Cinnamon Roll French Toast Casserole can be prepped overnight on a busy holiday, like Christmas or Thanksgiving, or easily put together in 5 minutes. Delicious and rich, you will love this cinnamon roll bake that can be made with almost any refrigerated Pillsbury roll flavor – making this breakfast completely your own!
If you are looking for an amazing, and I mean amazing, breakfast casserole recipe, THIS. RECIPE. IS. IT.
Totally rich, kid friendly and fun, and a great take on cinnamon roll monkey bread, this cinnamon roll French toast casserole bake is SO simple to prepare and is incredibly delicious. What I love about this cinnamon roll bake is that most ingredients you probably have in your home and can easily be customized with changing out the cinnamon roll flavors.
Cinnamon Roll French Toast Casserole
Our Cinnamon Roll French Toast Casserole, or in this case, Pumpkin Spice French Toast Casserole, takes no time at all to make and needs a few simple ingredients. Call it monkey bread, call it cinnamon roll bread, call it casserole or cinnamon bake, no matter what you call it, this is a simply easy and indulgent breakfast. Perfect as a wake up on Saturday and enjoy the weekend or a “wow its Christmas lets do something special” breakfast, every one in your family can agree on cinnamon rolls.
This recipe is slightly adapted from Pillsbury.
- Butter – with salt or without salt is fine
- 2 cans of Refrigerated Rolls – pick your favorite flavor, keep in mind the larger rolls are thicker and take longer to bake
- 6 Eggs
- Whipping Cream – I get heavy whipping cream for all my recipes, not half and half or milk
- Spices – Vanilla, Cinnamon
- Nuts – We used Pecans, walnuts is also fine. You can skip nuts if you want, but the crunch is nice.
- Syrup – Store bought pancake maple syrup works perfect
- 13 x 9 baking dish
*see full printable recipe for more detailed baking instructions*
RELATED RECIPES: Amish Breakfast Casserole, Sausage Hash Brown Casserole, Biscuits and Gravy Casserole, Cinnamon Apple Breakfast Bake, Strawberry French Toast Casserole, Cracker Barrel Hash Brown Casserole, Ham Hash browns
Monkey Bread French Toast Casserole
This Oven Cinnamon Roll French Toast Casserole is sweet, takes only about 15 minutes to prep, and can be made ahead for an easy morning.
- 1/2 stick melted butter
- 2 cans of refrigerated cinnamon rolls of any flavor (12-15 oz.)
- 6 eggs
- 1/2 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
- 2 tsp Cinnamon
- 2 tsp Vanilla Flavoring
- 1 cup Chopped Pecan Pieces
- 1 cup Pancake Syrup
Preheat – Preheat to 375 and prepare your pan by melting down the butter in it
Add Ingredients – Add your ingredients, starting with your cinnamon rolls, and then pour your egg mixture (eggs, vanilla, whipping cream mixed together) over the top.
Add maple syrup and nuts.
Bake and Enjoy – Bake till done, takes around 30-35 minutes, and then top with powdered sugar.
Make Ahead Cinnamon Roll Casserole
Yes! You can easily make ahead cinnamon roll casserole by prepping, covering, and placing in the fridge.
The one thing about pre-prepared food that gets super cold, is that it may need extra cooking time because it has to come up from a really cold temp to baking.
(this is pre-baked casserole with raw egg prior to oven)
Best At Home Cinnamon Roll Flavors
So lets talk about cinnamon roll flavors. My family gets at home cinnamon rolls all the time and they are a favorite of mine to make on a slow Saturday morning.
There are hoards of kinds now – from Cinnabon to Orange Rolls, Strawberry to seasonal, you do not have to go with traditional French Toast Casserole anymore.
For this recipe, we changed up the original recipe we were inspired by, and used Pumpkin Spice Cinnamon Rolls.
These Pumpkin Spice cinnamon rolls were a wonderful fall flavor take on this recipe and perfect for Thanksgiving and Christmas mornings with a slight pumpkin spice and seasonal flavoring to the recipe.
The only thing you need to consider with this recipe is that a lot of cinnamon roll casserole bakes take into the fact that the cinnamon rolls are normal sized and quite a few brands produce these huge dense and fluffy rolls.
The bigger the roll, the longer it may take to bake, so you may have to adjust your timing if you add additional cut up rolls or flavors that have more ounces in the can.
You can find these flavors (and others) in your refrigerated section at the store- just make sure what you buy has icing in the can.
- Orange Rolls
- Hot Cocoa Rolls
- Strawberries and Cream
- Cinnamon Rolls
- Pumpkin Spice Cinnamon Rolls
Serving Cinnamon Roll French Toast Bake
Once you take your casserole out of the oven, let it cool down briefly, for 10-15 minutes.
Then remove the metal top that typically comes on your roll icing and pop the plastic container only in the microwave and melt down about 10 seconds so it can be easily poured.
Add to your cinnamon French toast bake in a sweeping motion and then, if you want, add on powdered sugar.
Serve the whole thing with extra icing or maple syrup so you can efficiently go into a sugar coma.
(this is fully baked breakfast casserole with melted icing)
Sweet Breakfast Recipe Options
Need more breakfast recipe options? Hey, we all enjoy eating breakfast recipes that are not just regular cereal.
- Southern Fried Apples
- Fried Breakfast Potatoes
- Blueberry Breakfast Cake
- Blueberry Cake Donuts
- Orange Bread with Orange Glaze
Cinnamon Roll French Toast Casserole (Make Ahead)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1/2 stick melted butter
- 2 cans of refrigerated cinnamon rolls 12-15 oz
- 6 eggs
- 1/2 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
- 2 tsp Cinnamon
- 2 tsp Vanilla Flavoring
- 1 cup Chopped Pecan Pieces
- 1 cup Pancake Syrup
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375
- Melt butter down in microwave and pour into your glass 9 x13 pan. If you use a smaller pan, like a 9x11, just make sure your rolls are not too thick that they wont bake properly.
- Cut each roll into 8 pieces ( 2 cans worth)
- Place cinnamon rolls into the casserole dish on top of melted butter.
- In a separate bowl, beat eggs, spices, whole whipping cream and vanilla.
- Pour egg mixture over cinnamon rolls in dish, covering as much as possible.
- Top with 1 cup of maple syrup and sprinkle with pecan pieces.
- Bake French Toast Casserole in oven for as little as 25 minutes or as much as 40 minutes. The trick here is to make sure your rolls are cooked in the center without burning your tops of the casserole or drying out the rolls. A gas oven and slightly thicker (17 oz) rolls, took 35 minutes total.
- Pull breakfast casserole out and let cool for 15 minutes.
- Melt down icing from rolls (make sure you remove the metal lid) in the microwave for 10 seconds.
- Pour icing onto casserole.
- Serve breakfast casserole while warm - can also be served with powdered sugar, extra icing, or extra maple syrup.
Video
Notes
- A longer pan will help the casserole not be too thick and cook properly, but if you are forced to use a 9x11 pan, just make sure you remove some rolls so its not as thick or cook longer.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Sharing of this recipe is encouraged and appreciated. Copying of full recipe to any social media is prohibited.
Comments & Reviews
Janet C says
What do you do with the heavy whipping cream?
Trisha says
hi Janet! I clarified in the post. The eggs is the egg mixture, which includes the whipping cream. You are right, I wasnt overly clear that all the wet ingredients were mixed. I am updating the post right now to make sure I note that in several places. Sometimes when I write a post, since I know what the recipe is, I dont always remember to really be specific and thank you for letting me know it wasnt clear!
Carol says
When are you adding the pecans?
Trisha says
Hi Carol! I emailed you directly in case you dont see this. The nuts are added after the maple syrup, which was in the article and video, but I left the line out in the printed card. I apologize and updated the printable card to reflect that line! I usually cut and paste the instructions I wrote from the article for the card and must have cut the line. Good catch!
Trisha
Amanda L. Boyd says
This truly is a wonderful breakfast casserole. The only thing my husband suggested is to lightly brown the hash browns. I loved it!!!!!
Trisha says
I think you meant to put this comment on the hash brown casserole, but I like your addition for that one!
Roberta says
Can the recipe be prepped the night before and baked in the morning?
Trisha says
Hi Roberta, there should be no issues w/ prepping this ahead. It just may take longer to bake as it will be extra cold from the overnight in the fridge.