Blueberry French Toast Casserole (Lower Sugar)

This lower-sugar Blueberry French Toast Casserole is an easy, family-friendly breakfast that’s perfect for holidays, weekends, or busy mornings. Made with simple ingredients and leftover bread, it can be prepped ahead or assembled the same day, with an optional crumble topping and plenty of easy steps for kids to help in the kitchen.

Kids in the Kitchen:

• Bread: Kids can use their own child-safe knife to help cut up the bread. Or they can simply use their hands to tear it into pieces.
• Eggs: There are a lot of eggs in this recipe, so you may want to crack them ahead of time if getting younger kids involved. Or you can leave them one or two eggs to practice with. Always have kids crack eggs into an empty bowl. That way you can easily remove any shell that gets inside.
• Mix: Use the biggest bowl you have and let kids whisk the eggs and milk together.
• Crumble: Kids can easily scatter the crumble over the top if you are using it in the recipe.

Subs and Tips for making Blueberry French Toast Casserole

• Type of bread: Challah is my favorite bread to use for this recipe. However, you can really use any bread that you need to use up. Hot dog buns, stale sliced bread–really anything goes! 
• Gluten-free: I have not tested a specific type of gluten-free bread to use in this recipe. However, I’m pretty sure any kind of bread will work. If there is a bread you enjoy, try and use it in this recipe.
• Dairy-free: I have use unsweetened almond milk in this recipe many times. Oat milk would also work great.
• Sugar/sweetener: Any kind of sweetener should work in this recipe. Adjust the sweetness level to your liking. If you want a more indulgent breakfast for a holiday, use more brown sugar in the custard mixture and in the topping. If you need to reduce the sugar, you can use 1/4 cup of maple syrup or honey in the custard and skip the crumble topping.
• Crumble topping: I like to use the instant kind of oats in the topping. However, regular rolled oats will also work. Nuts give the topping a nice crunch, but they are completely optional.
• Helpful tools: Check out my Baking Essentials list on Amazon HERE.

Blueberry French Toast Casserole

Easy to make ahead for a holiday breakfast or brunch and lower in sugar too

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Servings 8 people

Ingredients

  

French Toast Casserole

• oil spray or butter for greasing the pan
• 1 pound challah, brioche, sourdough or any bread you'd like
• 1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
• 8 large eggs
• 3 cups milk (any kind, dairy or non-dairy)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla paste
• 1/3 cup maple syrup, plus more for serving or 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• powdered sugar, for serving (optional)

Optional Crumble Topping

• 4 Tbsp butter or coconut oil, melted
• 1/4 cup all-purpose or oat flour
• 1/2 cup instant "quick cooking" oats
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar or coconut sugar
• 1/3 cup sliced almonds or chopped walnuts/pecans (optional)

Instructions

 

• If baking right away, heat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9-by-13-inch casserole dish or baking dish with oil spray or butter.
• Dice or rip the bread into bite-sized pieces and place in the casserole dish. Scatter the blueberries over the top and gently toss with your hands to distribute the blueberries.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon. Pour the egg mixture over the bread. Use the back of a large spoon or spatula to press the bread down into the liquid.
• Allow the bread to soak at least 20 minutes before baking or up to 12 hours. If making ahead, cover the pan with plastic wrap and place in the fridge until ready to bake. Once ready to bake, unwrap the dish and heat the oven to 375 degrees.
• If using the topping, crumble it over the top of the casserole in an even layer. Place the dish in the oven and bake until puffed and golden brown on top, 35 to 40 minutes. (If your dish was refrigerated overnight, it may take an extra 10 to 15 minutes.)
• Allow the casserole to cool for 10 minutes then spoon onto plates and serve with a dusting of powdered sugar and/or extra maple syrup.

Optional Crumble Topping

• Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl until it looks like crumbly, wet sand.
• The topping can be make ahead and stored in the bowl in the refrigerator until you are ready to bake the casserole.

Keyword christmas breakfast, french toast casserole, make ahead breakfast

Need more ideas??

Check out my list of Make Ahead Kid-Friendly Breakfast Recipes!