My mom made this awesome cinnamon french toast bake for my son Lucian’s fourth birthday celebration. Of course I’m going to have to share it. It is very sweet and an easy way to feed a crowd. While you can pour syrup on after if you like, I personally feel it is sweet enough without it and don’t even bother adding the extra calories. The recipe is altered slightly to keep it from getting mushy by reducing the amount of eggs and syrup and it works perfectly!
Cinnamon French Toast Bake
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup melted butter
- 2 cans 12.4 oz each Pillsbury® refrigerated cinnamon rolls with icing
- 5 eggs
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 3/4 cup maple syrup
- Garnish:
- Icing from cinnamon rolls
- powdered sugar
- maple syrup if desired
Instructions
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Melt butter and pour on ungreased 13x9 inch glass dish. Separate cans of dough into 16 rolls reserving the icing for later use. Cut each roll into 8 pieces and add to buttered baking dish.
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Beat eggs in medium bowl. Add cream, cinnamon and vanilla and beat until well blended. Pour over cut pieces of cinnamon roll pieces.
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Sprinkle with pecans and drizzle 3/4 cup syrup over the top. Bake at 375 for 20 to 28 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 15 minutes.
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Remove the covers from icing and microwave on medium or 50% power for 10 to 15 seconds. (Should be thin enough to drizzle.) Drizzle icing over the top. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve with syrup if desired. Yum!
Give this delicious recipe a try at your next brunch or celebration! Trust me, it won’t last long if you do! Works great for holiday breakfast, such as Easter or Christmas morning. Hope you love it as much as we did.
This recipe can be found at Pillsbury.com and was altered to suit our tastes.
Did not use syrup at all except on the side. Also used half of icing and it was awesome! My kids and neighbor loved it
Weird question…I hate syrup, how much would not using it affect the recipe? Thanks (found on Pinterest)
I don’t use it, I let escrow do their own syrup. Still very delicious. Syrup makes it way too sweet.
You wouldn’t taste the syrup.
What kind of vanilla. Is it vanilla extract?
You are correct! It is vanilla extract. You can be pretty certain that any recipe that calls for vanilla is asking for vanilla extract unless it says otherwise. Thanks for asking and hope you love the recipe!
Do I need to refrigerate the left overs?
I am making this for Christmas morning and my family cannot wait to try it!
Could you PLEASE let me know if you can make this the night before???? Thank you so much!!!!
Kim, I can understand why you’d love to know! But unfortunately I haven’t tried making it the night before so I’m not sure how it turns out that way in comparison to the traditional way. Normally a french toast bake benefits from sitting overnight but that is with fully cooked bread and this is dough. I will say that this recipe does not take a long time to prepare. Happy holidays!
How many people will this serve? I need to feed 40 people, and of course need to double or triple?
This makes around 12 servings, depending upon how big you make your pieces. I would make at least three, depending upon what else you are serving with it. Hope that helps!
We made this the night before to serve during Christmas breakfast (we did not add syrup until halfway through morning baking)… We baked longer than the suggested time as we typically do..it was delicious and not the least bit soggy.. Even though it may have come too late I hope this info is helpful for someone in the future :).
Does anyone know about how many people this will serve??
Thanks
I just made this and it’s good. I didn’t have whipping cream so I just used 1 % milk and it turned out fine. I cooked it till golden brown and it was not soggy at all, it was perfect. It isn’t as “sweet” as I expected and maybe that is because I didn’t use the whipping cream. I topped it with the frosting and pancake syrup. It is good but next time I would add more cinnamon and I would use the whipping cream just to compare.
This recipe has become a family favourite. My two wee-lings gobble it up and beg for more. I usually make a half batch as we are a small family of four and I’m diabetic, so I only get a teeny little bit.
A couple of comments about what others have said. I always prep it the night before, and have never found it to be soggy. Maybe the extra time allows the dough to soak up the extra moisture? Also, I omit the syrup (again, because I’m diabetic, I don’t need the extra sugar). My Beloved and my kids always add it to their helpings.
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe. It’s a keeper!
My family loves this.. i chopped some apples with a couple tablespoons butter, cinnamon and brown sugar soften apples in pan then added to the recipe… awesome is all i can say…
I baked this as directed to a t, although it looks and smells amazing, after baking for 28 minutes, it’s still doughy 🙁 I was really banking on a great new years day breakfast for the family.
As others have said to either eliminate or cut back on the amount of syrup..I do find that using pure maple syrup is much better…I only use 1/3 cup and not near as soggy …all my kids and grandkids love the sweet so I definitely add the frosting to melt at end..also I add nutmeg as all my traditional French toast my kids are used to nutmeg in it..this recipe is my family’s favorite for big get together breakfasts!!