Blueberry Cream Cheese French Toast Bake
Recently we celebrated my grandson’s baptism, and I hosted a small brunch at my house after the church service. My daughter wanted some easy but filling items to have as a buffet style brunch setup.
I’ve made french toast bakes in the past for Holiday morning breakfasts when everyone has been home. Having an easy go-to recipe for a breakfast item like this insures you don’t have any “hangry” people before your main meal is served. 🙂
I actually served two french toast bakes this day – I will post the other recipe as well. My family loves blueberries, so this just made sense to make. And I love cream cheese, so adding a little to this recipe just made it that much better. You actually don’t even need any toppings or syrup for this french toast back – it’s that good plain!
The ingredients are pretty simple for this dish. As you can see, I like my Danncy Mexican Vanilla. I have used other vanilla extracts, but I prefer this brand by far over any others I’ve tried. It is mild and subtle, but you can definitely taste it in whatever you make – without it overpowering the entire dish.
The biggest thing when making this recipe is to make sure to add your egg mixture to the chopped bread in a large bowl first. This way you can layer your berries and cream cheese in the middle, and also ensure that all the bread soaks up the egg mixture before you put it in the pan.
Assembly is easy (see recipe below for steps) and then just cover and put in the refrigerator until the next morning. Top it with the streusel topping and bake for 45-50 minutes. It’s best to leave it overnight in the refrigerator so that it soaks up all that yummy goodness.
I tend to like my french toast bake a little softer – more like bread pudding so I don’t bake it for the full 50 minutes. But remember all ovens are different, and if you are taking it straight from the fridge to the oven, it may take a bit longer. Just be sure to test the center with a knife for doneness before serving.
You can offer additional fresh blueberries, whipped cream, or syrup for topping if you like.
This recipe could be easily modified to use other berries such as raspberries, strawberries or even blackberries. Just substitute the berry of your choice.
Blueberry Cream Cheese French Toast Bake
Ingredients
- 1 (12-14 ounce) loaf of French bread, sourdough bread, or challah
- 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries if using frozen – they should be thawed
- 8 large eggs
- 2 ¼ cups half & half can substitute whole milk
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ⅕ tsp nutmeg
- ¾ cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Layer
- 4 oz cream cheese – softened
- 1 tbsp powdered sugar
- 3 tbsp half and half
- ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
Steusel Topping
- ½ cup packed light brown sugar
- ½ cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 6 tbsp cold butter – cubed
Instructions
- Grease a 9 x 13 baking pan with butter or cooking spray
- Slice then cut bread into cubes, about 1 inch in size. Put cubes into large bowl and set aside.
- Whisk eggs, the 2 ¼ half and half, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar and vanilla together until no brown sugar lumps remain. Pour over the cubed bread and push cubes down into egg mixture until all the cubes have soaked it up.
- in a small bowl mix your cream cheese layer by adding your cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla and half and half. Mix well until well blended. You want the cream cheese to be spreadable, so adjust the amount of half/half as needed.
- Pour half of the cubed bread/egg mixture into your baking pan
- drop by spoonfuls your cream cheese mixture, and spread over layer of bread/egg mixture
- top with your blueberries – I normally sprinkle them with a cinnamon/sugar mixture to sweeten a bit
- add the remain cubed bread/egg mixture. Cover the pan tightly with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours – overnight is better.
- Streusel Topping – Whisk together the brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Add this mixture to a food processor with a chopping blade. Add the cold butter and pulse until the butter is combined with the dry ingredients and it forms clumps. If you don't have a food processor, you can use two forks to cut the butter into the dry ingredients. If making this ahead, you can store in a plastic storage bag until ready to bake the french toast.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Remove pan from refrigerator. Cover with tin foil that has been sprayed with non-stick spray – make sure to do this or your tin foil will stick to your french toast.
- Bake for 30 minutes. Take out of oven, remove tin foil, and top with your streusel topping. Return to the oven and continue baking an additional 15- 25 minutes. I usually do mine around 45-50 because I like it to be softer – more the consistency of bread pudding. However, if you like yours set a bit more, just bake it a bit longer.
