I was tired and lazy on this past Christmas Eve, thus I present to you my new Leftover Cinnamon Rolls French Toast Casserole. It is exactly what it sounds like. I walked into a store, bought 6 large cinnamon buns with frosting and pecans from some bakery in Surprise, Arizona and lazed right out on this recipe. To cut me a small amount of slack, I was cooking for 11.5 people daily during the Christmas break as my entire family was at my parent’s house in Arizona. (The .5 is my niece Elliette, who doesn’t really count as a full eater yet.)
How to Make a Cinnamon Roll Casserole
This casserole she didn’t eat but she certainly wolfed down my Double Cheese Overnight Hashbrown Casserole. Holy Dinah, did she ever. If you are wanting a savory casserole, that is the one for you!
This cinnamon rolls french toast casserole is for the sweet-toothed out there. You know who you are. You are me, my sister and my dad. Since there were 12 of us, I knew that I could get away with making a sweet and a savory casserole.
There were minimal leftovers, at best. I actually don’t recall any, but by the time I was done eating breakfast on Christmas Day, I was already neck-deep in prepping the turkey for Christmas dinner. The cleaning and the packing up was left to whomever wasn’t the cook that day, but I don’t recall any leftovers in the fridge.
To be honest we can’t be the only family that leaves breakfast out on the holidays and everyone eventually polishes it off, right? We don’t usually eat lunch on Christmas, we have breakfast that is out until early afternoon and then maybe, just maybe some leftovers from the Christmas Eve dinner make their appearance as well.
Now the reason that this cinnamon rolls french toast casserole works so well is that you aren’t using the canned tubes of cinnamon bun dough (hey, no judging here, those are fun as well) but you are using cinnamon buns as a baked BREAD. It’s already cooked so you are using it to soak up the milk and egg mixture and turn it into French toast. You want it baked up already in order to get the great texture.
What did you all make this past holiday season for breakfasts? Any hits? Any misses?
Happy cooking!
Love,
Karlynn
Leftover Cinnamon Rolls French Toast Casserole
Ingredients
- 8 large frosted cinnamon buns chopped into 1 inch pieces ( I used ones with pecans)
- 8 eggs beaten
- 2 cups of milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 cup white sugar
Instructions
- Grease a 9×13 pan and set aside.
- Place the chopped cinnamon buns into a large bowl.
- Whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla, spice and sugar. Pour over the bread and stir until the bread is coated completely.
- Pour into the 9×13 pan, spreading out evenly and pushing it down slightly to compress. Cover with foil and place in the fridge overnight.
- In the morning, pre-heat your oven to 350 °F.
- Place the pan in the oven and bake, covered, for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking for another 20-25 minutes until the center of the casserole is cooked and set and has reached a minimum temperature of 165 °F.
- Remove, cool slightly, slice and serve.
Nutrition
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Liz says
Great use of dry cinnamon buns! The buns I used were not very sweet, so the recipe wasn’t sweet enough for us. I like the previous comments about sprinkling brown sugar on top near the end of baking, or a drizzle of maple syrup when serving.
My husband loves apple fritters, and suggested I add chopped apple next time. Might as well add pecans while I’m at it!
Carol A Gritzmacher says
do I have to leave this over night? I’m short on time need it now?
Dary says
Can I make this the day of? If so how long is the minimum time to soak the bread before baking please?
sonya says
Thank you for an easy recipe. It tuned out great and it was a great way for me to use up some Amish sourdough monkey bread I had made for Christmas.
Miss Amy says
Thanks so much for posting this. I was “gifted” with a forgotten pan of homemade sticky buns after round 1 Christmas guests departed. This was perfect for using them to make the French toast I’d promised my kids and prepare for round 2 guests without tempting the raccoons to dine in my overstuffed Christmas garbage! Since the rolls had already been dry due to the maker attempting to dial down the sugar in them, they were perfect to rehydrate and cook. I did dial the eggs down to 6.
Kim P says
This was an amazing Christmas breakfast! I didn’t feel like searching for my pumpkin pie spice so I added cinnamon, and used leftover, three day old cinnamon rolls. My rolls were extra huge, so I did only use five with the recipe. Great recipe!
Kim from NJ says
This was a very good recipe and idea. I hate wasting food especially precious cinnamon buns. I made some changes to the recipe though because I am not a fan of pumpkin spice anything. I used 5 very large cinnamon buns, and I cut off the cream cheese frosting off of them before I cut them in cubes. I used 8 eggs, a combo of milk and 1/2 and 1/2, 1 tablespoon of vanilla, and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon all whisked together. I then put dark brown sugar on top of the casserole 10 minutes prior to it being done. It was so good. Will make for company, Sunday brunch, as well as weekly meal prep.
Ganny says
How many cups are there of the required
Cinnamon buns? Cinnamon buns sizes vary by bake shop.
Thanks
Beverly says
I used 2 cinnamon rolls, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup Almond milk, 14 tsp each of vanilla and pumpkin pie spice and 2 tbs. coconut sugar. Divided between 2 small casserole dishes, approximately 12 oz. Foil on for 10 minutes, topped with chopped pecans, foil off and baked additional 18 minutes. Drizzled pure maple syrup on top and a squirt of Reddi Whip. Yum! Will make again for the two of us.
Lina says
Too much eggs! This recipe definitely does not need 8 eggs, unless you want to eat a cinnamon bun omelette. I made it with 7 eggs and it still tasted too eggy. It has the right sweetness and consistency though . Can use some vanilla or whiskey sauce on top for serving.
Chris says
Been playing around with the recipe for awhile now & found that using 6 store bought cinnamon rolls, 6 eggs, apple pie spice, buttermilk, brown sugar and vanilla made it turn out perfectly 🙂
Maryanne says
It’s pretty good, but much improved with the addition of some cinnamon, a dash of nutmeg, a couple of tablespoons of flour and some maple extract in the mix.
Would probably be good with a bit of butterscotch instant pudding mix tossed in.
Derrick says
Loved this! Agree with Carolyn, was looking for something to do with leftover cinnamon rolls. Used dark brown instead of white, doubled the vanilla, and added a couple diced pears to it. So good!
Debi says
Not sweet enough, I feel like cinnamon would have been a better choice over pumpkin spice. Although a great way to use leftovers but just bland.
BRIE says
Hey Debi,
I use dark brown sugar instead of white sugar, and yes cinnamon or all spice; I have not ventured with the pumpkin spice yet for the bread casserole, maybe if I used it with plan french bread? and I don’t measure, only to my taste.
So, for your sweet tooth, remember your adding maple syrup after it’s done.
thanks Magpie for sharing this recipe, I also have used raisin cinnamon bread from CostCo that is my favorite, and I have used the italian cake panettone bread that comes out around the holidays.
I really like the idea of using the cinnamon buns for this recipe that is what excites me !
Shosh says
I’m not sure how you calculated your calories, but there’s no way it’s only 141 per serving! One egg alone is about 70 calories, then once you factor in the milk etc. etc. and figuring one
egg and cinnamon bun per serving, it’s going to definitely be a lot more than that. Chances are we’re not counting calories if we’re eating cinnamon bun French toast, but still…
Carolyn says
I may be late to your party but… I haven’t made this yet, I gave it 5 stars because it is exactly what I was looking for and it sounds amazing. All of the other recipes called for tubed cinnamon roll dough, this one did not. I’m going to make this for my hubby and myself.