French toast roll ups are a fun take on traditional French toast. Make this for an easy kid-friendly breakfast or fun brunch recipe.
When I was younger, Sunday morning breakfast was always a thing in our house. We’d go to church and then come home and make a big breakfast and then go (usually) relax on the couch.
For whatever reason, I got out of that habit as I got older and Burken and I would just eat whatever we wanted for Sunday morning breakfast. Now that Kennedy is here, she tends to eat a bigger breakfast on the weekends.
While we still haven’t quite gotten into the big breakfast routine in our household, Kennedy sure does love the bigger breakfasts. She loves waffles and banana bread and all kinds of fruit. But she especially loved these French toast roll ups.
They’re quite easy to make, and the recipe was inspired by this one from The Baker Mama.
Since Kennedy would be mowing through these French toast roll ups, I wanted to keep the sugar level down. Also for my own sake as too much refined sugar does me no good. I also didn’t want to have to pull out the frying pan, so I opted for something a little easier, and also makes the roll ups turn out really fun.
How to make French toast roll ups
Step 1: Roll your bread
There’s kind of a two-fold roll happening here. First the bread of your choice needs to be flattened.
I opted for a more traditional sandwich bread because it would soak up the traditional French toast egg mixture better than say, a whole grain bread. I saw this Sara Lee white bread made with whole grain and thought it would be the perfect combination of soft and slightly healthier.
Using a rolling pin, flatten each piece of bread. This makes the rolling process a whole lot simpler. Then spread each piece of bread with some butter and roll tightly from one end to the other.
Don’t skip the butter here. It’s really what holds the bread roll together.
Step 2: Assembling the French toast roll ups
Using a springform pan, start placing the roll ups along the outside and bottom of the pan. You can use a cake pan here as well, but the springform pan was taller than a traditional cake pan. It also makes for easy removal of the outside of the pan so that you can have a beautiful looking French toast roll up “cake”.
I did not do this on the first round of testing this recipe, so this will be important before moving on to the next step. Place a cookie sheet under your springform pan. Then wrap the pan with tin foil, securing where the outside and bottom of the pan meet.
This helps keep things cleaner because now we’re pouring a egg, milk and pure maple syrup mixture over the first layer of bread.
Sprinkle some cinnamon sugar over the top and then repeat with the remaining bread roll ups, egg mixture and sugar.
Step 3: Bake and Brunch
In the recipe I referenced earlier in this blog post, she fries the roll ups. But I didn’t feel like I had time for that with a toddler and wanted to make things super simple on myself.
Hence the springform pan and baking the French toast roll ups instead. This makes the whole process hands off once you’ve assembled everything.
Baking solidifies the egg mixture (but doesn’t make it eggy) and provides a nice cinnamon sugar crust topping to this delectable breakfast/brunch option.
Not to mention when the outside of the springform pan comes off you have a gorgeous brunch “cake” to take to your next gathering.
Kennedy was in love with these little roll ups, so I will take that as a total hit! It does make a lot, so either freeze part of it, or take it to a small family gathering if you’d like everyone else to be able to enjoy!
Looking for more easy breakfast ideas? Check these out:
Healthy chocolate chip pumpkin bread
Raspberry white chocolate scones
- 24 slices white sandwich bread
- Spreadable butter
- 6 eggs
- ½ cup milk
- ⅓ cup pure maple syrup
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- ¼ tsp. cardamom
- ¼ tsp. allspice
- 1 ½ Tbsp. cinnamon divided
- 4 Tbsp. raw cane sugar
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Preheat oven to 375°F and spray a 9” springform pan with cooking spray. Wrap the bottom and outside of the pan with foil and place on a baking sheet.
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Roll each slice of bread to about ⅛” thick. Spread with a thin layer of butter and roll up tightly. Place half of the rolled up pieces of bread around the outside of the prepared pan, working your way inward.
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In a large bowl, whisk the eggs. Add the pure maple syrup, cardamom, allspice, ½ Tbsp. cinnamon and whisk until combined. Pour half the mixture over the bread.
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In a small bowl, stir together the remaining 1 Tbsp. cinnamon and raw cane sugar.
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Sprinkle half the mixture over the top of the bread. Repeat the process with the remaining bread, egg and cinnamon mixtures.
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Cover the pan with tin foil and bake for 25 minutes, remove the tin foil and continue baking for an additional 5 minutes until the bread is nicely browned.
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Let cool slightly before removing the outside of the springform pan.
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Pull apart the French toast and dip in additional syrup as desired.
*Note: you can bake this in a cake pan, but it will be harder to pull the French toast roll ups out of the pan to look like a cake.
**Note: this makes quite a bit of French toast. If this is too much for your family, let cool completely and freeze what you don’t finish.
