North Star Theory
North Star Theory · Kitchen & nutrition
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NST kitchen · breakfast

Cinnamon and pecan French toast bake

Thick bread slices soaked in cinnamon custard, baked with a buttery pecan topping and brought to the table in one tin. A slow-morning breakfast with crisp edges and a soft centre, made as one four-serving batch.

  • vegetarian
Prep (est.)
15 min
Cook (est.)
45 min
Total (est.)
90 min
Base servings
4

Total includes 30 minutes waiting time.

Jump to recipe
A rectangular tin of browned thick bread slices with a glossy pecan topping and a serving spoon.
Serving illustration, not a photograph of this NST recipe.Serving illustration: Valerie Hinojosa's pecan French toast casserole. NST has not cooked or photographed this recipe. The photographed tin, bread arrangement, glossy topping and recipe quantities differ or are unknown; cinnamon and custard ingredients cannot be verified visually. Retain the creator/title credit and CC BY-SA 2.0 licence on any use or adaptation.Photo: Pecan french toast casserole — Valerie Hinojosa, via Wikimedia Commons / Flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0. Proportionally resized and converted to WebP; no food or scene edits. · CC BY-SA 2.0Displayed crop; original linked above.
Get everything ready

Ingredients

Original recipe: 4

One fixed batch makes 4 servings. Keep the listed quantities, pan and method unchanged. For more, repeat the full batch; for fewer, follow the recipe's storage guidance for unused portions.

Ingredients for 4 servings.

Your portions are saved in the page address. Bookmark it to return to these amounts. Ingredient and step ticks are not saved.

You will need

  • Oven and oven gloves
  • One metal baking tin with internal dimensions approximately 20 × 25 cm and sides at least 5 cm high
  • Kitchen scales, measuring jug and measuring spoons
  • Bread knife and chopping board
  • Large mixing bowl, whisk, small bowl and spoon
  • Small saucepan for melting butter
  • Clean food thermometer, foil and a serving spatula

Let's make it

The method

0 of 7 steps marked

Keep your place for this page visit. Ticks do not confirm doneness or food safety; follow every cooking and storage instruction.

  1. Step 1. Prepare the tin and bread

    Wash your hands and clean the work surface. Grease the base and sides of the metal tin with the butter allocated for greasing. Arrange the bread in one shallow, slightly overlapping layer, cutting slices to fit as described in the ingredient notes. Leave the crusts on.

  2. Step 2. Whisk the cinnamon custard

    Crack the eggs into the mixing bowl. Add the milk, the custard portion of the brown sugar and cinnamon, the vanilla and the salt. Whisk until the egg is evenly mixed with no visible streaks of white. Wash your hands after handling the eggs, and clean any splashes. Do not taste this raw mixture.

  3. Step 3. Give the bread time to soak

    Pour the custard evenly over the bread. Gently press each slice with the back of a clean spoon so both sides contact the liquid. Cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes. This draft uses a short refrigerated soak, not an overnight method. During the soak, preheat the oven to 180°C conventional or 160°C fan.

  4. Step 4. Make the pecan topping

    Melt the remaining butter in the small saucepan over low heat, then take it off the heat. Stir in the topping portions of sugar and cinnamon, followed by the chopped pecans. Set aside while the bread begins baking. Keep the topping away from anything that touched raw egg.

  5. Step 5. Bake, then add the topping

    Remove the cover from the tin and bake the soaked bread on the middle shelf for 20 minutes. Using oven gloves, pull out the tin, distribute the pecan mixture over the surface and return it to the oven for another 15–25 minutes. If the nuts or exposed bread become too dark, loosely cover with foil without touching any heating element.

  6. Step 6. Check the centre, not just the colour

    The surface should be browned and the centre set, with no pool of liquid egg custard between the slices. Check the middle of the deepest part with a clean food thermometer, avoiding the metal tin: it must reach at least 75°C for 30 seconds. Check more than one central spot. If the centre has not reached that endpoint, keep baking and check again; a browned crust or elapsed timer is not enough.

  7. Step 7. Rest and serve

    Put the hot tin on a heatproof surface and rest for 10 minutes. Use a clean spatula to divide the bake into four portions, sharing the pecan topping between them. Serve warm, allowing it to cool further for anyone who needs a cooler serving. The tin and sugar topping can remain very hot.

Make it work for you

Swaps & variations

  • Use the same weight and thickness of brioche in place of bloomer if preferred. It changes sweetness and softness, and can add egg or milk allergens. Check the label is vegetarian and retain the same centre-temperature check; this variation has not been kitchen-tested.
  • For a version without added pecans, omit the 50 g pecans and use the same butter, sugar and cinnamon topping. It will have less crunch and will not match the pecan photograph. This is not a nut-free guarantee: check every ingredient and cross-contact warning.
  • A lactose-free dairy milk can replace the whole milk by volume if suitable for you. It still contains milk protein and is not a milk-allergy substitution. An egg-free or fully dairy-free custard needs separate recipe development rather than an untested one-for-one swap here.

Before you cook

Allergens & ingredients

  • Contains wheat/gluten, egg, milk and pecans (tree nuts).
  • Check bread, vanilla and nut packaging for their full ingredients and any soya, sesame or other nut cross-contact warnings. Ingredient substitutions change the allergen profile.

Check the labels of the exact ingredients you use, including any substitutions.

Recipe notes & sources

Sources support the points stated below; they are not evidence that NST has cooked or tested this recipe.

  • FSA: cooking food and reheating leftovers

    Primary safety source for complete cooking, the 75°C/30-second temperature-time option, and reheating leftovers once until steaming throughout. It does not validate this recipe's baking duration, flavour or texture.

    Checked 2026-10-14
  • FSA: chilling, freezing and defrosting

    Primary storage guidance: 0–5°C fridge, prompt cooling, 48-hour cooked-leftover window, frozen storage and fridge thawing. Recipe-specific quality and raw-soak timing are untested authoring decisions.

    Checked 2026-10-14
  • FSA: avoiding cross-contamination

    Primary hygiene guidance for clean hands, surfaces and separation of raw ingredients from ready-to-eat food.

    Checked 2026-10-14
  • Valerie Hinojosa: photo source and recorded licence

    Source photograph, named creator, title, original download and Commons record of Flickr's CC BY-SA 2.0 licence. Used only as an illustrative photograph; the author's recipe was not copied or recovered.

    Checked 2026-10-14
  • Creative Commons: CC BY-SA 2.0 terms

    Primary licence terms: attribution including supplied title, licence link, no implied endorsement, adaptation/ShareAlike obligations and no additional restrictions. Integration must retain these obligations.

    Checked 2026-10-14

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