Make Ahead French Toast Casserole

Here’s my recipe for the BEST make ahead french toast casserole for Christmas, Easter, or any holiday morning! I chose the delicious combination of blueberries and lemon which pair perfectly when they blend together. The holidays are so busy that anything make ahead is going to save you time so you can focus on more important things like spending time with your family, friends, and guests. This casserole is also SUPER easy to prepare and you can use frozen or fresh blueberries!

Make Ahead French Toast Casserole

Melissa Jo

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Ingredients

  

• 2 cups of whole milk
• 6 eggs
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• 1 tsp. of honey
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• pinch of salt
• 1 loaf of day old brioche bread
• 1 tbsp. of butter for greasing the baking dish
• 1½ cups of fresh or frozen blueberries
• 2 tbsp. of brown sugar for sprinkling over top of the casserole

Instructions

 

Whisk together:

• 2 cups of whole milk, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 6 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, zest of 1/2 lemon, juice of 1/2 lemon, and a pinch of salt.
• Cube up 1 loaf of one day old brioche bread. Grease a baking dish (9×13) with butter or Pam.
• Cube up the loaf of bread into 1-1&1/2 inch cubes

Layer the following in a baking dish:

• Layer1- 1/2 of the cubed bread
• Layer 2- blueberries; use fresh or frozen (I used frozen but I let them defrost a bit first)
• Layer 3 – the other half of brioche cubed bread
• Layer 4- custard (egg mixture)
• layer 5- sprinkle over brown sugar (a few tbsps.)
• Cover and and refrigerate overnight (at least 8 hours but mine was in about 14)
• Pop into a preheated oven at 375 F for 1 hour.
• Cover with tin foil about halfway through cooking.
• Serve with some honey butter
• melt 1/2 stick of butter and add 2-3 tbps. of honey and whisk
• Let it rest about 30 minutes before serving! Enjoy!

Notes

• Make sure the bread you use when making this casserole is at least one day old. This is important because you want the bread to be very dry. Dryer bread will soak up the custard better and won’t fall apart in the soaking and cooking process.

• In this recipe I use brioche bread, but you can certainly use  Challah or a French Baguette.

• If you want to make this casserole the day of and you don’t have enough time to soak the bread overnight you can toast the chunks of bread in the oven just until they are slightly toasty.

 

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