Brioche French Toast Casserole with Mango-Coconut Sauce Recipe
The BEST brioche French toast casserole recipe, served with a mango-coconut sauce! Perfect for making in advance, so you can enjoy it as a luxurious breakfast throughout the week, or serve as a special breakfast or brunch!
Happy National Breakfast Week!
Kidding! I made that up. Although sources (i.e. google) tells me National School Breakfast Week is next month. This week may not be an official holiday, but rather accidentally, I have three tasty breakfast recipes scheduled to post this week, including this brioche french toast casserole. So national holiday or not, that's what I'll be celebrating this week on the blog!
Luckily, with Recipe Redux falling on today, they were totally on board with my self-declared holiday. This months' theme is Break out of Breakfast Boredom - show us your favorite way to wake up your breakfast!
As I confessed to my lovely friend Alexis over at Hummusapien last week for her blogger's breakfast roundup, I am absolutely NOT a morning person. Sometimes I set my snooze alarm for another two minutes because I really need to get up and go to work, but I really don't want to get out of bed and in those drowsy, half asleep moments, two more minutes feels like a solid compromise.
Almost everything I eat for breakfast is something I can reheat and eat or make in less than a couple minutes. With that, it's easy to fall into a routine. Smoothie. Overnight oats. Something eggy. Repeat.
French toast is something I would never make on a weekday, because let's face it, it takes much longer than 2 minutes. If only there was a way I could make it in advance...
Oh hey, there is! This brioche french toast casserole is perfect for slicing up and eating throughout the week. It’s rich and decadent, so it feels like a luxurious weekend brunch when really it’s 8 am on a Wednesday and you’re dragging yourself to the office. Hands on prep work takes less than 15 minutes, so this is definitely a batch cooking friendly recipe. And it’s perfect served with the easy mango-coconut sauce I whipped up, or just good ‘ole maple syrup!
Tips for Making the Best Brioche French Toast Casserole
There’s a few tips I’ve learned in making this brioche french toast casserole over the years….
Make sure you’re using the right bread, which as you might have guessed from the title is brioche! Brioche is a French bread that has a higher butter and egg content, which gives it a rich flavor, tender texture and pretty golden color. Alternatively, challah is a great choice. It tastes similar to brioche, but is made without butter (to keep it kosher) so it’s not quite as rich.
Don’t skimp on the fat content of the dairy. I use whole milk and heavy cream, although I don’t notice a difference with 2% milk. Skim milk would be a crime against humanity. If you’re going to go with a plant based milk, I would use canned coconut milk, with its higher fat content, for the heavy cream and soy milk or coconut milk (the drinkable kind) for the dairy milk, since it’s nice and creamy.
The trick to getting the texture just right in a French toast casserole is making sure the bread soaks up all the custard. You don’t want to miss any bits, so I like to dip each piece in the custard before arranging it into the baking dish. Then, pour the remaining custard over the top and let it sit 30 minutes before baking.
Creamy, Dreamy Mango-Coconut Sauce!
This mango-coconut brings the French toast casserole to a new level! It’s a pretty simple recipe, so the tropical fruit sauce dresses it up a bit. Just a simple blend of fresh or frozen fruit with coconut milk, dressed up with a bit of sugar, vanilla extract and cardamom - no cooking involved! Feel free to use other types of fruit - blueberries, strawberries, and pineapple would all be especially tasty here.
This brioche french toast casserole recipe was originally published in Feb 2016. Recipe, images and text have been updated to give you the best content possible!
Brioche French Toast Casserole with Mango-Coconut Sauce Recipe
Serves 8
Ingredients:
1 lb brioche bread (or challah), cut into 1-inch cubes
8 large eggs
2 cups 2% or whole milk
3/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling
Mango Coconut Sauce:
1 1/2 cups diced fresh mango or defrosted from frozen
1/2 cup canned coconut milk
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of cardamom
Pinch of salt
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9 X 13 inch baking dish with butter, spray or coconut oil.
Spread challah cubes evenly on a large baking sheet. Toast for a few minutes to dry them out a bit. This helps the bread soak up the custard.
In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs until well combined and slightly frothy. Feel free to use a hand mixer for this step. Add milk, maple syrup, heavy cream, vanilla extract, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg and salt, and whisk until combined.
Briefly dip each cube of challah into the custard before arranging in an even layer in the baking dish. Pour the remaining custard over the top and let sit for 30 minutes for the bread to soak up custard.
Bake 40-45 minutes until the casserole is set and the top is golden.
While the french toast casserole is baking, make the mango-coconut sauce. Blend all sauce ingredients in a food processor or blender until pureed. Set aside until ready to use.
If you like this brioche French toast casserole recipe, you might also like:
Ricotta Stuffed French Toast Casserole with Grape Syrup
Pear and Dark Chocolate Baked Oatmeal with Brown Butter
Strawberry Rhubarb Breakfast Crisp
