Every bite of blueberry French toast casserole is full of texture and flavor… from the soft custard-soaked bread and juicy blueberries to the crisp brown sugar streusel on top. This make-ahead breakfast casserole benefits from an overnight rest in the refrigerator, so all you need to do in the morning is pop it in the oven.
I originally published this recipe in 2015, and I’ve since updated it to include new photos and extra success tips. This blueberry French toast casserole has become one of my most-loved make-ahead breakfast recipes for a reason.
In fact, this recipe is such a fan favorite, that it deserved a spot in print! You’ll also find a version of this recipe in my cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
I always thought nothing could beat the smell of homemade cinnamon rolls coming from the kitchen. Until I made a pan of this blueberry French toast casserole.
This make-ahead recipe is best made a day in advance. Do all your slicing, whisking, and combining the day before. Then top with an easy crumb streusel before baking it the next morning. Much more appealing than standing over your griddle making individual slices of French toast!
The result is a breakfast casserole with layers of flavor and texture: soft custardy bread, bursts of blueberries, and a crisp brown sugar streusel on top. The smell alone will bring everyone into the kitchen.
Whether you’re planning Christmas breakfast, Easter brunch, Mother’s Day, or a weekend family breakfast, this overnight French toast bake is always a hit.
Why You’ll Love This Make-Ahead Breakfast
- Make-ahead friendly: Assemble the night before and bake in the morning
- Perfect for brunch: Feeds a crowd with minimal effort
- Great texture: Soft custard-soaked bread with crisp streusel topping
- Juicy bursts of berries: Fresh or frozen blueberries work
- Easy to customize: Try other berries or seasonal fruit
One reader, Carole, commented: “The best French toast casserole I have ever made—and I’ve made several! My family loved it. ★★★★★”
Another reader, Michelle, commented: “I made this for Easter brunch. It was sooooo good! I wasn’t sure about the blueberries at first, but it was delicious! Everyone loved it! It was the only dish everyone went back to for seconds. Definitely recommend making this! ★★★★★”
Another reader, Cieta, commented: “I have been making this recipe for 10 years now. Thank you! It is always the most popular brunch item, the best! ★★★★★”
What Is the Best Bread for Blueberry French Toast Casserole?
Bread is the foundation of this recipe, so choose something sturdy and flavorful. Great options include:
- Challah
- Brioche
- Sourdough
- French bread
- Artisan bread
Bread to avoid: Avoid flimsy sliced sandwich bread because it tends to fall apart once it’s been soaked in the custard.
Success Tip
Whatever type of bread you choose, make sure it’s slightly stale and crusty. Slice it into cubes and let it sit for about a day before using.
Why?
Slightly stale bread works best because it absorbs the egg mixture more easily. If the bread cubes don’t absorb all the custard, your casserole will end up with a dry top and a soggy bottom—not ideal! We recommend using day-old bread for homemade brioche French toast for the same reason.
If you forgot to let it sit out and your bread is fresh, all is not lost. Cube it and toast it briefly in the oven to dry it out.
Here’s Everything Else You Need
After you have your slightly stale cubes of bread, whisk together the custard.
- Blueberries: You can use either fresh or frozen berries here, whatever’s convenient!
- Eggs: You need 8 large eggs.
- Milk & Heavy Cream: I use whole milk in this recipe, but you can use lower-fat or nondairy milk if necessary. Add a bit of cream, too, because it makes for a richer, creamier custard.
- Brown Sugar: With its higher molasses content, brown sugar is the best choice for sweetening this breakfast bread pudding.
- Lemon Zest: A little brightness that makes the blueberries pop.
- Vanilla Extract, Cinnamon, & Salt: The flavor-enhancers no French toast casserole should be without.
Brown Sugar Streusel Topping
The crumb topping is what really takes this casserole from good to unbelievable.
While it’s a simple mixture of just 4 ingredients—brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and butter—when baked, it creates a lightly crisp, buttery topping that contrasts beautifully with the soft custard-soaked bread.
It’s quick and easy, and similar to how I make the crumb topping for coffee cake. Use a pastry blender (or two forks) to cut cold cubed butter into the dry ingredients. You can chill this overnight, too, then sprinkle it on the casserole just before baking.
What to Serve With Blueberry French Toast Casserole
Serve your blueberry French toast casserole with maple syrup, more fresh berries, homemade blueberry sauce topping, or a generous dusting of confectioners’ sugar.
Because this dish is sweet and rich, it pairs nicely with something savory. Perfect brunch pairings include:
- Easy Breakfast Casserole (another make-ahead recipe)
- Ham & Cheese Scones
- Ham & Potato Casserole
- Breakfast Strata
- Frittata or Breakfast Egg Muffins (individual-sized frittatas!)
- Maple Chicken Breakfast Sausage
Here’s a shortcut for creating “stale” crusty bread for French toast casserole: Spread the bread chunks on a lined baking sheet and toast in a 300°F (149°C) oven for 10 minutes. Your bread is now slightly dried out and ready to soak up all that egg custard.
Yes. In place of the blueberries, try strawberries, raspberries, or blackberries. Or try a medley of berries as I do for berries & cream French toast casserole. In the fall, try it with cranberries or thinly sliced apples or pears.
Yes, you can omit the berries & lemon zest for a classic/plain French toast casserole. If you have a copy of Sally’s Baking 101, see page 206 (French Toast Casserole: 3 Ways) for a gingerbread variation perfect for the holidays!
You don’t need to prepare the casserole in advance, but I highly recommend you do. It will need to rest for at least 3 hours, but overnight is best. This allows the bread to really soak up the custard. Both you and your blueberry French toast casserole can then get a good night’s rest… it’ll see you in the morning!
Unbelievable Blueberry French Toast Casserole
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes (plus overnight time)
- Yield: serves 12
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This unbelievable blueberry French toast casserole is made with soft custard-soaked bread, sweet blueberries, and a buttery brown sugar streusel topping. The casserole benefits from sitting in the refrigerator overnight before baking, so this is an excellent make-ahead breakfast recipe! This recipe is also in my cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
Ingredients
- 1 (12–14-ounce/340–400g) loaf of sturdy day-old bread, such as French bread, sourdough, brioche, or challah, cut in 1-inch cubes*
- 1 cup (140g) fresh or frozen blueberries
- 2 cups (480g/ml) whole milk
- 8 large eggs
- 1/2 cup (120g/ml) heavy cream
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
- pinch of salt
Crumb Topping
- 1/3 cup (67g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/3 cup (42g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 6 Tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
- optional: extra blueberries, maple syrup, and/or confectioners’ sugar for topping
Instructions
- Grease a 9×13-inch pan or any 3.5—4-quart baking dish with butter or nonstick spray. Spread the cubed bread in the pan and sprinkle evenly with blueberries. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk the milk, eggs, heavy cream, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, lemon zest, and salt until combined. Pour over the bread. Cover the pan tightly and refrigerate for 3–24 hours. Overnight is best.
- Make the crumb topping: In a medium bowl, mix the brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Add the cold butter. Using a pastry blender or two forks, cut the butter into the brown sugar mixture until pea-sized crumbles form. Cover and refrigerate the topping for at least 15 minutes or up to 1 day. Chilling it helps ensure that it won’t sink into the casserole.
- Remove the casserole from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes while you preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C).
- Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the casserole. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes. Cover loosely with aluminum foil and continue to bake until the center appears set, 25 to 35 minutes more.
- Cool the casserole for 5 minutes before serving. Store tightly covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Prepare the topping in advance, cover tightly, and store in the refrigerator for up to 1 day. Sprinkle over the soaked bread before baking. For freezing, prepare the recipe through step 4 (without preheating the oven), and freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then bake as directed. Baked casserole can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and warm up in a 350°F (177°C) oven for 35 minutes or until warm in the center.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 9×13-inch Baking Pan | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk
- Half Batch: This recipe can easily be halved in an 8-inch baking pan or 9-inch baking pan. The bake time will be slightly less, around 30–35 minutes.
- Bread: Day-old, crusty bread is perfect for French toast casseroles so it can soak up the egg custard. I typically use a loaf of challah bread that I slice and let sit out overnight. If you only have fresh bread, here’s a shortcut for creating “stale” crusty bread: Spread the bread chunks on a baking sheet and toast in a 300°F (149°C) oven for 10 minutes.
- Fruit: Instead of blueberries, try strawberries, raspberries, or blackberries. In the fall, try cranberries or thinly sliced apples or pears. So many options!
Reader Comments and Reviews
A few years ago, a friend brought blueberry French toast casserole with cream cheese to a brunch and I’ve been chasing that high ever since. Any suggestions for this addition? Plain cold cream cheese cut into pieces fine? Or maybe softened and sweetened and dropped in dollops?
Hi Lily, yes, we have 2 recipes like that you could try! One is this berries and cream French toast casserole, and second is this baked cream cheese French toast casserole. Hope one of them lives up to your memory!
First time I have a suggestion that would make a Sally recipe better. 😛 Place half of the bread slices in the pan. Cut up 2 8-oz bars of cream cheese into cubes and sprinkle on the bread, followed by blueberries, then the rest of the bread, and more blueberries. Once baked, it’s also good to top with a berry compote or custard!
Another delicious recipe. I made this for New Year’s Day brunch and my family loved it. I served it with whipped cream, fresh blueberries and strawberries, and of course some bacon. My kids knew immediately it was a Sally recipe ☺️ Thank you for another hit.
would it be too long to make it on thursday night to serve on
saturday morning? how do you suggest I make that work.
Hi Suzanne, for that length of time, you could make the casserole Thursday, allow it to chill overnight and bake on Friday, and then reheat the baked casserole again on Saturday morning before serving. We don’t recommend letting it sit from Thursday until Saturday morning. Or for freezing options, see recipe Notes for details.
thank you! I will do that and I will let you know how it goes.. It looks delish, I know it will be a hit!
I can’t wait to make the recipe. I plan on making this recipe during Christmas break. I am wondering if you have ever made it with frozen cherries.
Cherries sound delicious! Let us know if you give it a try.
Absolutely delicious recipe! I found this a couple months ago and we have made it numerous times since. I have also shared this recipe with several family and friends. This will be our Christmas breakfast go to from now on. I have made both full and half batches. I have used 1% milk with good success and also added cream to the milk since I rarely have whole milk in my home. The streusel topping is really what puts this recipe over the top. Thanks for another great recipe. PS: I made your white wedding cake this summer and it was a huge hit.
Made this last night and served it this morning as our out of town guests came in from the airport along with hot maple syrup and crispy bacon. It was a HUGE hit. Will be making again. I cut down the sugar in the custard to half cup and it was still sweet enough.
How many slices of bread would be needed for one casserole? (I don’t know how many 12 ounces would be )
Hi Lola, it depends on how big your slices are, but you’ll want about 12 cups of cubed bread. A little more or less is OK.
Hi Sally, been using your site as my go-to for baking as of late – always wonderful! Wondering if this recipe is able to adapt to muffins possibly? Have a large party upcoming and will be more of a finger-food situation than knife-and-fork (although very casual so messy is ok lol).
Thanks!!
Hi Emily Jean! You could definitely bake this French toast casserole in a muffin tin. It may be a little tricky to evenly disperse the egg mixture, but it shouldn’t be a huge issue. We’re unsure of the bake time. Let us know how it goes!
Made this for a girlfriends breakfast, everyone loved it. What about reheating in the microwave?
Oh my! This is utterly delicious; can’t have just one piece! The streusel topping makes this recipe outstanding- it’s not the usual soggy French toast recipe. This will be made often at our house!!!
This was absolutely yummy! Definitely on my make-it-again list, especially when family comes to visit. The local grocery store gives our Church pantry day-old bread. This loaf was really stale and we were going to have to toss it, so it wouldn’t go to waste I thought it would be perfect for this recipe. I added extra milk and 1/2 cup of sour cream, since it was so dry. I also used an extra cup of raspberries along with the blueberries and increased the amount of streusel. My problem is that I can’t leave a recipe alone, always have to experiment! I used a 9×13 pan instead of two 8-9 squares. Actually, it was very easy to divide up into pieces, once it had cooled. I wrapped them in plastic wrap, bagged and froze them. So I will use the big pan next time as well.
I have made this recipe sooo many times now. It has become a tradition to have on the first and last day of school- by my kid’s request! My daughter loves to have leftovers cold in her school lunch too. Thank you!
Haven’t tried this yet, but it looks absolutely wonderful! However, it is on the menu! It is just my husband and me, and sometimes our daughter and husband visit, so when you say the recipe could be halved, what about making it and dividing it between two 9″ pans? Serve one and freeze the other?
Hi Barbara, yes, you can definitely do that! Follow the freezing directions found in the Notes section. Enjoy!
Absolutely the best. As written, I would have rated it 4-1/2 stars. I don’t like a lot of sugar in my food. The first change I made was to omit the 3/4 cup of light brown sugar that gets mixed in the egg milk mixture. Didn’t miss it at all. I used a 14 ounce brioche loaf. I placed approximately half the bread cubes in the pan and sprinkled lightly with unsweetened flaked coconut. Would have liked to sprinkle some slivered almonds on the coconut but hubby doesn’t like almonds. Next time, will sprinkle some chopped walnuts over the coconut. I didn’t make the struesel topping but did mix 1/4 cup of light brown sugar with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and pinch of nutmeg. Sprinkled this on top just prior to baking. At 45 minutes it was cooked perfectly. I let it stand for 10 minutes before slicing. Oh my, this made the best dinner. Served it with maple syrup and a selection of fresh fruit.
This is my family’s favorite! I switch up the berries to whatever I have on hand. The fave combo is blueberries and raspberries. I’ve used frozen and fresh without altering liquid measurements. It’s always perfect! I have only used whole milk the first time I made it. I always use coconut milk (from the carton) now and it’s perfect too if someone needs a dairy free option. Another way I’ve done it is with leftover croissants. Its sooo delicious. This is such a versatile recipe. Thank you!!!
I cannot emphasize enough how much I love this recipe! I’ve made it 4-5 times and every time I get compliments nonstop about how much others enjoy it. I typically use sourdough bread or french bread and either way it turns out amazing. Easy to make and heat up and great for leftovers.
This recipe is a winner! It’s not hard but it has a very special feel to is. I always request my family to make it for mothers day. My little daughter always asks for it for her birthday.
I went ahead and made it the first time with heavy whipping cream although the team here suggested not to do so. It came out amazing with a very creamy and rich filling. Today I made it with milk and it was also delicious, however, the bread didn’t seem to soak as well in milk as it did the heavy whipping cream. So although substituting heavy whipping cream makes it more decadent, it’s now my preferred method.
I have a small B&B and I have been making this Blueberry French Toast bake often. Guest love it and it comes out perfectly delicious ! Thank you..one of my favorite recipes…
Hi Sally,
Can I substitute heavy whipping cream for the milk? Will this change the taste or texture too much?
Hi Emily, heavy whipping cream would yield a very rich and thick French toast casserole. We recommend sticking with milk.
Amazingly delicious!! Followed recipe to perfection!!
This is the perfect combinations of flavors, I added some chopped walnuts to the topping sooooo good. Love all your recipes
Can you use blueberry pie filling
Hi Tammy, blueberry pie filling would be a bit too sweet for this French toast casserole. You could certainly try it, but you may want to reduce the sugar from other parts of the recipe.
Question: how do you offset the liquid from using frozen blueberries?
Hi Beth, I’ve never had an issue switching to frozen blueberries in this recipe– with no changes. If you’re concerned, try reducing the milk down to 1 and 3/4 cups (420ml).
Yummy! I’ll add more berries but this is easy and delicious! Thx! Ps. I used oat milk and gf flour. My kids never noticed and loved it!
Can you mix different berries together with this recipe?
Absolutely!
I make this when my adult kids and their spouses are visiting. Everyone LOVES it. It reheats well (if there’s any left over which is rare). I love that I can make it the night before and just pop it in the oven in the morning.
i make a similar dish every year with out the topping. I am looking forward to making this for our early christmas breakfast tomorrow wiht my father. 🙂
If we only have 1-2 hours to refrigerate before baking is that ok? Is there something different I should do to make the timing work out?
Hi Kelly! It will still be delicious, but a bit less soft. Hope it’s a hit!
Hello. This recipe sounds wonderful. My sister’s birthday is December 23. And I always make a special blueberry (her favorite) breakfast entree. This recipe will be celebrated this year! Blessings to all. And stay safe.
Michelle in Maine
Hi Michelle, Thanks for choosing this recipe for her birthday celebration! Let us know how she likes it.
Love this recipe. It is beyond yummy and was easy to make. Question: i baked it for 50 minutes and it had risen to just above the sides of a 9×13 pan, but once it cooled it was only about 1/3 the way up the side. Did O not bake it long enough or is that standard?
Hi Peggy, If it puffed up a lot during baking it’s completely normal for it to sink a bit as it cools. We are glad you enjoyed it!
Hi Sally!
I make breakfast once a month for all my farmers and vendors at our farmers market. Can I bake this, cool, refrigerate and reheat the next day. It’s my only option.
We don’t see why that would be an issue! Warm up in a 350°F (177°C) for 35 minutes or until warm in the center. Hope it’s a hit!
I have been making this recipe for years, it is absolutely my family’s favorite for special occasions. We double the recipe for big get togethers. If I don’t have time to cube the bread I buy pre-cubed “stuffing mix” at our local grocery store (omitting the seasoning of course!) and still let it soak up all of the goodness overnight. I cannot gosh enough about this recipe!