I *heart* French Toast Casseroles! I love how you can take SUPER STALE french bread and turn it into a breakfast (or dinner) masterpiece! By soaking the bread overnight in a fruity, egg-milk mixture, stale french bread can be completely transformed and redeemed!!! When Andrea sent this recipe, I HAD to try it!
Note: The marked down french loaf bread that I *knew* was in the freezer was not to be found 🙁 So I used some burger buns from the freezer instead! This was sweet enough in and of itself that it did not need any syrup!
![]()
Apple Cranberry French Toast Bake
Yield – 4 servings
Preparation Time – 15 minutes
Cooking Time – 45 minutes
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup brown sugar ($.15)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon ($.03)
- 1/2 cup melted butter or margarine ($.40)
- 3 apples – peeled, cored and sliced ($.99)
- 1 cup dried cranberries (FREE!) From Walgreens trip two weeks ago!
- 1 French Loaf, cut into 1 inch slices ($.79) Look for these when they are marked down and then freeze if you don’t eat right away!
- 6 eggs, lightly beaten ($.60)
- 1 1/2 cups milk (I used rice milk!) ($.15)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract ($.10) (or use homemade vanilla extract!)
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon ($.05)
- Favorite fruit: bananas, cantaloupe, berries or Fruit Salad ($1)
- 6-8 slices bacon ($.75) We rarely eat a whole package of bacon because it’s not a part of our regular diet, so I freeze what we don’t eat right away! Just separate it into however many slices you wish to eat so that you can just thaw what you need!
Directions
- In a large bowl, mix together brown sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Mix in melted butter or margarine. Stir in chopped apples and dried cranberries until evenly coated. Pour into prepared pan.
- Arrange french loaf slices in an even layer over apples.
- In same bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. Pour over bread, making sure every slice is fully soaked. Cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate over night. THIS IS KEY!
- Preheat oven to 375 F. Remove dish from refrigerator while the over is heating. Bake covered for 40 minutes. Remove cover, and bake 5 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.
- Prepare your favorite fruit or turkey bacon.
- Serve Apple Cranberry French Toast Bake with Fruit and/or Bacon!
Cost $5.01

Breakfast for dinner – yum!
This is perfect for my bag of “crusts” and single buns/slices of bread in the freezer. We usually feed the ducks, but this time will have breakfast for dinner instead! LOL Thanks!
I know this was an old post, but I made this for dinner tonight and it was a big hit. Also, I just wanted to let you know that I cut the butter down to 2 tablespoons and the brown sugar in half and it was still excellent. Thanks for the great recipes.
@Danielle,
So glad you all enjoyed it Danielle!!!
Erin- What size pan do you use? I am in the process of making and not sure if I’m doing it right!