Overnight Blueberry Baked French Toast
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Easy overnight French toast with cream cheese chunks and studded with juicy blueberries.
Ohhh mama this Blueberry Baked French Toast is amazing
Welcome my last installment of #SpringSweetsWeek! The third and final recipe among a group of 27 other bloggers who have been bringing some amaaaazing recipes to the internet all week.
If you missed recipes earlier this week, Monday brought us praline ice cream, and Wednesday brought us mocha cake with coffee buttercream. Ohhh, mama, were those popular among you readers!
I’m hoping today’s overnight blueberry French toast breakfast casserole (that’s a mouthful) will pique your interest and give you something to grace entertaining breakfasts to come, say, at Easter brunch, on Thanksgiving morning, on Christmas morning, or really, any time you need to have breakfast ready so you don’t have to think about putting it together.
Have you seen the overnight French toast casserole I posted a couple years ago? That recipe is a reader favorite, and it’s pretty simple. Just bread, an egg and milk custard, and some sweetness.
Today’s baked French toast is like that but also all about the extras.
Why you’ll love this Baked Blueberry French Toast
We’ve got blueberries AND cream cheese going on, so it’s a little more involved than that original recipe, but it’s truly very simple. Frozen blueberries (or fresh!) and a block of cream cheese cut into chunks give this French toast bake some dimension without adding a ton of extra work.
That’s the beauty of overnight and make ahead meals. Simple work ahead of time that make popping the dish into the oven in the morning a total breeze. From then on it’s just waiting for the oven to tell you it’s ready!
So let’s chat components of this baked blueberry French toast.
Blueberry French Toast ingredients
- stale bread
- cream cheese
- blueberries
- unsalted butter
- brown sugar
- eggs
- milk
- vanilla extract
- salt
What kind of bread should be used for French toast?
I prefer to use a crusty bread like French bread or Italian bread. The most important part is that the bread is stale.
Should you dry out bread for French toast casserole?
Bread for a casserole like French toast casserole should always be stale. You can stale bread by slicing it and leaving it out overnight or you can bake it briefly in the oven to remove some moisture. Drier bread has the ability to absorb more of the custard ingredients, making for a cohesive casserole.
How to make Blueberry French Toast Casserole
Step 1: Prepare the Bread
You’ll start with about 10-12 ounces of stale bread.
You want to start with stale bread so that the custard and all the other goodies have somewhere to go and don’t just wind up making a soggy mess.
I like to cut up my bread and leave it out overnight on a baking sheet the night before I want to use it. A good 12 hours on the counter with nothing covering it is an easy way to get your bread to go stale!
Step 2: Add Blueberries and Cream Cheese
You’ll add your blueberries and cream cheese chunks in a couple layers. Add about half of the bread, blueberries, and cream cheese to the baking dish and then layer the remaining halves of each of those ingredients on top. That way, you have blueberries and cream cheese in all the nooks and crannies, and not just on the top.
Step 3: Make & Pour the Custard
The custard is a simple combo of melted butter, brown sugar, eggs, milk, and some vanilla extract. Mix it all up in one bowl (with a spout!) and pour it onto the bread/blueberries/cream cheese mixture.
Step 4: Soak & Bake!
You’ll let this sit overnight, or at least 3 hours, and when you’re ready to bake it, all you need to do is preheat the oven. A little over an hour later, and you’ve got a delicious blueberry French toast bake waiting for you and whomever it is you’re feeding. And lots of it!
Serving Blueberry Overnight French Toast
Since this casserole is very carb-heavy, I recommend serving it with some kind of eggs or egg casserole. This make ahead breakfast casserole is a great choice!
How to store Overnight Blueberry French Toast
Store any leftover French toast in the refrigerator.
This French toast casserole reheats very nicely! I have reheated it in the microwave as well as the air fryer depending on how moist the slice is that I’m reheating.
Blueberry French Toast Casserole FAQs
If your casserole is soggy, it’s likely you didn’t bake it long enough for the custard to set up. It’s possible the bread you used wasn’t stale enough, either.
French toast can be sweet OR savory. The key component to French toast is the egg custard, so there is always space for savory ingredients!
We LOVED this French toast casserole. It was just like having a stack of blueberry French toast, but in an easier form. No prepping the custard, dipping each slice, cooking it, and then doing something extra fancy with the blueberries like making a compote to drizzle on top.
Just simple, flavorful, juicy bites of blueberry with creamy notes from the cream cheese. It’s kind of like having cream cheese stuffed French toast casserole, but again, wayyyyy less work.
And even better? This was totally toddler approved! The older one said “this is the best crunch toast ever!” And I think that’s testament enough that you need this recipe in your back pocket for your next breakfast or brunch entertainment.
Baked Blueberry Overnight French Toast
Ingredients
- 10-12 ounces (283-340g) stale1 French bread (or other crusty bread) cut into large cubes (about 8-9 cups of bread)
- 8 ounces (224g) cream cheese cut into small chunks
- 10 ounces (283g) blueberries (fresh or frozen2) about 2 cups
- ¼ cup (58g) unsalted butter melted
- 1 cup (200g) firmly packed light brown sugar
- 8 large eggs
- 1 and ½ cups (360mL) milk any, but I prefer whole cow
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Spray a 2 quart casserole or 9" x 13" baking dish with non-stick spray. Place half of the bread cubes in the prepared baking dish. Scatter half of the cream cheese and half of the blueberries. Repeat with remaining halves of each of the ingredients.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter and brown sugar. Add the eggs, milk, vanilla extract, and salt, and whisk again until everything is completely combined.
- Pour the egg mixture over the bread, cover with a lid or foil, and allow to rest in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours or overnight.
- When you are ready to bake the casserole, preheat the oven to 350ºF (177ºC). Bake the casserole for 60 to 70 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the egg mixture looks set.
Notes
- Stale bread: the reason for stale bread is because you want the bread to soak up all of the liquid ingredients. Stale bread has far less moisture in it, allowing for intake of the custard. I usually cut up my bread and let it sit out during the day or even overnight an extra night, if I have that much advance planning.
- Frozen blueberries: if using frozen, no need to thaw.
Nutrition Disclosure
All nutritional values are approximate and provided to the reader as a courtesy. Changing ingredients and/or quantities will alter the estimated nutritional calculations.
What a great weekend breakfast. We will be in Florida blueberry season soon and I can’t wait to make this recipe!
So jealous, Ellen!!
This has me thankful that it’s the weekend! I actually have time to make it!
I hope you do and I hope you love it!
Can you freeze this before baking for later?
Yes– you can freeze it after step 3, then allow it to thaw before baking.
Easy and delicious! Definitely a crowd pleaser!