French Toast Casserole with Berries

I’ve been on a breakfast casserole kick lately. It’s probably because we’ve had a lot of family and friends staying over this summer, but I always love the excuse to try something new. The original recipe called for blueberries – and I’m sure that would have indeed been lovely – but what if the folks coming for breakfast don’t happen to like blueberries? What if they’re more strawberry people? Or what if they don’t like berries at all?

What I ended up with looked oh-so-American in its red, white and blue glory … or perhaps I should say French. This was a French Toast Casserole after all, and if I only designed my berries in a different order, I could have easily made the French flag.

Ingredients:
2 (8 oz.) packages of cream cheese
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
10 slices of French bread (store bought is fine as long as it's fresh) cut about 3/4-1 inch thick
Blueberries and strawberries (but any fruit topping will do!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon in a large bowl and mix until well blended (use a mixer! You want that cream cheese to be smooth!). Add in the eggs, again mixing well after each one, and then the milk. Cut the french bread, and arrange slices in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Spread fruit over bread. Making sure that the mixture is thoroughly blended, pour cream cheese mix over the bread and berries, and let stand for 15 minutes to soak in. Finally, bake for 40-45 minutes.

My original recipe called for maple syrup or confectioners' sugar for topping, but you definitely don't need it. Everyone at the table raved about this recipe, so the practice run was a success. I love easy but mouth-watering delicious recipes! Next time, I think the entire thing will be covered with a mixture of strawberries, blueberries and something else. Perhaps bananas. Mmm… I’m getting hungry again.

KSP

(Click here for printable recipe)