Pumpkin Challah French Toast is a delicious and decadent fall breakfast that your family will love. Soak challah bread in a pumpkin spice batter and pan fry until golden.
Weeknight-easy
Easy cleanup
You’ll Learn: The secret to perfectly cooked French toast with rich fall flavors
Worth It: A reliable family favorite that even picky eaters love
Bonus: Leftovers keep and reheat wonderfully
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Great for brunch – This challah bread french toast recipe is my favorite for a brunch with family or friends for a special occasion! It’s the perfect sweet treat.
- Perfect fall breakfast – The pumpkin flavor is so delicious with the french toast. It tastes like pumpkin pie!
- Family friendly – I love getting a loaf of challah bread and using it all to make this French toast. It’s the perfect size for the whole family to enjoy.
Serving Suggestions
We served this French toast with oven bacon and warm maple syrup. It would also be delicious with my homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte Syrup in place of maple syrup. You can add any toppings you would like, such as berries, pecans, walnuts, or chocolate chips. A bit of orange zest would also be delicious on top.
For a coffee beverage alongside your french toast, you could make some cold brew or an iced shaken espresso.
To fill out your brunch spread, you could make a cottage cheese egg bake or this spinach feta quiche.
Ingredients
- Loaf of challah – Challah bread is my favorite for this french toast because it is the perfect flavor and texture. You can use fresh challah bread or day-old challah
- Whole milk – I definitely recommend whole milk for the creamiest and best results
- Pumpkin puree – the pumpkin puree adds a great texture to the mixture for your french toast
- Eggs – eggs bring together the whole french toast mixture
- Maple syrup – I love adding maple syrup to the mixture for extra sweetness
- Vanilla extract – you can use vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste. If you like the flavor of almond extract, you could also use that
- Pumpkin pie spice – the spice blend will add all the quintessential pumpkin fall flavors
Ingredient Substitutions
If you don’t have challah bread, you can also use another type of bread instead. Brioche is a great option.
Whole milk is best for this recipe, but you could make it with a dairy free milk as well if needed. To make it even creamier, you could use heavy cream or half and half instead.
If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice, you can make your own with cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. I don’t find that this mixture needs salt, but you can add a pinch if you would like.
Instead of maple syrup, you could use brown sugar. It will caramelize the slices of french toast a bit.
How to make
Step 1: prepare liquid mixture
Cut the loaf of challah bread into ¾ inch thick slices.
Add 3/4 cup milk, pumpkin puree, large eggs, maple syrup, pure vanilla extract and pumpkin pie spice to a shallow bowl (Image 1). Whisk to combine all of the ingredients evenly (Image 2).
Step 2: Soak Challah Bread and Cook
Place slices of challah bread into the egg mixture and soak for 1-2 minutes per side – careful not to leave the bread in too long because it can start to break apart (Image 3).
While the first challah slices of bread are soaking, heat a non-stick frying pan or flat top griddle over medium heat. Add a thin layer of oil or butter.
Place soaked challah slices in the pan and cook for about 2 mins each side – you want a golden brown crust on the outside (Image 4).
Step 3: Finish Cooking and Serve
Add more oil or melt butter to the skillet or griddle between each set of slices. Once your pan is warm you may want to turn the heat down to medium-low heat to prevent the french toast from burning.
Serve immediately with salted or unsalted butter, a teaspoon of powdered sugar and a few tablespoons of maple syrup or place on a baking dish in the oven on a low temperature (175F) to keep warm until you are ready to serve.
Storage and reheating
Once cooked, allow the leftover challah bread French toast to cool completely before covering and storing in the refrigerator. Store in the fridge for up to 5 days and reheat on the stove, or in the toaster oven or oven.
Check out these other delicious recipes using pumpkin puree!
If you’re looking for another baked french toast recipe, try this easy french toast casserole.
You can find the full recipe below. If you make this recipe, please rate and review it in the comments, or share it with me on Instagram!
You can find the full recipe below. If you make this recipe, please rate and review it in the comments, or share it with me on Instagram!
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Recipe
Pumpkin Challah French Toast
Ingredients
- 1 loaf challah bread
- 3/4 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
- 2 eggs
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
Instructions
- Cut challah bread into ¾ inch thick slices.
- Add milk, pumpkin puree, eggs, maple syrup, vanilla extract and pumpkin pie spice to a shallow bowl. Whisk to combine all of the ingredients evenly.
- Place slices of challah bread into the wet mixture and soak for 1-2 minutes per side – careful not to leave the bread in too long because it can start to break apart.
- While the first slices of bread are soaking, heat a non-stick frying pan or flat top griddle over medium heat. Add a thin layer of oil or butter.
- Place bread in the pan and cook for about 2 minutes each side – you want a golden brown crust on the outside.
- Add more oil or butter to the pan or griddle between each set of slices. ** Once your pan is warm you may want to turn the heat down to medium-low to prevent the french toast from burning.
- Serve immediately with butter, powdered sugar and maple syrup or place in the oven on a low temperature (175F) to keep warm until you are ready to serve.
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
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