of the toast are nicely browned and caramelized. The custard should be bubbling and have been mostly absorbed by the toast. If it still seems too wet, bake for a little longer (if your bread is getting too dark you can cover the casserole dish with aluminum foil or a baking sheet).
- Either in advance or while your french toast is baking you can make the quick blueberry sauce. Add 2 cups frozen blueberries to a small pot. Dissolve arrowroot starch or cornstarch in ¼ cup water and add it to the blueberries with the lemon juice and sweetener if desired. Bring to a low boil then simmer until thickened (5-8 minutes). *I tend to keep my fruit sauce unsweetened because I drizzle maple syrup over the finished french toast when I serve it. If you make the blueberry sauce ahead of time you can store it in the fridge and reheat it. If it’s become too thick you can thin it with some extra water.
- To serve your french toast, scoop slices onto a plate, pour the warm blueberry sauce over top, sprinkle with powdered sugar and toasted sliced almonds if desired, and add a light drizzle of maple syrup!
- Reheat any leftovers in the oven for 10 minutes or so at 350 degrees F to crisp them up again.
Notes
Approximate Cost: $10.56 CAD (roughly $1.76/serving of 2 slices). French toast $8.72, blueberry sauce $1.84.
Feel free to add any toppings you would like and arrange your slices of bread however they fit best in your casserole dish. You can even slice a thick loaf of sourdough into cubes if you would like!
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: European
Maria
Made this French toast today. It has a longer baking time than my previous go to recipe but it was well worth the wait! It’s absolutely delicious! I used some crusty Portuguese bread and it was yummy. Can’t wait to experiment with different varieties of breads.
Kathryn Alexandre
Yum that sounds great! I’m so glad to hear that it worked well with the Portuguese bread. Thank you for letting me know and enjoy the future experiments!
Sue
Can this be made with gluten-free bread? Can it be made with healthier substitutes for cane sugar – like maple syrup or manuka honey? I’m on a liver disease and diabetes diet: no gluten, no cane sugar and no-to-low sugar and salt. I’m wondering if I can adapt this – it looks and sounds SO good!!!! Thanks so much for posting!
Kathryn Alexandre
I can’t see why gluten-free bread wouldn’t work. I’ve never tried it myself but it should definitely soak up the custard and work similarly. You can definitely use maple syrup or manuka honey for the sweetener and even if you wanted to skip the sweetened butter drizzle you can. The butter helps to crisp up the edges of the bread and give it a bit more caramelization but you could just bake the bread with the custard. Alternatively, you could soak the bread in the custard and then cook the slices of french toast on a frying pan. That direct contact with the heat source might help to give you a bit more crispiness in lieu of the buttery drizzle. I hope this helps and you can alter this to create something you can really enjoy!