Baked Blueberry French Toast - A Mother's Day Treat

This year was my very first Mother's Day!  Both my husband and my daughter did a fabulous job of making me feel extra special, I don't think I changed a single diaper that Sunday!

In addition to being spoiled myself, we hosting a Mother's Day brunch since both of our mom's (and my husband's Grandmother) are in town.  We ended up with a total of 16 adults and 2 kids! But that's how my family rolls, the more the merrier.


The forecast for Mother's Day was +29 and sunny, so we set up our patio set and an extra table on the deck to sit everyone together.  We managed to squish 8 people per table so it was fun and cozy.  A ton of dark grey clouds kept hanging over our heads, but other than a small drizzle while setting up, the weather got progressively nicer as the morning wore on and we were all able to enjoy ourselves on the beautiful day.

We tried to keep our menu simple in order to get a chance to visit with everyone and not be stuck in the kitchen the whole time.  Our menu consisted of Baked Blueberry French Toast, a spinach, cheese, and potato egg scramble, bacon (of course!), Pound Cake with Whipped Cream and Berries, mimosa's, and some Pomegranate Raspberry Champagne Cocktails.  (I will link up to the additional recipes as I post them.  Trust me, you want the champagne cocktail recipe!).  

I also asked my siblings to help out so my sister brought this awesome Edible Arrangement and my brother brought a meat, cheese, and cracker platter to keep everyone happy while the food was finishing up.  My mother-in-law brought some fresh pineapple and my aunt brought a strawberry shortcake for dessert.  When all was said and done we had an awesome collection of food!

This baked french toast recipe was amazing! And the best part was it was super easy to prepare ahead of time. You can actually make it the night before and then throw it in the oven the next morning.  We doubled it to feed our group, but the recipe below is for about 6 servings.  

This recipe is also really versatile, you can use any fruit you want or even a bag of frozen mixed berries.  We did do one dish with sourdough and the other with french bread and the sourdough did a better job of holding up so I will stick with that next time we make it.  French bread totally worked if that is easier for you to get a hold of, but I would make it with a bit less milk, maybe 2 cups.

All of the mom's and their babies!

I found this recipe through Pinterest as prepared by Greedy Gourmand, but the recipe was originally posted on the Food Network.  I used some comments from people who had tried it before to come up with this version.  This makes about 6 servings if being served as the main course.

Baked Blueberry French Toast

• 8 or 9 slices of sourdough bread that are 1" thick, cubed
• Note: or about half a loaf.  The loaves that I used were shaped like french bread, but most sourdough loaves are a lot thicker in width. So you might want to just cut enough cubes to fill a 9 x 13" dish
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 cup maple syrup
• 2 1/2 cups milk
• 2 tsp cinnamon + 2 tsp for the topping
• 1/4 tsp salt
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• 2 cups blueberries 
• 2 tbsp sugar
• butter, for greasing the dish

1. Grease a 9 x 13" dish with the butter and preheat your oven to 350 F
2. In a large bowl whisk the eggs until frothy
3. Add the maple syrup, milk, 2 tsp cinnamon, salt, and lemon zest
4. Stir in the bread cubes and mix until coated
5. Add the blueberries and mix well
6. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish, making sure it is spread evenly
1. Note: If making ahead of time you can cover the dish and place it in the refrigerator at this point
7. Mix together the 2 tbsp of sugar with the 2 tsp of cinnamon and sprinkle it over the bread
8. Bake for 40 - 50 minutes, or until the top is golden and the filling looks to have set
9. Serve with some maple syrup or whipped cream
10. Enjoy!