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Overnight Blueberry French Toast Casserole recipe that can be assembled ahead of time and baked for breakfast or brunch! Topped with a cinnamon-scented streusel, this is sure to become your go-to breakfast casserole.
Cheesecake + French Toast? Someone pinch me, I’m in heaven!
This blueberry French toast casserole is the best kind. A lazy sort of casserole and I have no shame in saying that those are the best kind. Frozen or fresh blueberries, a brick of cream cheese, a loaf of slightly stale bread, and few other simple ingredients. And would you believe that all of this blueberry french toast casserole disappeared in less than 48 hours?
Granted I boxed up most of it to get it out of the house. After the first few bites, I knew there was a very real possibility that hubby would walk in on me holding the entire baking dish full of casserole just going to town with a spoon.
It’s dangerous I tell you!
But it’s my favorite kind of thing to serve for brunch. It’s sure to please even the pickiest guests and all you really need on the side is maybe some homemade egg bites and a mango fruit salad with raspberries, strawberries and blackberries on the side.
When I was little, my mom always sweetened our french toast custard, so there was no need for a drizzle of maple syrup or anything else on top. I love that concept. I find adding maple syrup at the end takes away from the actual flavors and leaves you with just one obnoxiously sweet note. But that’s probably just me! So keep that in mind when you’re making this. For us, the casserole was sweet enough as is.
You can even bake individual portions like I do for my French toast cups.
Ingredients for blueberry French toast casserole
- bread: I used challah bread because I love the flavor the way it pronounces that eggy flavor in french toast. There are many different types of bread you can use. French bread, whole wheat, sourdough, or even brioche bread works great here. Day-old bread works best for homemade blueberry french toast casserole and just let it sit out so that it has a chance to get a little stale. Make 1-inch bread cubes.
- blueberries: both fresh berries and frozen blueberries will work for this recipe.
- cream cheese: we’ll drop the cream cheese in a dollop throughout the casserole
- milk/cream: I use regular milk and cream for this recipe. You can even replace the cow’s milk with almond milk, soy, cashew, or even coconut milk.
- sugar: adds sweetness to the overall recipe
- large eggs: for the custard egg mixture. It adds structure and stability to the base
- extract and spices: you’ll need vanilla extract, cinnamon, and a pinch of nutmeg is my secret ingredient to make the best blueberry French toast casserole
- maple syrup: or golden syrup work stop sweeten the custard.
- flour: for the streusel topping
- butter: for the crumble topping
Recipe Tips
I always get asked about freezing the leftovers, so I want to mention, I went ahead and froze a large chunk of it, and it held up fine. I suggest defrosting it in the refrigerator overnight and reheating it in a warm oven to bring it back to its full glory. You can also warm it up in the microwave if you don’t mind the streusel losing some of the crunch.
Speckles of juicy, bursting blueberries, chunks of tangy sweet cheesecake and all the things we love about french toast but in a casserole form. Who wouldn’t like that?
Blueberry Cheesecake French Toast Casserole
Ingredients
blueberry cheesecake french toast casserole:
- 1 (14-ounce) challah bread French bread, brioche or sourdough
- 1 ¼ cup wild blueberries fresh or frozen
- 1 (8-ounce) cream cheese cut into cubes
- 2 cups milk
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- 8 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ cup maple syrup or golden syrup
streusel topping:
- ⅓ cup all purpose flour
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar
- 5 tablespoons salted butter cold and cubed
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- LAYER: Spray a 9×13-inch baking dish with non-stick spray. Place half the diced bread in the pan in an even layer. Sprinkle half the blueberries and half the cubed cream cheese, repeat the layers starting with bread and ending with cream cheese; set aside.
- CUSTARD: In a medium bowl, whisk together all the remaining casserole ingredients. Pour the prepared custard over the bread. Cover the casserole dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours and ideally, overnight.
- STRUESEL: combine streusel ingredients in a small bowl. Using your fingertips, mix together until the butter breaks down into smaller pieces. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours and ideally, overnight. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350ºF. Sprinkle the prepared streusel mixture over the casserole evenly.
- BAKE: Bake the casserole for 48-55 minutes or until the casserole is no longer jiggly. You may need to tent the casserole with a piece of foil if it starts browning too quickly around the 30-40 minute mark, I didn't.
- SERVE: Let cool for several minutes before slicing and serving! Fresh fruit and whipped cream would go great with this!
Notes
- if you have unsalted butter, just add a small pinch of salt to the streusel topping mixture.
- You can make this gluten-free by using gluten-free bread/flour. To make it dairy-free you can replace the milk/cream with almond, soy, cashew, or coconut milk. To give it a little richness, you can swap the heavy cream amount for equal parts coconut cream.
- I made this with English Golden Syrup (affiliate link) that I had on hand for another recipe and it was perfect. Golden syrup is made from cane sugar and is similar to corn syrup.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like This? Leave a comment & rating below!
Delicious recipe! Just be prepared for a longer cook time because it takes a lot longer than the stated cook time to get it to the point where it’s not jiggly anymore. Worth it, though!
Planning on making this this weekend! How long will it stay good in the refrigerator before baking it?
It looks like there is a problem with the ingredients. Butter & cinnamon amounts are listed twice. Is this correct?
My apologies, and thank you for catching that! We recently implemented a new site design, and a couple of the recipes had a few minor glitches, I suggest hadn’t caught this one yet!
This is a truly delicious recipe. I made this today for family gathering of ten so I needed to double the recipe. I only had one package of cream cheese but it was fine. The only issues I had was that it cooked really slow so I finally got impatient and raised the temperature to three seventy five. And secondly, me and a couple of my guests could taste the almond extract so I felt that half the amount would have been enough. Other than that, it was cooked perfectly and tasted amazing. Our family raved about it! Thank you for the fabulous recipe.
Wow! This recipe sounds fantastic! A bit disappointing not to see it plated so I can drool over it, but I’m I’m dying to make it soon.
Evetime I make one of your skillet chicken/cream sauce recipes my husband says it’s the best dish I’ve EVER made. And he means it Everytime. You have turned me into a stellar cook in just weeks! Thank you, thank you!!!!
Lol! I wish I’d had the chance to take a sliced picture but unfortunately, I bit off way too much that day and had to crank out multiple recipes and just wasn’t able to squeeze in a sliced shot! I’ll definitely update with a plated pic when I make this again! 🙂 And thank you so much for all your kind words! It makes me sooo happy to hear you and hubby have been enjoying some of the other recipes on the blog! <3