These French Toast Cups with Your Favorite Toppings make an easy, customizable breakfast. Cubed bread is soaked in a sweetened, flavorful custard; topped with your favorite optional toppings; and baked in a muffin tin. The maple syrup is baked right in!
It’s time to bust out the muffin tin for another fun customizable breakfast recipe!
Two of my most popular recipes are To Go Baked Oatmeal with Your Favorite Toppings and my Standard Muffin Recipe. Both of these recipes have a base recipe (basic baked oatmeal and basic muffins) that are baked in a muffin tin and can be topped with just about any flavor you want. People really seem to like the idea of customizing flavors. Everybody gets exactly what they want, which can be great for picky eaters.
I decided to try this concept with French toast and came up with this recipe for French toast cups with your favorite toppings. It’s a baked French toast recipe that gets made in a muffin tin. Cinnamon, vanilla, and maple syrup are baked right in to the muffins.
To make this easy French toast recipe, start by making the flavorful custard. Mix eggs with milk, maple syrup, brown sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Chop some good quality, crusty bread into small cubes. Soak the bread in the custard. Then, fill the muffin tin with the bread and custard.
At this point you can add any flavors you like. The French toast muffins I made were banana nut, blueberry, cranberry coconut, and chocolate chunk.
Add a little bit more of the bread mixture on top of the toppings to anchor the toppings to the muffins. Bake until they start to turn golden brown on the edges.
If you wanted, you could fill the muffin tin the night before baking. Just be sure to cover it with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator.
French Toast Cups with Your Favorite Toppings
Ingredients
- 1 cup 2% milk or your preferred milk/milk substitute
- 6 large eggs
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 cup brown sugar packed
- 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 12 oz. bread*
- Optional toppings like fruit nuts, chocolate chips, etc.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, add the milk, eggs, maple syrup, brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt. Whisk until well combined.
- Cut the bread into small, half inch cubes.
- Add the bread to the egg mixture. Stir to completely coat the bread.
- Let the bread rest in the eggs for 10 minutes. Stir twice during the resting process.
- Spoon 3/4 of the bread mixture into the muffin tin (scoop from the bottom of the bowl to ensure any unabsorbed egg mixture is evenly distributed in the muffin tin). Press the bread mixture down into the muffin tin.
- Add 1 tablespoon of your optional toppings to each muffin cup. Spoon the remaining bread mixture into the muffin tin.
- Bake for 25 minutes, until the edges turn golden brown.
- Cool for 10 minutes. Remove the french toast cups from the muffin tin.
- Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.
Notes
Nutrition
Alanna says
I love this idea!! Much more fun than regular french toast 🙂
Deanna Segrave-Daly says
Oh my yum! Love the photo (and the idea) of making four different kinds in one baking session 🙂 I will need to try them ALL.
Chelsey says
LOVE this idea! I’m hosting a brunch for my friends in a few weeks and this is going on the menu!!! Thanks 🙂
Selena @ The Nutritious Kitchen says
I am absolutely in love with this idea!! Love all the topping ideas too. Pinning!
rachel@ athletic avocado says
Great idea! Love it! Pinning! 🙂
Jessica @ Nutritioulicious says
oh my goodness, this is brilliant and looks amazing! Totally making this next time I have a brunch party!
lindsay says
this is so clever! can’t wait to try with udis GF bread!
Faye says
Wow, such a great idea for snacks for the kids too, skipping the nuts of course
Karen R says
Would these keep in the freezer for easy heat up breakfast on the go?
Amanda Finks says
Hi Karen,
Yes. You could freeze them. Just be sure to transfer them to the refrigerator to let them thaw (at least overnight). I reheat by completely wrapping them in paper towels (like I would wrap up a burrito) and microwaving on a low setting. It does’t take long to heat at all. I check it every 10 seconds.
josephine says
Can i omit the maple syrup and also go with less brown sugar? also, when frozen/refrigerated, whats the best way to reheat without it being hard? oven bake? or steamed? thanks!!
Amanda Finks says
Hi Josephine,
You can. It will cook up the same way, but will obviously have a lot less flavor.
When I reheat any bread-like product, I completely wrap it in a paper towel (like I would wrap up a burrito) and microwave on a low setting. It doesn’t take long at all. I check it every 10 seconds.
Mary Beth Elderton says
These are wonderful! I made a batch last week as a test run and am making a triple batch to take to our family gathering this weekend. I made no changes to the recipe at all, except to use almond milk rather than dairy. Perfect! Thank you!
Emma says
Can these be frozen? They’re a great lunch box idea for the kids
Amanda Finks says
Hi Emma,
These were eaten up pretty quickly in my house so I didn’t have the opportunity to freeze any. Although, I believe they will just freeze just fine. I would transfer them to the refrigerator at least a day before you want to have them.
Shelley says
I made these today, and they were delish! I wasn’t sure of how much bread to use, as the recipe says 12oz of bread, and I wasn’t sure how much that was…I guessed, and it came out great!
The only trouble I had was the first batch I used paper liners, and the muffins stuck to the bottom of the papers. The second batch I omitted the papers and just sprayed the pan directly, but they stuck even worse!
What can you recommend to avoid this problem?
Diane LaVon Brooks says
I couldn’t find a recipe with the syrup in with the bread and eggs this one is perfect