Blueberry French Toast Casserole Recipe
This blueberry french toast casserole recipe is a perfect breakfast for a special occasion or just a lovely brunch. It’s light and scrumptious while still being filling.
I mean, who doesn’t like french toast? And good breakfast casseroles are nothing to sneeze at either. Put them together, and it’s incredible stuff! Add to that some superpower berries (yes, I said superpower), and you’ve got yourself an amazing breakfast for a special occasion, or just a normal day of the week. Either way, you’re going to love this. And if you don’t think you can handle 12 servings, make it anyway. You can nosh on it all week and stick the leftovers in the freezer!
And don’t worry, if blueberries are out of season for you, frozen blueberries will work too! Of course, fresh berries are always best. But in a pinch, you can still have your blueberry french toast and eat it too!
Can You Make This Blueberry French Toast Casserole Ahead Of Time?
You can! And there are two ways.
- Prep now, bake later – You can easily prep this a day or two ahead of time by doing everything but actually baking it. (Just don’t prep more than 2 days ahead.) Then just bake it in the morning and serve as usual.
- Prep and bake now, serve later – You can fully make this entire recipe and keep it in the fridge for up to three days. However, you will want to time it so that you eat it no later than the third day. 3 days in the fridge is the limit on this one.
French Toast Casserole Variations
There are many variations for French toast casserole. Most of them revolve around fruit. But there are other options as well. Here are some ideas:
- Change the berries – Try strawberries, raspberries, or blackberries. Even cranberries will work here!
- Change the fruit completely – Try peaches, apples, or even mangos.
- Change the extracts – There are so many extracts available! Everything from mint (mint chocolate chip french toast, anyone?) to maple, almond, lemon, and orange. Get creative!
- Change the spices – While cinnamon is a standard spice in french toast, it doesn’t have to be. Try cardamom, nutmeg, or allspice.
What To Serve With Blueberry French Toast Casserole
This dish does pretty well on its own. But if you want to serve something with it, you could try:
- healthy bacon or sausage
- a side of scrambled eggs
- a separate bowl of fruit or fruit salad
- a smoothie
For garnish, try a pat of butter while the casserole is still hot, sprinkle some desiccated coconut over the top, or even sprinkle a bit of fresh lemon juice over the top, or enjoy this with a dollop of cream cheese or homemade blueberry sauce.
Recipe Extras
- Try sprinkling a bit of fresh lemon zest over this at serving.
- You can play around with the bread for different flavors. Try whole wheat sourdough bread or french bread for example. Some people enjoy using Challah, but I haven’t found one that’s made with whole wheat, so I’ve never tried it.
- One thing to remember is that this is best made with day-old bread. Don’t use fresh-baked bread for this. It won’t turn out as well.
Dietary Options
This is pretty adjustable to most dietary needs. Here’s how to make adjustments.
Dairy-Free
This recipe uses almond milk, or you can use any non-dairy milk you prefer.
Gluten-Free
Use good quality, gluten-free bread.
Egg-Free
While I haven’t tried these, you could use either a vegan egg substitute or try a flax egg.
Sugar-Free
While there are naturally occurring sugars in the recipe ingredients here, you do not have to add excess if you prefer not to. Simply omit the honey, and serve this with mashed bananas as a “sauce” to sweeten things up, or enjoy as is with just the blueberries for sweetness.
Low-Carb Or Keto
While this wouldn’t be considered “clean eating”, you could make a low-carb bread to use here, and then use a low-carb sweetener. Everything else would be perfectly fine on a low-carb eating plan.
Vegan
Use maple syrup instead of honey and use a vegan egg substitute or flax egg.
About The Ingredients
(Print recipe from recipe card below.)
Whole grain bread – Use a clean, whole grain bread with no added sugar. If you can find an unsliced loaf, that’s best. But in a pinch, a sliced loaf will work too. Your bread cubes will just be smaller.
Egg whites (or whole eggs) – Use egg whites to cut down on fat content, or whole eggs to cut down on sodium content.
Unsweetened almond milk – You can use regular dairy milk or other non-dairy milk as well. Use the milk you usually drink.
Honey – You can also use maple syrup, but the finished dish won’t taste as sweet.
Pure vanilla extract – Use real vanilla extract, not vanilla flavoring. Vanilla extract is made with real ingredients while vanilla flavoring is made with synthetic ingredients.
Almond extract – Here again, use real extract. Not flavoring.
Ground cinnamon – Make sure there is no sugar mixed in. You just want cinnamon.
Blueberries – fresh or frozen. But if you use frozen, make sure there is no sugar added.
How To Make Blueberry French Toast Casserole
Preheat the oven to 350° F.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the egg whites, almond milk, honey, extracts, and cinnamon. Whisk well.
Oil a baking dish (about 9 x 13), and fill it with the bread.
Mix in the blueberries., then pour the egg mixture over the bread and allow it to sit for at least 30 minutes, mixing once or twice to be sure all parts of the bread are moistened.
Bake the casserole for about 45 minutes or until there is no longer any liquid between the bread. Cool a bit and serve.
Can You Freeze French Toast Casserole?
Absolutely! It freezes quite well! Make sure you pack it up in an air-tight, freezer-safe container though. If packaged properly, you can freeze french toast casserole for up to two months.
Can French Toast Soak Overnight?
Absolutely! This is an easy-prep breakfast you can make the night before. Let it soak overnight and bake it first thing in the morning!
Recipe Supplies
More Healthy French Toast Recipes
- Coconut French Toast
- French Toast Strips
- Apple French Toast Casserole
- Pumpkin Spice French Toast Casserole
- Eggnog French Toast Casserole
Blueberry French Toast Casserole Recipe Card + Video
Blueberry French Toast Casserole Recipe
CLICK TO WATCH THIS RECIPE IN ACTION!
Equipment
- Casserole pan
Ingredients
- 6 cups cubed, whole grain bread
- 8 large egg whites (or 4 whole eggs)
- 1 ½ cups unsweetened almond milk
- ¼ cup honey (or maple syrup, though it won’t be as sweet)
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 2 tsp. almond extract
- 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 2 cups fresh blueberries (frozen works too as do other berries)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F.In a large mixing bowl, combine the egg whites, almond milk, honey, extracts and cinnamon. Whisk well.
- Oil a baking dish (about 9 x 13), and fill it with the bread.
- Mix in the blueberries., then pour the liquid mixture over the bread and allow it to sit for at least 30 minutes, mixing once or twice to be sure all parts of the bread are moistened.
- Bake the casserole for about 45 minutes or until there is no longer any liquid between the bread. Cool a bit and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Recipe from the Gracious Pantry® archives, originally posted 9/18/12.
I cut the recipe in half and baked it for about 40 minutes. Is the consistency of the casserole supposed to be kind of slightly soggy still? The flavor is good but I just wanted to double check. I also used a deeper pan, not sure if that makes a difference. Thanks.
Mona – The very bottom may be slightly soggy, but it shouldn’t be overly so. For the most part, all the liquid should soak into the bread. It could have had to do with cutting the recipe in half. Maybe when you do that you have to cut the liquid a bit more? I’m not sure as I haven’t tried it.
Being a new cook I follow every recipe exactly as they’re written, and my gut said to use less almond extract and I was right, WAY too much, you smelled almond it as it was baking and then upon tasting, not great unless of course you love almond. I’ll tweak it next time.
Rob – Yes, I enjoy the flavor of almonds. But you can leave it out completely if you prefer.
LOVE your site and all these great recipes – could you estimate how many slices of bread it takes to get “6 cups?” I can obviously just try it, but I want to make sure I have enough bread on hand before I begin.
Thanks!
MB – It’s hard to say. But make sure you have at least a whole loaf.
I actually made this today – I think I used about 8-9 slices of bread. It was a broader homestyle-type whole grain/whole wheat loaf, not the “square” processed ones – and it was DELICIOUS! Thank you for another great recipe!
MB – My pleasure! Thanks for that info!
Do you think frozen blueberries would be okay?
Lauren – Sure! It may add a slight amount of liquid though, so keep an eye on the baking time. Might need a couple minutes longer.
Whipped this up for an easy breakfast this morning!! I halved the recipe and baked it up in a 8×8 cause its just me and my boyfriend here at home and he isn’t a huge blueberry fan. This changed his mind! he had 2 servings! but next time I think ill add a lil extra honey or cinnamon. The bread didn’t have as much flavor as I thought it would!
Jessy – Glad he liked it! The bread does make a difference, but simple adjustments like that should help. Enjoy!
I never had almond milk before this. It’s really good haha
Lauren B – yes it is! 🙂
New to eating clean (about a month now). I want to make a portion out this recipe for snacks throughout the week do you think, this would be good reheated?
Jennifer – Definitely! You can even freeze it if you need to. 🙂
Hi! I’m new to any kind of cooking and baking. I wanted to know if you think it would still turn out good if I made these changes:
1% plain milk instead of almond milk
1 tsp almond extract
2 full tbsp (not tsp) ground cinnamon (I really like cinnamon haha)
Please let me know your honest opinion, as you seem to be very experienced so I value your advice 🙂
Amatulla – Yes, you can sub the milk with anything you like. Almond extract is fine, but I would not use 2 tablespoons cinnamon. 1 tablespoon maybe, but 2 tablespoons would be overkill.
I just made this and it was delicious!! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I am new to the Clean Eating way of life and I am so glad that i found your website. 🙂
Desi – Wonderful! So glad you enjoyed it. Welcome to my blog! 😀
As a Christmas/Birthday tradition, my mom and I make a glorious breakfast feast of the family’s favorites, so I’ll be swapping out my usual french toast recipe for this one! I’m also looking forward to your Dorm Recipes since I’m away for college and am in desperate need of some clean food.
Katie – Great! If you search by category, you’ll find the college cooking section under “Clean Eating Kids”. Hope it helps!
This was really good and easy to make. I used frozen raspberries and strawberries. I let it sit overnight and baked it in the morning. I also added more vanilla since I didn’t have any almond extract.
Melanie – So glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
I made this last night………..and nearly ate the whole thing it was so good! I think next time I will make half the recipe! 😉
Rebecca – Haha!! Glad you liked it! 😀
I made this for my family — I like to cook things on Sundays for them to eat for breakfast during the week — and it was a HIT! I was letting it cool on the stove yesterday before putting it into the refrigerator, and I kept noticing bites out of it. My husband was sneaking in and grabbing chunks of the bread. I doubt it will last more than one more day, but it was easy enough to make. I would trim back the almond extract a little bit, as it was a little strong. I would assume you could make this with strawberries or raspberries, too! Thanks!
Lisa – I think strawberries would work if you used frozen berries. Not sure how fresh strawberries would hold up, but certainly worth a shot! Glad everyone enjoyed it! 🙂
Would it matter if I used regular milk in this? No one in my house likes almond or coconut milk. I already think I’m going to try subbing vanilla extract for the almond.
Carmen – It will probably work fine. Enjoy!
Would this be okay to eat on all week or would it end up getting to soggy? And would you heat up in microwave?
Melissa – I’m not sure about all week, but definitely a few days. A microwave is fine.
Made this for dinner tonight and it was a hit. Everyone loved it! Definitely a keeper. With 5 in the family, there was none to put away : )
Coleen – Awesome! 🙂
Seems similar to a bread pudding
Veronica – In a way, yes. 🙂
So I just made this yesterday. It smelled amazing, it tasted pretty good ( i have to adjust the almond i think). When I took it out of the oven it was nice and fluffy, when it cooled it completely deflated, was very thin and kind of dense and it stuck to the bottom of my pan. I’m not much of a baker. So i’m not sure where I went wrong. Any suggestions? (oh and I halved the recipe)
Erin – Cutting the recipe in half could affect it, but I don’t think it would be that significant. What kind of bread did you use? Did you change anything else about the recipe?
i used skim milk instead of almond milk. it may have been the bread. i hadn’t had it before. it’s some whole wheat sugar free bread i found at the store.maybe i’ll try again with different bread.
Erin – The milk shouldn’t have made a difference, but the bread probably did. Let me know how it goes.