Mixed Berry French Toast Casserole: Nourishing Make Ahead Breakfast

This mixed berry French toast casserole breakfast is made from simple, wholesome ingredients that you probably already have in your kitchen. It only takes a few minutes to prepare and your kids will thank you for it. It’s not only visually appealing, but also delicious and filling.

Breakfast was a struggle for me as a new mom. I typically wasn’t hungry in the morning but my children were ravenous. Every morning was a bit of a struggle as I scrambled to come up with something quick and easy for them to eat. 

Emily, just buy cereal. What could be easier than that?

Well, thankfully we couldn’t afford breakfast cereal, and that’s forced me to learn that convenience isn’t always best. Besides, cereal is packed full of sugar and hardly keeps you full for longer than a half an hour. 

So, what could I make for my children that is full of protein, healthy fats, and carbs? I grew up eating a breakfast casserole (although we always ate it for dinner) that was a mix of sausage, eggs, and cheese. 

Now, I don’t know about you but my young children did not like meat for a good while. And trying to get my pickiest eater to eat eggs… well that was practically impossible. 

But, bread goes well with fruit, french toast is an egg, cinnamon, sugar, combo. Maybe something like that could be done but in a casserole?

When I made this for the first time, my child ate eggs, without complaining for the first time in his life. Hallelujah!

What you need to make this berry French toast casserole

• Bread. Many recipes will call for a specific bread and that bread will be cut into perfect squares all pretty like. However, I like to use bread scraps for this. If your kids are  like mine , they never eat the crusts of their bread. Save that in a ziploc in the freezer. If you have a bread loaf that’s getting a little stale, use it. Once you have accumulated enough bread to fill a 9×13” casserole dish about 2/3rds up then it’s time to throw this breakfast together. 

If you want to make this but are a little short on bread, a cup of oats mixed in will help even this out. 

• Eggs. Pastured eggs will always be superior to store bought, conventionally produced eggs. However, I’m not too much a stickler on this, use what you can afford. 

• Milk. We like to use whole milk and since we don’t have access to raw milk we go with store bought.

• Brown sugar. You could use sucanat and that would be great as well. We don’t use too much sugar in this recipe so I’m okay with using whatever sugar I have on hand. 

• Vanilla. For the love of all that is good in this world use real vanilla extract. Don’t use imitation…. What’s in that stuff??? Beavers and petroleum???…. I’ll leave it at that. 

• Salt. We love Redmond’s Real Salt. It’s the only salt in our household and it’s delicious. 

• Oats. Typically we use rolled oats or old fashioned oats. Whatever floats your boat. 

• Cinnamon. Who doesn’t love cinnamon with sugar and fruit? It’s a heavenly combination that has spanned generations. 

• Butter. We only use salted butter in our home and if you can get butter from a pastured cow even better. 

• Berries. This recipe uses a mix of blackberries, blueberries and raspberries, but you can also stick to one kind, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries. If the mulberries are producing that would work wonderfully as well. We usually buy frozen berries as they are picked when fully ripe and are cheaper than “fresh”.

How to make berry French toast casserole

The night before pull your bread scraps out of the freezer, or use what’s fresh on your counter. Break the bread into small pieces and add to a 9×13 baking dish. You can also use some butter to grease the pan (yeah, that would be good) but I almost always forget. 🤗

In a large bowl mix together the eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt. Pour that over the top of the bread.

Add the fruit on top. Use as much as your heart desires, 1 ½ cups is just a reference. 😀

Cover and put in the fridge until morning.

The next morning we are going to make our streusel topping. Measure out the oats and blend them in a food processor. Soften the butter in the microwave or by leaving it out on the counter the night before. Mix the oats, sugar, cinnamon and butter and place that on top of the fruit and bread. (This can be a little messy, just place dollops around evenly ish.) 

Bake at 350°F  for 45-55 minutes. 

If you have leftovers, this keeps very well in the fridge with the added bonus that you have breakfast for the next day without any extra work. 

You can also substitute some of the milk with yogurt, making this French toast casserole extra rich and creamy.

Mixed Berry Breakfast Casserole

Difficulty: Easy

Prep time: 10-15 minutes + overnight in the fridge

Cook time: 45-55 minutes

Total time: 1 hour, 10 minutes + overnight in the fridge

Ingredients: 

• About 12 oz bread
• 8 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ tsp salt

Topping:

• 1 ½ cup mixed berries
• ⅓ cup brown sugar
• 1 cup oats, blended into a powder. (can sub almond flour, coconut flour, or all purpose flour)
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 8 tbsp butter

Directions

1. Grease a 9×13 casserole dish with butter, coconut oil, or olive oil
2. Break bread into small pieces and place into the dish
3. In a large bowl mix eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt
4. Pour the egg mixture over the bread and top with the berries.
5. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in the fridge until morning. At this point you can also pull butter out of the fridge to soften on the counter for the topping you will make in the morning.
6. Preheat the oven to 350°F
7. Measure oats and blend them in a food processor. Place the powdered oats into a bowl.
8. Add the butter, sugar, and cinnamon to the bowl with the oats and mix.
9. Scoop dollops of the butter mixture on top of the casserole
10. Bake for 45-55 minutes, Enjoy.
11. Save leftovers in an airtight container, or ziploc, in the fridge.