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A make-ahead overnight breakfast casserole is great for holidays, weekends, or guests!
This Blueberry French Toast Casserole starts with bread soaked in a creamy custard mixture. It’s layered with blueberries and a sweet cream cheese mixture and finally topped with a crunchy streusel topping and baked in the morning!
Serve it alongside a fresh fruit salad with a fresh cup of coffee!
Blueberry Baked French Toast Casserole
We love French Toast but this make-ahead casserole recipe is super easy and means almost no work in the morning. It’s our usual Christmas breakfast next to Hashbrown Breakfast Casserole (so we have a sweet and a savory option).
- Prep ahead! This french toast casserole is assembled the night before and baked in the morning.
- Swap out the fruit to change up the flavor.
- A great way to use up any kind of leftover bread
- Sweet and delicious with lots of flavor, every person in my family loves this.
- Great for holidays (like Easter breakfast or Christmas), for a lazy Sunday, or when you have guests over.
- Leftovers freeze and reheat well!
Ingredients
BREAD This easy French toast casserole is made with bread that is slightly stale or dried. Regular white bread works (or really, any leftover bread from French bread to dinner rolls) but we get the best results from a soft buttery bread such as brioche or braided bread. Ensure the bread is slightly dry by leaving it overnight uncovered. It can also be dried in an oven at 350°F for about 7-8 minutes.
BERRIES We love blueberries but try raspberries, strawberries, or even leftover cranberries for a sweet-tart bite.
EGG MIXTURE Just like french toast, the bread needs a custard mixture. A combination of egg and milk soak into the bread overnight.
CREAM CHEESE The sweet cream cheese mixture adds tang and richness making it almost like cheesecake! It’s sweetened with a bit of sugar and some lemon zest (orange zest works too).
TOPPING While it’s optional, we love a buttery oat streusel topping. This is similar to a topping that would be sprinkled over fruit crisp.
How to Make Blueberry French Toast Casserole
- Make the cream cheese mixture: Combine the cream cheese, sugar and lemon juice and mix until fluffy (per the recipe below).
- Layer the Casserole: Layer the bread cubes in a casserole dish, add cream cheese and blueberries.
- Top with Custard: Combine eggs & milk to create a custard and pour over the bread cubes.
- Refrigerate overnight.
- Bake: Top with the streusel topping and bake until golden!
Recipe Tips
- Bread should be dry. It can be cut and left on the counter overnight or baked for a few minutes.
- Non-dairy milk works well in this recipe.
- Remove the casserole from the fridge for about 45 minutes before baking (while the oven preheats) to help it bake more evenly.
- The topping is optional but adds great flavor. If you don’t want to add the topping sprinkle with a few slivered almonds for the last 15 minutes of baking.
Leftovers
This blueberry french toast casserole freezes perfectly with just a little preparation!
- To Freeze: Just assemble the first stage, cover it so it is airtight, label it, and pop it in the freezer. Keep the prepared streusel topping in a separate zippered bag in the freezer.
- To Bake: Thaw in the fridge overnight. Bake as directed in the recipe.
More Breakfast Casseroles To Try
- Overnight Breakfast Casserole with Bacon – Easy to prepare.
- Easter Breakfast Bake
- Overnight Sausage Breakfast Casserole – Make-ahead breakfast
- Cranberry Breakfast Bread Pudding
- French Toast Casserole – Quick and easy brunch!
- Overnight Apple Pie French Toast Casserole – Family favorite!
Did you enjoy this Blueberry French Toast Casserole? Be sure to leave a rating and a comment below!
Blueberry French Toast Casserole
Equipment
Ingredients
Casserole
- 12 slices brioche bread or white bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 ½ cups blueberries divided, fresh or frozen
- 12 eggs
- 2 cups milk
- ⅓ cup maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
Topping
- ½ cup oats
- ¼ cup butter softened
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Leave your bread out for a few hours or place it on a tray at 350˚F for about 8 minutes to slightly dry it out.
- In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and lemon juice until fluffy.
- Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish. Layer half of the bread cubes in the pan. Top with cream cheese mixture & half the blueberries. Top with remaining bread and blueberries.
- In a bowl, stir together the eggs, milk, syrup, and lemon zest until well mixed. Pour over the bread cubes, cover with foil, and refrigerate overnight.
- Remove the casserole from the fridge about 45-60 minutes before baking. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Mix topping ingredients together in a small bowl. Sprinkle over casserole just before baking.
- Bake uncovered 45-55 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean and is hot.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Breakfast, Casserole
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
Made this for Christmas morning. It’s super easy and super delicious! I love the simplicity of it and how yummy it is! Will definitely be making this again!
What happens if you forget to take it out of the oven an hour before you have to put it into bake it will it ruin it? I guess I’ll find out.
It will work just fine, you may need to add a little bit more cooking time to ensure the center is set. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!
Dear Ms. Nilsson, I wanted 2 start a Christmas Tradition for my family. So 3 years ago I began baking your French Bread recipe for Breakfast/Brunch. It’s been received w great praise each year. This Christmas season ,2024, finds me w skeletal issues & breaks but still powering thru! However, , didn’t leave time enough 4 overnight soak. My question is, should/can I continue recipe wo the overnite n fridge? Will it still B tasty? And due 2 the pain experiencing, will it B worth carrying thru? This recipe is a BIG HIT. So happy 2 have found. Even tho it’s only been year 3, decided 2 keep going as my Family’s traditional meal. A “SOMETHING: they’ll look forward 2 each year I’m able 2 make. So, my anticipation on if it will still B a good call or not this Season has been a little difficult. So; WHAT IS YOUR SAY N WAITING 2 LET SOAK THEREFORE SKIPPING A YEAR OF TRADITION OR GOING AHEAD WO THE OVERNIGHT SOAK & STILL MAKING MY DEADLINE OF YR. 3, MY/ (YOUR) TRADITIONAL FRENCH BREAD CASSEROLE?
Tuff call but your opinion welcome & most helpful. Sincerely happy found your good food!
Blessings 2 your family from ours!
The soaking time allows the bread to absorb the custard mixture, if the bread is a bit less dry you can likely just let it soak as long as time allows. If it’s an hour or so, I think the recipe will still work well. Let us know how it turns out.
Wishing you and your family a Merry Christmas Jennifer.
Thanks 4 responding so quickly! Appreciate reply. Sounds like I’m doing a soak after all. So happy 4 this advice! Was about 2 make big mistake by rushing it & skipping crucial part!
Thanks a lot. CHRISTMAS IS SAVED! LOL
YAY!! So glad it worked out for you, Merry Christmas!
My family loves this! Great recipe! We have used croissants and it works well. So convenient when the next morning is an early start or rushed.
I made this as a Christmas gift for my neighbors, one of whom has had a very tough year healthwise and has lost a lot of weight. Her husband sent me a photo of the half demolished casserole. Your recipe was a big hit! When their daughter visits from Germany, they want her to make it again for them. I think you can safely say I represent 3 votes of 5 stars. The only changes I made were to use orange zest and juice in place of lemon and I added 1 TBSP vanilla extract to the egg mixture.
I’m so glad they both loved it Mary, how kind of you to make it for them. I love the idea of orange zest and can’t wait to try it.
Has anyone tried to half this recipe? I only need breakfast for 6 people. It seems like you can.
Hi Quinne, if you hit ‘print’ in the recipe card, you can adjust the # of servings which will adjust the ingredient amounts as well. If you are halving the recipe, you will only need an 8×8 size pan. Let us know how it goes!
Hi! I was wondering if low carb Bagels OR low carb bread will work? I love the 647 brand and Royo brand… they both taste like regular bread but have low net carbs. I’m thinking of making this for Xmas with that sub and substituting some of the sugar for stevia… any thoughts, especially on the bread substitution… thanks!
Hi Debbie, I have never tried using low carb bread instead but I think it should still work! You might not need to let the casserole soak for quite as long if the low carb bread is not as dense as regular bread, so keep that in mind. Please let us know how it turns out for you!
has anyone tried this recipe with gluten free bread?
I haven’t personally tried this recipe with gluten free bread but other readers have with great results! We would love to hear how it turns out for you.
what kind of bread is everyone using that gave this a 5 star. the recipe suggested Brioche. someone said they used french and the middle was soggie or it took 1.5 hours instead of the recommended time.
I use bread that is slightly stale or dried. Regular white bread works (or really, any leftover bread from French bread to dinner rolls) but we get the best results from soft buttery bread such as brioche.
Wow! This was great! I only made 1/4 the recipe for two of us, so was not able to make 2 layers of bread and berries. It worked fine, though! And hubby went nuts for it!
A MUST receipe in our home @ Christmas. MANY THANKS for sharing!
I made this for Christmas too, it’s a must in our house as well! Merry Christmas!
Made last Christmas, ’21. This year belts tightened. Live/ From Texas. MAPLE SYRUP NOT A staple. is MOST EXPENSIVE part of receipe. Haven’t seen this asked but: CAN SUBSTITUTE W SYRUP?
Whats best alternative?
Sure, you can use pancake syrup in this recipe!