Brown Sugar Cinnamon Baked French Toast w/ Blueberries

For those busy mornings, nothing beats a make ahead breakfast and we love this one! With a creamy vanilla/ cinnamon base, juicy blueberries, and a buttery streusel topping; it's a satisfying and delicious way to start the day!  I absolutely love that I can just pull this out of the fridge and pop it right in the oven while I go shower and get ready for the day.  It's a lifesaver with 9am church! I love baked blueberries so I've started adding them in with the bread and milk mixture, but if you prefer fresh you can sprinkle them on after it's baked.  Finish it off with some butter, maple syrup, and some more blueberries (if desired), and dig in!
 

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Baked French Toast w/ Blueberries

Ingredients

FOR THE FRENCH TOAST

Butter, for greasing
1 loaf crusty sourdough or French bread
8 whole eggs
1 1/2 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup brown sugar
2 TBSP vanilla extract

1 tsp Cinnamon

1 c. fresh or frozen blueberries

FOR THE TOPPING
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1 stick butter, melted

DIRECTIONS:

For the French toast: Grease a 9x13 pan with butter. Tear the bread into chunks, or cut into cubes, and evenly distribute in the pan. Crack the eggs in a big bowl. Whisk together the eggs, milk, cream,  brown sugar,  and vanilla. Pour evenly over the bread. Sprinkle with blueberries and 1 tsp Cinnamon.  

For the topping:

 Mix the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt together. Drizzle with the melted butter and use a fork to lightly stir it together. If you’d like it to be more crumbly, pop it in the fridge for a few minutes until it will crumble. Otherwise, just try to kind of sprinkle/ dollop it all over the top as evenly as you can. Cover the French toast and place it in the fridge. 
When you're ready to bake the casserole, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Remove the pan from the fridge. Bake uncovered for 45 minutes for a softer, more bread pudding texture or for 1 hour-plus or more for a firmer, crisper texture.

Scoop out individual portions. If desired, sprinkle with powdered sugar. Top with butter, drizzle with maple syrup, and sprinkle with more blueberries! 

Enjoy!

Notes: 

The French toast may be placed in the oven before it pre-heats, just reduce the baking time by about 5 min. 

This recipe may be halved in a square baking dish. 

Try subbing in some other berries in place of the blueberries for a fun variation!