Mixed Berry French Toast Casserole with Walnut Streusel

I have to say, I've just started making these and I don't see myself stopping anytime soon. Whenever you have a lot of people to feed, you do what every farmer's wife has done since the beginning of time: make it into a casserole. So, that's what I did. And, for something like French toast, you don't always want to have to stand at the stove or skillet flipping them until everyone has been fed. Sometimes it's just better to chuck everything together in a baking dish and let it cook.

This dish is so dang easy and tastes amazing. It has a soft texture with a cinnamon-sugary taste on the bottom with a few pieces of bread on the top that get perfectly crispy along with the streusel and walnuts. And to freshen it up, I mixed in some of my favourite berries. So good!

This dish can be put together the night before and popped in the fridge overnight or made right before cooking so it's very versatile. See the notes for the overnight casserole directions.

Serves: 4-6

Prep time: 10 min

Cook time: 45 min

Ingredients:

3 cups of bread (see notes), roughly chopped into 1-inch cubes

1 cup milk

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup white sugar (you can replace this with maple syrup or honey)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup mixed berries (fresh or frozen)

2 tbsp butter, room temperature

1/4 cup flour

1/4 brown sugar

1/4 cup walnuts (pecans work too!), chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9x9 baking dish.

2. Cut up the bread into roughly 1-inch cubes and place it in the baking dish.

3. Combine eggs and milk and whisk. Then, add vanilla, sugar, and 1/2 tsp of the cinnamon and combine.

4. Add the berries to the bread and then pour the milk/egg mixture over the bread and berries.

5. If you're cooking right away, place this in the oven to cook for 15 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, combine the butter, flour, the remaining 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and combine to make the streusel. Then, add the walnuts and mix in.

7. Once the casserole has been cooking for 15 minutes, remove it from the oven and place the streusel on top of the casserole. If there are big chunks of streusel, just brake them into small ones, you don't have to be too picky here, you just want them to add some crispiness!

8. Then, place back in the oven to cook for another 30 minutes. Serve immediately.

9. Enjoy!

Before cooking.

Notes:

1. For the overnight option, combine the bread, milk/egg mixture, and the berries, cover, and place in the fridge overnight. Then you can make the streusel the morning of, or the night before, just ensure that you cover it and refrigerate it as well.

2. This recipe works so well with almost any kind of fruit that you have: apples, peaches, berries, bananas, nectarines...the list goes on. Whatever you have or like, throw it in there and let me know how it goes!

3. If using, frozen fruit, lightly thaw and drain the juices if possible as it will contribute to a more moist French toast.

4. For the bread options, I would suggest using sourdough or brioche as these soak up the milk and eggs so well, but any kind of bread you have will work perfectly fine!

As you can tell, this is a pretty dang easy recipe to do and perfect for cooking for a larger group! Just in time for Easter (if you're celebrating).

This recipe mostly just includes pantry staples and, like I said, even frozen fruit can be used in this, making it pretty easy to make this last-minute without having to go to the grocery store and buy 15 ingredients for it. No one needs that kind of hassle on a weekend morning anyway!

Thanks for reading, I hope you get to try this out and you love it just as much as I do! Let me know how it goes and if you can, send me a picture or post it and tag me! I love seeing other people's twists on my recipes :)

Have a great weekend!