Yes, we’re in the final countdown to Thanksgiving and yes, that means we have to talk about breakfast! On the morning of Thanksgiving, it’s so important to eat a hearty breakfast so that you can keep your energy up all day long. If you have lots of kitchen helpers, gotta make sure they’re well-fed, too.
That’s where this epic banana french toast bake comes in. It’s super easy to make, can be prepped the night before, and seriously tastes like bananas foster. I took my famous orange caramel pecan french toast bake and added a gooey caramel-banana twist for a brunch treat you’re going to absolutely love. It’s so good that I bet you could add a scoop of ice cream and literally eat it as a traditional bananas foster dessert. JUST SAYIN’.
Prep this beautiful pan overnight and wake up ready to crush the day. That goes for Thanksgiving morning, Christmas, and every holiday in-between. It makes the perfect brunch treat for any occasion and is freezer-friendly, too.
What is “bananas foster?”
Bananas foster is a rich dessert where bananas are cooked in a sauce made from butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Restaurants oftentimes then add dark rum and banana liquor to the mixture and light it on fire! This is served with ice cream for a truly decadent dessert.
We’re taking the same flavors (minus the booze) and turning it into an incredible, dairy free banana french toast casserole that has the same gooey, delicious caramel and banana flavors.
Ingredients in this banana french toast bake
This easy banana french toast casserole uses super simple ingredients and is a great way to use up day old bread you might have laying around. Here’s everything you’ll need to make it:
- For the caramel: to get those delicious caramelized bananas you’ll need brown sugar or coconut sugar, salted butter, chopped pecans, bananas, and a little sea salt.
- For the french toast: you’ll need eggs, milk (I typically use vanilla unsweetened almond milk to keep it dairy free), more brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and day old French or Italian bread. More on the bread below!
- For the topping: I love, and highly recommend, extra brown sugar for sprinkling on top.
- For serving: this banana french toast bake is delicious as-is, but even better with berries, fresh banana slices, powdered sugar, or even a little drizzle of maple syrup on top. YUM.
Which bread is best for french toast?
Bread that is a day or two old is best for using in this french toast casserole because it’s slightly drier and will prevent the french toast from getting soggy. I prefer a French or Italian loaf because the texture holds up well.
How to make a gluten free french toast bake
You can easily make this bananas foster french toast bake gluten free by using a gluten free loaf. Be sure that it’s similar to Italian or French bread so that the texture holds up well.
Bananas foster french toast bake in 5 easy steps
- Prep your pan. Start by spraying a 13×9 inch baking dish or 2-quart casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray.
- Make the caramel. Next, mix the melted butter and brown sugar in a bowl and pour it into your baking dish — spreading it out evenly on the bottom and sides.
- Layer the french toast. Sprinkle on the sliced bananas & pecans, and place the cubed bread evenly over the banana layer.
- Make the egg mixture. Whisk together the eggs, milk, brown sugar, vanilla & cinnamon and pour it over the french toast bake. Make sure each piece of bread is coated well! Cover it up and refrigerate overnight or for at least 4 hours so that the flavors all meld together.
- Bake & serve. Before baking, sprinkle on some more brown sugar for a delicious, sugary crust, then bake until it’s golden brown. To serve, flip each piece upside-down so that the caramel, bananas & pecans are on top, then add your fav toppings and enjoy!
Make it ahead of time
As I mentioned, you can prep this french toast bake the night before! Simply assemble it all and store it in the fridge until the next morning. This allows the flavors to really soak into the bread, and you can simply bake it up the next morning for the perfect holiday breakfast.
How to store & freeze this banana french toast casserole
- To store: store the entire french toast bake covered or slices of the bake in airtight containers in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days. Simply reheat slices in the microwave at 30-second intervals.
- To freeze: first, wrap individual slices (or the whole thing) in plastic wrap, then aluminum foil, and then place the french toast bake in a zip-top freezer bag. When you’re ready to serve it, simply thaw the slices or full bake in the refrigerator overnight and then heat in the oven at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes or until heated through.
More brunch recipes perfect for the holidays
- Brown Butter Apple Coffee Cake
- Vanilla Brown Butter Pear Baked Oatmeal
- Butternut Squash Bacon Spinach Quiche
- Upside-Down Orange Caramel Pecan French Toast Bake
- The Best Cinnamon Rolls You’ll Ever Eat
- Orange Gingerbread Swirl Loaf
Get all of our amazing breakfast recipes here, and even more Thanksgiving recipes here!
I hope you love this upside-down bananas foster french toast bake! If you make it be sure to leave a comment and a rating so I know how you liked it. Enjoy, xo!
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
Upside-Down Bananas Foster French Toast Bake
Ingredients
- For the caramel:
- 2/3 cup packed brown sugar (or coconut sugar)
- 1/3 cup salted butter, melted (unsalted is fine, too!)
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1/3 cup chopped pecans
- 2-3 bananas, sliced
- For the french toast:
- 8 large eggs
- 2 ½ cups vanilla unsweetened almond milk (or milk of choice)
- 3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 pound/loaf day old french or italian bread, cut into 1-inch cubes*
- For the topping:
- 1/4 cup packed brown sugar (or coconut sugar), for sprinkling
- For serving:
- Fresh berries
- Extra banana slices
- Powdered Sugar
- Maple syrup
Instructions
- Spray a 13x9-inch baking dish or 2 quart casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray.
- Combine melted butter and brown sugar in a medium bowl, pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish, be sure to spread out evenly towards the sides. Sprinkle with sliced bananas and chopped pecans so that they are set in the ‘caramel’ layer. Place cubed bread evenly over the pecan mixture.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, almond milk, brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla. Pour egg mixture over the bread, making sure to soak each cube. If there are some dry pieces, simply push them down a bit to soak up some of the egg mixture. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight.
- Once ready to bake: preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Sprinkle 1/4 cup brown sugar on top of the bread. Bake for 50 minutes-1 hour or until the top of the french toast is nice and golden brown. Cool for 10 minutes then cut into 8 servings.
- When you plate, flip each piece upside-down so the caramel and pecans are on top. Serve with fresh berries, yogurt, powdered sugar, or maple syrup, but honestly it’s delicious as is! Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by: Eat Love Eats
Monique, do you think this would work with a plant based butter?
Yes I think that should work well!
Tastes good but didn’t turn out exactly like described. The “caramel” on the bottom was more of just a brown sugar liquid. Not sticky and someone tacky like caramel at all! Think I will try cooking the sugar and butter to actually make caramel and THEN put it in the bottom of the dish to make actual caramel. I just ended up having to use a spoon to ladle the brown sugar butter mixture out over the french toast n bananas
Could you invert the whole pan when it’s finished cooking and then cut it?
Possibly! It’s a pretty big casserole so you’ll just want to be careful when flipping 🙂
You can absolutely do that! And you’re right, it’s not a true “caramel” but I think it has a similar flavor.
This looks delicious!! I’ll be making it for the holidays…we are gluten free so I appreciate the substitution advice! Any suggestions to replace the nuts so it can be nut free as well?
Hi, Sarah! So excited for you to try it. Feel free to leave out the pecans or replace it with a crunchy seed like pumpkin seeds 🙂 And regular milk will work in here!
Do you think you could make thi in single servings?
In a muffin pan or single small glass dishes?
Do you think you could make thi in single servings?
In a muffin pan or single small glass dishes?
Hi, Jennifer! Yes absolutely, I bet that would be amazing 🙂
Easy to make, looks like it could be very sweet but the sweetness is just right!! This makes the family happy and will go into a breakfast rotation for sure!! So great!!!
I made this for Thanksgiving brunch. It was so good. Extra brown sugar on top before baking gave it a nice crunch. People loved flipping their serving over to see all the bananas lined up. This recipe is a keeper.
Nice!! So happy it was a hit 🙂
This was amazing! My entire family loved it and it was incredibly easy to make! So delicious! I’ll be making it again soon!
INSANELY GOOD!!!!! Everyone in my family was obsessed with this recipe for breakfast. I let the bread soak in the pan over night so all I had to do in the morning was add the brown sugar and put it in the oven. 10/10 would make again. Perfect crowd pleaser dish. Could even be made for dessert!! My family liked it more than regular banana foster dessert.
Awesome!! Thrilled to hear everyone loved it!
How far in advance can you make this? I’d like to make it a few days before my company arrives. Can you make, bake, freeze in the pan and re-bake when ready to serve?
Yep! Check out the “How to store & freeze” section above 🙂
yummy recipe
Will know how it taste tomorrow!
This was fabulous! We used a 9×9 baking dish since it was just two of us. We missed judged the amount of cinnamon to use but we sprinkled extra over our pieces and it did the trick, tasted just like banana fosters. You must let is cool. We were hungry and cut the cool time down and the bottom was still runny. We will make it again for our Christmas breakfast. Thank you for such a delicious recipe!
Do you use ripe bananas for the recipe?
yes, not overly ripe but you don’t want them too hard either.
Hi Monique – could you substitute the egg for flax eggs?
Hi – I haven’t tried it, but I don’t think I would recommend it, the egg is what binds the entire casserole together.
Made this last year for Christmas morning with day old sourdough bread and it was delicious! Everyone loved it!
SO good! Love this one so much!
This was a great Christmas morning Breakfast. Prepped the night before my caramelized bananas were not nearly as glossy and caramelized as the image that’s still good I would double the amount of pecans next time. I also brushed the top with rum and flambéed at the table for effect.
WOW the flambé sounds incredible! Glad you enjoyed!
Followed every step and it soaked for 18 hrs in the fridge. It’s been in the oven now for 2 hrs and it’s still runny. Way too much milk and egg. It’ll most likely be tossed. What a shame
Very strange – I’ve never run into this issue before! Can I ask what type of bread you used? And was it a full pound?