This site contains affiliate links. Please see Policies for more information.
This delicious make ahead Dinner Roll French Toast casserole is perfect for using up leftover rolls or bread. It’s got a delicious cinnamon strudel topping and is perfect for a holiday meal!
Whether you make it ahead of time or the day you’ll eat it, you’re going to love this simple breakfast recipe.
This easy breakfast treat is perfect for feeding a larger crowd – I love making it alongside a big batch of this Southwest Breakfast Casserole, Turkey Chorizo or Breakfast Fried Rice.
Where’s the recipe?
Here at My Crazy Good Life, we write recipes that anyone can make – whether you’re new to the kitchen or have been cooking for years.
In the article below, you’ll find detailed cooking and ingredient information along with recipe tips. If you’d like to skip that and get straight to the measurements, ingredients, and directions just scroll down to the printable recipe for this Dinner Roll French Toast Casserole.
Ingredients for Dinner Roll French Toast Casserole
- bread – dinner rolls, sweet hawaiian rolls, french bread – any bread you have will work!
- milk – from whole milk to almond milk, it doesn’t matter which you choose!
- eggs
- vanilla extract
- brown sugar
- ground cinnamon
Cinnamon Streusel Topping
- brown sugar
- flour
- cinnamon
- butter
How to make this Dinner Roll French Toast Casserole
If you’re putting this in the fridge overnight, make sure to give it 30 minutes to warm before putting it in the oven. Sometimes cold pans can crack when put inside hot ovens.
- Slice bread into 1 inch cubes.
- Grease a deep dish pie pan or baking dish and add bread cubes to the dish in a single layer.
- In a small bowl, add your milk, eggs, vanilla extract, brown sugar, and cinnamon together. Mix well after all the ingredients are added.
- Pour the egg mixture over the bread–make sure it’s poured evenly over the bread. You shouldn’t see much of the liquid.
- Sometimes I’ll save some of the egg mixture and stick it in the fridge so I can add more if I need to before I stick it in the oven. The goal is for the bread to soak up the egg and milk mixture, but not be dripping in it.
- Prepare your cinnamon topping: Mix the brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a bowl.
- Slowly mix in the butter with your fingers, breaking it up and mixing it all together. Don’t stress if it’s not all melted together–it’ll be perfect after you bake it.
- Sprinkle the cinnamon topping over the uncooked casserole. Cover the casserole with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for a minimum of an hour or as long as overnight, or cook immediately.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Assuming your pan is in the fridge, pull the pan out of the fridge and let warm for 30 minutes on the counter (so you don’t break your pan by putting it into a hot oven).
- Bake foil-covered casserole for 45 minutes, then remove cover for last 15 minutes. Once it’s golden brown, poke a knife in the middle to make sure it’s cooked–it shouldn’t feel or look too wet. Your cooking time could vary depending on the depth of your baking dish.
What toppings do I put on this french toast casserole?
We love serving this easy recipe with any combination of the following:
- warm maple syrup
- cinnamon and nutmeg
- apples
- blueberries and strawberries – really, any fresh berries or fresh fruit will do
- bananas
- celebrating a special day? Add chocolate chips or sprinkles!
- our house staple for french toast is peanut butter – we use a natural peanut butter that can be poured over the casserole and it’s so good!
Recipe Tips
- This beauty of this recipe is it’s super forgiving. You can use any kind of bread for this – hamburger bun, leftover dinner rolls, sweet bread, even regular bread slices.
- You can make this the night before and pop it in the oven in the morning, or you can make/cook a batch and heat it up the next morning.
- Is your casserole too dry? You may have added too much bread. Try to add more egg mixture or even just some milk if you have used the egg mixture already. If you add too much milk your casserole could end up with soggy French toast, so add sparingly.
- If you’re looking to make smaller versions of this, it makes great French Toast rolls – just add the uncooked mixture to a cupcake tin.
- Some people swear that stale bread makes this dish even better. I’ve used stale bread when I can, but it’s not necessary in my opinion.
More delicious breakfast recipes
- Zucchini Breakfast Casserole I love how easy this is to pull together! It’s filling as is, but you could easily add some whole grain toast if you’d like to add some carbs to your morning!
- Healthy Crepe Recipe You can easily make these sweet or savory, and even the pickiest kids will love this easy breakfast crepe recipe. I’ve found that kids love that they’re easy to eat with their hands.
- Low Sodium Breakfast Sausage We love prepping these and freezing them–they’re so easy to pop into the microwave and we have also diced it up and added these sausage patties to eggs.
- Healthy Rice Pudding This is a comfort food, for sure–but it’s healthy! Your favorite bread pudding, but lightened up!
- Turkey Chorizo Recipe So simple and much healthier than traditional chorizo. I love making this into breakfast tacos for all the boys in my house.
Dinner Roll French Toast Casserole
Equipment
- Metal Pan for Oven
Ingredients
Dinner Roll French Toast:
- 1 loaf bread (or leftover bread, dinner rolls, etc)
- 2 cups milk any type
- 3 eggs
- 3 tsp vanilla
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ tsp cinnamon
Cinnamon Streusel Topping:
- ¼ c brown sugar
- ¼ c flour
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 1 ½ tbsp butter , cold
Instructions
- Slice bread into cubes. 1 loaf bread
- Grease a deep dish pie pan and add bread in a single layer.
- In a small bowl add milk, eggs, vanilla extract, brown sugar, and cinnamon together. Mix well. 2 cups milk, 3 eggs, 3 tsp vanilla, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- Pour the egg mixture over the bread–make sure it's poured evenly over the bread.
- Prepare your cinnamon topping: Mix the brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a bowl. 1/4 c brown sugar, 1/4 c flour, 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- Slowly mix in the butter with your fingers, breaking it up and mixing it all together. Don't stress if it's not all melted together–it'll be perfect after you bake it. 1 1/2 tbsp butter
- Sprinkle the cinnamon topping over the uncooked casserole. Cover the casserole with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for a minimum of an hour or as long as overnight, or cook immediately.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Assuming your pan is in the fridge, pull the pan out of the fridge and let warm for 30 minutes on the counter (so you don't break your pan by putting it into a hot oven).
- Bake foil-covered casserole for 45 minutes, then remove cover for last 15 minutes. Once it's golden brown, poke a knife in the middle to make sure it's cooked–it shouldn't feel or look too wet. Your cooking time could vary depending on the depth of your baking dish.
Nutrition
Make This Recipe?
Make sure to follow on Pinterest @bludlum and on Instagram @beccaludlum
Could I use croissants instead of regular bread?
I haven’t tried it with croissants but it sounds delicious!
If I use cloverleaf dinner rolls, how many should I cube?
Hi Elizabeth, I’m not sure. I’ve never heard of that brand. I’m sure you can eyeball it :)
It was very good but it would have been nice if the chilling time were included in the prep time.
Hi Helene, thank you for mentioning this. It’s definitely optional, but the way the recipe was written it made it a little confusing. I’ve clarified the directions a little more by removing that step. :)