We normally don’t do a whole lot of French Toast. We love waffles, muffins, smoothies, eggs and the kids will convince to do pancakes occasionally. But French Toast rarely makes the list. I kept seeing all these overnight French Toast recipes and was pretty curious. I made a Pumpkin one once and it was pretty good, but a little too sweet for me. Then I had this idea for Blueberry Cheesecake French Toast and I just couldn’t get it out of my head.
Cheesecake is my favorite dessert ever and I love the tartness of lemons and blueberries. So I decided to try out this Blueberry Cheesecake French Toast idea and boy was I surprised. Drizzled with maple syrup and a side of bacon this breakfast casserole is probably the best breakfast dish… pretty much ever!
Let me tell you about the time I was making this scrumptious Blueberry French Toast dish for dinner. Yeah…we have breakfast for dinner often, don’t you? We had company coming over and my oven sparked and then set on fire! Yikes! After that the oven was toast so I was left in a lurch. I’m pretty bummed about this detail because the oven is still not fixed! Sad day!
True story! Thank heavens for good friends who let you take over their kitchen for an hour…
Don’t worry!!! Everything turned out okay. This bake is resilient. After dinner my husband turned to me and said that is seriously the best french toast I’ve ever had. Wow! That is a pretty BIG compliment from someone who doesn’t really love French Toast. It totally made my day, and after the fire and all I needed a little boost.
I love the creamy texture and the slight sweetness of this french toast. It is definitely dessert for breakfast, but its not the over the top sweet kind–remember the kind I was talking about before?? The creaminess and the tartness of the blueberries and lemons provides the perfect balance of flavors.
- 1 loaf of French bread cubed
- 8 oz cream cheese
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp lemon juice + a dash of lemon juice
- 1 tsp lemon peel + 1 tsp lemon peel
- 1 cup fresh blueberries
- 8 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- 1 tsp salt
- Butter a 9x13 dish and arrange half of the bread cubes in the bottom.
- Make the cream cheese mixture by beating the cream cheese, powdered sugar, lemon juice and 1 tsp lemon peel. Spoon it on to the bread cubes and spread it out to cover the bread. Top with blueberries and then add the rest of the bread cubes.
- Mix together the eggs, milk, maple syrup, salt, vanilla, another dash of lemon juice and a tsp of lemon peel. Whisk it well! Pour the mixture over the bread cubes and press it all down to make sure that everything gets soaked.
- Cover and stick in the refrigerator overnight or for at least 4 hours. When you are ready to bake, pull it out and let it warm up while the oven preheats to 350. Bake for 45 minutes or until the bread is all puffy, golden and crispy. My oven is really hot so it cooks quickly, check to make sure the middle is cooked well!
I love that this can be prepped the night before and then just tossed in the oven in the morning! So easy!!
This post was originally written by me and published on Yellow Bliss Road.
Looking for more delicious breakfast ideas….
Coconut Lime and Strawberry Waffles
Chocolate Covered Strawberry Smoothie
And check out this over-the-top-sweet S’mores French Toast. This really is dessert…
