This Overnight Blueberry French Toast is the best overnight breakfast casserole recipe! Watch the video showing you how to make this recipe, then scroll to the bottom of this post and print out the recipe so you can make it at home.
This is the best breakfast casserole recipe for a spring or summer brunch. Scratch that. You can make this one all year long!
Of all of my breakfast recipes, Overnight Blueberry French Toast is a favorite in my house for Christmas morning. We make it the night before, refrigerate overnight, and then it’s so easy to pull out and put in the oven while we’re opening gifts! If you’re a true lover of blueberries, you might also like to try my Blueberry Lemon Scones or this Fresh Blueberry Coffee Cake. We love blueberries at my house!
Ingredients needed:
- challah bread
- cream cheese
- blueberries
- eggs
- milk
- vanilla extract
- maple syrup
- white sugar
- cornstarch
- water
- butter
How to Make Blueberry French Toast Casserole:
This blueberry overnight breakfast casserole recipe uses 3 key ingredients that make it awesome: challah bread (my favorite), cream cheese (you can sub mascarpone cheese if you’d like) and blueberries (fresh or frozen). If you cannot locate challah bread, it’s okay to substitute French bread.
Start with adding cubed bread to a greased baking dish. Top the bread with chunks of cream cheese and then blueberries.
More bread is added on top of the cream cheese and blueberries. An egg/milk mixture is poured on top of all of that bread. At this point, you’ll cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
Do you have to let this refrigerate overnight?
It’s covered and refrigerated overnight to let the bread soak up all of that eggy mixture. This is an important step. I like to place a heavy book on top of the plastic wrap- covered casserole so it really gets that bread all down in there in the liquid. You need an overnight soak to really let that egg mixture soak into all of that bread!
In the morning, you can just take the casserole out of the fridge and bake it. I like to take it out of the refrigerator for about 1/2 hour before putting it in the oven.
While it’s baking, you’re going to make a quick and simple, warm blueberry sauce.
Overnight Blueberry French Toast Casserole topped with warm blueberry sauce
Let the blueberry french toast casserole sit for a while before you try to cut into it. You’ll get cleaner slices that way.
The warm blueberry sauce is drizzled on top of warm pieces of the blueberry french toast . And it’s SO GOOD! This would be the perfect breakfast treat to serve for a holiday brunch or family gathering. It’s special enough for that for sure.
I have had this recipe sitting in my email for years… 4 years to be exact! I don’t remember how I came to ask for it. I must have been on Twitter (the big thing back then) tweeting to my friends to send me recommendations for a good brunch casserole for Easter or Mother’s Day.
One of my friends really came through for me because this overnight french toast casserole is a big time winner.
The recipe comes from my friend Janet (an internet friend for many years who I recently met in person!!) She sent me this recipe in an email many years ago… and I’m finally sharing it with you today!
Thank you so much to my friend Janet for sharing this recipe. It’s delicious, and I’m happy to share it with you too. Enjoy!
If you’re looking for more recipes that would be great to serve for brunch, you might like to try my Cinnamon Bun Scones or Susie’s Breakfast Potatoes. Sunday Brunch Cheese Board, Cranberry Mimosas and Brown Sugar Bacon would also be great additions to a brunch!
Overnight Blueberry French Toast
Ingredients
FRENCH TOAST:
- 12 slices (about 1 pound) thick, stale Challah bread (one loaf)
- Two 8-ounce packages cream cheese (or mascarpone cheese)
- 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (or maybe a little more)
- 12 large eggs
- 2 cups milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup maple syrup
BLUEBERRY SAUCE:
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup fresh blueberries
- 1 tablespoon butter
Instructions
- Spray a 9x13-inch baking dish with nonstick spray and set aside.
- Cut the bread into 1-inch pieces. Place half into the prepared baking dish. Cut the cream cheese (or mascarpone) into cubes (or scoop with a small cookie scoop) and place on top of the bread. Top with the blueberries and then the remaining bread cubes.
- Whisk the eggs in a large bowl. Whisk in the milk, vanilla and syrup until well combined. Pour over the bread cubes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight (I like to place a book on top of the plastic wrap to sink the bread into the liquid). The next morning remove the pan from the fridge 1/2 hour before baking. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Remove the plastic wrap, then cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 25 to 30 minutes, or until the center is set and color is golden.
PREPARE THE BLUEBERRY SAUCE:
- In a medium saucepan whisk together the sugar and cornstarch. Add the water and bring to a boil over medium heat. Stir constantly and boil for about 3 minutes. Stir in the blueberries and reduce heat to low. Simmer for about 10 minutes or until the blueberries begin to pop. Stir in the butter until melted. Pour warm sauce over individual servings.
Notes
- I like to use whole milk- it just makes the dish a little bit more decadent all around.
- Mix in chopped fresh, frozen or canned peaches for a peach and blueberry overnight french toast!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I have a question about this recipe. What can I use for a substitute for the wine? This sounds delicious, but we don’t use wine because of a recovering alcoholic.
There is no wine in this recipe!
Awesome recipe! Couldn’t find Challah bread, so used stale Hawaiian Sweet Bread rolls cut into cubes. I think any bread that’s a little dense and dry (stale) soaks up the egg-milk-syrup mixture nicely. Love the way it swells and poofs in the casserole dish. It’s beautiful and delicious.
I prepared this for our Christmas breakfast. It was so delicious, everyone loved it! I substituted stale French bread loaves for the Challah bread. Will definitely make this again. Thank you!
Make this for Christmas morning. I like to add some lemon zest to the sauce.
Does the cream cheese taste sweet? it seems like it might not be good if you don’t sweeten it?
There is plenty of sweetness in the dish- the cream cheese just adds to the richness of it all. So delicious!
I never take the time to write reviews, but this was amazing. I used bakery cinnamon bread, and half cream cheese half marscapone. It was amazing! Fed 5 adults with leftovers. So good!
Would this work if prepared and baked ahead of time and reheated, two days?
Couldn’t be more mixture sit for two days before baking? Or make the entire recipe but not cut into for two days? I need to have it done he’d of time.
I don’t think I would recommend two days ahead… the bread will soak up too much of the custard. And cooked ahead of time and re-heated probably won’t be best.
Would this work if prepared and baked ahead of time and reheated, two days?
On recommendation from a friend I am planning to make this soon. Can you make the blueberry sauce the day before & reheat later?
That should be ok.
Can this be put together and refrigerated 24hrs in advance?
Overnight is best. If you let it sit too long, it will soak everything up and I fear that it might turn out too dry.
It’s wonderful , and I’ve used the frozen blueberries and it worked fine for me ..