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side angled shot of brioche french toast casserole in white ceramic pan with blueberries and vases.
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5 from 2 votes

Brioche French Toast Casserole (with blueberries!)

This easy brioche French toast casserole can be baked immediately, or held overnight, with tasty options like fruit and cinnamon crumb topping!
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time45 minutes
Rest (optional)14 hours
Total Time1 hour 5 minutes
Servings: 12 servings
By: Jocelyn Salvatoriello

Ingredients

FOR THE CASSEROLE:

  • 2 cups milk
  • 6 large eggs
  • ¼ light or dark brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 21-24 oz loaf of Brioche*1 left out for a day or two
  • 1 cup blueberries or finely chopped apples optional
  • Maple syrup, powdered sugar, fresh fruit, whipped cream, or any other toppings you’d like for garnish, optional

FOR THE STREUSEL (optional):

  • ½ cup sugar
  • ¼ cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
US Customary - Metric

Instructions

TO MAKE THE CASSEROLE:

  • Quick-dry bread: to quick-stale fresh bread, spread slices out on oven-safe cooling racks and place in an oven pre-heated to 200°F for 10 minutes until surfaces are fully dry to the touch. (Not necessary if you’re using old bread that’s been left out for a day or two.)
  • Cube bread slices: If baking immediately (no rest time), preheat oven to 350°F. Cube bread up into roughly 1” pieces (about 3 x 3 for each slice) .
  • Mix all batter ingredients: combine all casserole ingredients except bread in a medium-sized mixing bowl and whisk until well combined. (The cinnamon will float back to the top which is totally fine.)
  • Toss bread in batter: add bread to egg mixture and gently toss just until all pieces are coated, and all the liquid is absorbed. Do your best to not squish or mash the bread, using a “folding” technique to get the bottom wet pieces to the top and the top dry pieces to the bottom. Avoid any “stirring” motion if possible, and know a few dry-ish pieces is okay.
  • Transfer to the pan: grease a 9” x 13” pan. Transfer the bread to the greased pan and spread out evenly. (Be careful not to press everything down as leaving the surface uneven will give you some nicely browned edges). Cover pan with aluminum foil secured over all the sides.
  • Rest mixture (optional): allow batter to rest for up to 14 hours overnight in the fridge. (If resting overnight, place streusel covered in the fridge as well or mix it up in the morning.)*2

TO MAKE THE STREUSEL (optional):

  • Stir together dries: use a fork to stir together the streusel flour, sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl.*3
  • Mix in butter: add melted butter to dries and use a fork to blend until large crumbs form and there are no more dry patches in the mixture. Set aside.

TO ASSEMBLE THE CASSEROLE:

  • Add fruit: near the end of the rest time, preheat oven to 350°F. Sprinkle fruit evenly overtop of the bread mixture, if using.
  • Add streusel: sprinkles streusel evenly in chunks over top of the bread mixture (and on top of fruit if using).*4
  • Bake covered, then uncovered: bake covered with foil for 30 minutes, then uncovered for 15 minutes until puffy and well-toasted, with dark golden brown edges on the top pieces of bread.*5
  • Cool, slice, and enjoy: allow to cool for 10-15 minutes,*6 then slice, sprinkle with powdered sugar or drizzle with maple syrup and enjoy!

Notes

  • *1Quick-Dry Method: if you have a fresh loaf and want to bake this up right away - no worries! Just follow step one to quick-dry your bread.
  • *2Overnight Tips: if you’d like, feel free to mix the streusel up and store it overnight in the fridge.  Use a fork to break it up in the morning (as it’ll harden once the butter chills), then assemble the casserole by topping with fruit and streusel (if using) right before baking in the morning.
  • *3Optional Streusel: the streusel topping is optional, but strongly recommended. While the recipe will work without it, it adds a delicious crunch on top and keeps the surface of your bread from drying out too much in the oven. If skipping the streusel, increase the cinnamon in the casserole to 1 tablespoon.
  • *4Streusel Tips: depending on how much your streusel has cooled, it may be easier or harder to keep it in small chunks instead of dust or big chunks.  To make the clumps, squeeze a big chunk of streusel together in your hand, then gently break up that chunk over top of the pan to sprinkle smaller and larger clumps evenly over the surface of the bread.
  • *5Baking in glass or ceramic? The times listed in the recipe above are for a metal pan.  If you're baking in a glass or ceramic pan, add 5-10 minutes extra to the "uncovered" part of the bake.
  • *6The collapse: because of all the eggs in this recipe, it’s going to act a little like a soufflé.  It will be very puffy right out of the oven and then quickly settle down and collapse into the pan as it starts to cool. Just know that that’s exactly what’s supposed to happen, and it doesn’t mean you did anything wrong.

Nutrition

Serving: 1 serving | Calories: 356kcal | Carbohydrates: 40g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 179mg | Sodium: 323mg | Potassium: 117mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 14g | Vitamin A: 706IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 103mg | Iron: 1mg

Did you try this recipe?

It’d mean so much to me if you could please give the recipe card a ⭐ rating on the site and leave a comment to help others find this sweet recipe! Xo, Jocelyn @ Mint+Mallow