Baked Blueberry Lemon French Toast
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No stress, no fuss breakfast! Prep the night before or freeze as needed. Easy, simple and company worthy!
what is baked french toast
Baked French toast, also known as a French toast casserole, is a make-ahead breakfast dish with custard-soaked bread baked until golden brown, adding desired toppings such as fruit, confectioners’ sugar or maple syrup.
reasons to make baked blueberry lemon french toast
- Make-ahead and freezer friendly. Conveniently prep everything the night before and pop it in the oven right before serving. No stress, no fuss, and no more flipping individual slices of French toast while your guests are impatiently waiting, aka hungry toddlers!
- Great for large crowds. With its easy prep and hands-off cooking, this French toast casserole is perfect for big family gatherings, holidays (think Christmas morning before presents or Easter brunch), baby showers and weekend company.
- Guaranteed favorite. Who doesn’t love French toast? With its soft custardy-bread-pudding vibes and cinnamon sugar crumb topping, this breakfast casserole is sure to be a guaranteed crowd-favorite.
- Versatile, flexible recipe. Use cinnamon swirl bread, add in different berries, swap out for gluten-free bread or top with nuts, dried fruit or syrup. Baked french toast can be as simple or as over the top as you want!
how to make the easiest french toast casserole
- Layer with bread cubes and blueberries
- Top with milk + egg custard
- Refrigerate overnight
- Sprinkle with brown sugar cinnamon crumb topping
- Bake until golden brown perfection
tips and tricks for success
- Use day-old, stale bread. The best French toast casserole starts with stale, dried bread. The drier the bread, the more custard it can soak up without falling apart.
- Use fresh blueberries. Frozen blueberries will have more juices released that may result in soggy French toast.
- Avoid fat-free milk. Use whole milk for the creamiest texture as fat free or 2% milk will not provide enough richness for the custard.
- Prep the night before. Baked french toast is one of those great dishes that you can prep ahead of time and is recommended to do so, assembling everything the night before and giving the bread plenty of time to soak the egg custard. This is key for that favorited bread-pudding texture.
- Halve the recipe. Need a small-scale version? This recipe can easily be halved and baked in an 8×8 baking dish, reducing the bake time to about 35-40 minutes.
- Freeze before baking. This will preserve the texture and prevent sogginess, storing the crumb topping separately. Always use a freezer-safe baking dish, label, date and freeze up to 3 months.
baked blueberry lemon french toast variations
Bread
Use day-old, stale brioche, challah, sourdough or cinnamon raisin (or cinnamon swirl) bread.
Fruit
Add in your favorite berries (strawberries, raspberries or blackberries), bananas, apples or peaches. We also have a pumpkin, cinnamon apple and strawberries and cream version.
Cream cheese
Add in 1 (8-ounce) package brick-style cream cheese, cubed, for an extra decadent, creamy layer.
Topping
Serve with maple syrup, cinnamon sugar or blueberry jam.
Tools For This Recipe
9 x 13 baking dish
Baked Blueberry Lemon French Toast: Frequently Asked Questions
You can quickly dry out the bread by baking the bread cubes in a single layer on a sheet pan at 275°F for about 10-15 minutes.
There can be many reasons for this – too much dairy was used, the bread was soaked too long or the bread was too soft (ex. white bread). If your french toast is soggy, pop it back in the oven, increasing the baking time as needed until the desired consistency is reached.
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Yes! Prior to baking, cover the french toast tightly with plastic wrap, then aluminum foil. Freeze up to 3 months. To reheat, thaw overnight in the fridge and bake as directed, adding a few more minutes to the bake time as needed.
For the best results, we recommend assembling, freezing, then baking to help preserve texture. But if you’ve already baked your french toast, no worries at all – it can still be frozen!
Baked Blueberry Lemon French Toast
Ingredients
- 1 (12-count) package KING’S HAWAIIAN Original Hawaiian Sweet Dinner Rolls, cubed
- 1 cup blueberries
- 1 ½ cups milk
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup, or more, to taste
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
For the crumb topping
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup brown sugar, packed
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, cut into cubes
Equipment
Instructions
- Lightly coat a 9 x 13 baking dish with nonstick spray. Place a layer of bread cubes evenly into the baking dish. Top with blueberries in an even layer, repeating 2 more times and ending with a layer of bread.
- In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, maple syrup, lemon zest, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pour mixture evenly over the bread cubes. Cover and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Remove baking dish from the refrigerator; let stand 30 minutes. Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the bread cubes.
- Place into oven and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Serve immediately, sprinkled with confectioners’ sugar, if desired.
For the crumb topping
- In a small bowl, combine flour, sugar and cinnamon. Add cold butter and toss to coat, using your fingers to work the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles coarse crumbs.
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We had this today for brunch, so delicious!!!!!! The “yields 8 servings” makes me chuckle, my husband, three year old son, and I nearly polished the entire thing off ourselves!! 🙂 With no help from the picky five year old. 😉
Thank you for this delicious recipe.. I made it this morning. It was very tasty, a little more custardee than I would like but the past comments helped out a lot and I can’t wait to try it again. Great tasting!
Hello have you tried this recipe with a different type of fruit.
I have not but other types of berries should still work great in this dish.
Does the bread need to be a little dry? Should I leave the rolls out on counter for about an hour? Or just buy the rolls 2 or 3 days ahead? Thanks. Can’t wait to make this.
Yes, it is best if the bread is a little dried out – you can leave them out overnight or buy the rolls a couple of days in advance.
This is an awesome and easy make ahead breakfast, thanks for sharing! I made on Christmas morning and today. I just can’t seem to get the crumble the right texture. It’s not crumbly for some reason. What am I doing wrong? Seems like too much butter maybe? Don’t know. It’s killing me because it’s great without but want to try it with a crumbly crumble.
Michelle, it is very important to be using cold butter to have a crumbly crumble. Also, it is best to use your fingers to work in the butter but a pastry cutter can also be very helpful.
thanks for taking the time to reply. i will definitely try the crumble again using your tips. this is a really awesome recipe! thanks again for sharing.
Hey!
Does it matter if I use frozen blueberries or fresh?
Thanks!
Nope – either works! 🙂
This was the perfect breakfast to have made ahead for some guests. Everyone loved about it and asked where I got it. Keep ’em coming, everything I’ve made from your site has been fantastic!
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Just made it this morning. It was amazing. It works just fine with lactose free milk, my thw way. Any idea on calories per serving?
I am so glad you gave this a try! As for the calories – I am only providing caloric information for select recipes on my site at this time. Please use online resources to obtain nutritional information.
I made this for Father’s Day brunch this morning with frozen blueberries we picked last summer. My house smelled amazing & the taste was awesome but I baked it almost twice as long as specified, after checking it a couple times, tenting foil over the top when it should have been done & it was still really pudding-y throughout….not just a little in the center. The flavor of the lemon & blueberries is one of my favorites. Any suggestions on how to bake it through? I want to make this recipe work!
A bit of custard is actually fine – that’s the beauty of a baked French toast dish!
Make sure you make it the night before and let the liquid absorb back into the bread before baking. Otherwise, the bread will be dry and mixture won’t set up all the way. I made this mistake once.
Approximately how many cups of cubed bread would that be? I am in Canada and do not have access to Hawaiian Rolls.Looks so delicious!
I’d say about 5-8 cups. The less bread, the more “custardy” it becomes.
Thanks so much!
This doesn’t end up terribly sweet so I loved the Hawaiian bread in it!
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What a beautiful brunch idea!! Love the blueberry and lemon combo… it’s such a classic flavor combination that always works so well!
This looks soooooo yummy! I’ve never tried the King’s Hawaiian Rolls. Looking forward to trying the recipe.
I’ve heard about a “French Toast Bake” going around, but I never had the pleasure of trying it, I wonder if I could do a “skinny” version? This is SOOOO utterly tempting! Fab photos to boot!
Ours is tucked away in the fridge, I can’t wait to bake it in the morning!
Delicious!!! Served for dinner on Thursday night and it was a hit!!! Definitely a keeper!!
Oh my goodness. This looks dangerously delicious (not to mention beautiful!)!! I love that you can make it the night before – perfect for night owls 🙂
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it looks delicious!