This Overnight French Toast recipe and post is from Katie McGinnis, a Penn State graduate who is currently doing her distance dietetic internship through Marywood University. Katie’s favorite dish is french toast and lucky for us, she is sharing her favorite version of it here.

Like many people, Christmas is my favorite holiday. I love following all of our family traditions each year, but I have one favorite: our breakfast on Christmas morning. We have had Overnight French Toast every Christmas morning since I can remember. The recipe is great for Christmas because you soak the bread overnight, add some ingredients in the morning, and then bake it, leaving more time in the morning to open presents together.

My mom’s original recipe is pretty healthy, except for the sugar so I made the recipe healthier by cutting out some. The recipe still needs sugar to make a syrup with the fruit, but it still makes enough syrup with ¾ cup. I also used whole grain bread instead of white. My revised version still tastes great and makes me feel even better about eating something healthy on Christmas.

Overnight French Toast with Bananas & Strawberries

Yield: 6-8 servings 1x

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Ingredients

Scale

Overnight Ingredients:

1 loaf whole grain bread, cut into ¾–1” slices
5 whole eggs
¾ cup nonfat milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Morning Ingredients:

1 bag (20 ounces) frozen whole strawberries
4 ripe bananas, sliced into coins
¾ cup sugar
¼ tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon

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Instructions

For the overnight ingredients, place bread in 9 1/2 x 13 1/2 x 2-inch baking dish. In a bowl, mix together eggs, milk, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon. Pour over the bread. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
In the morning, preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Take pan out of refrigerator.
Grease another 9 1/2 x 13 1/2 x 2-inch pan.
In a small bowl, combine strawberries and bananas. Reserve 1 tablespoon sugar and mix the rest with fruit. Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle pumpkin pie spice overtop. Place bread slices on top of the strawberries/bananas/sugar mixture.
In a small bowl, mix reserved sugar with cinnamon and sprinkle on top of bread. Bake at 450℉ for 20 minutes or until bread just starts to toast.

Do you have a traditional Christmas morning breakfast? Or a go-to breakfast recipe for when you have overnight guests?