This Strawberry French Toast Casserole with Cream Cheese is a delicious brunch dish you can easily make ahead. Topped with streusel and studded with plenty of juicy strawberries and decadent cream cheese, it’s perfect for special breakfasts like Easter or Mother’s Day!
French toast bake with strawberries
- This casserole is the perfect dish if you don’t want to fuss over breakfast in the morning – just prep it the night before and keep it chilled in the refrigerator. All you have to do in the morning is to add the chilled streusel and bake!
- The strawberries add wonderful pops of color and flavor to the casserole. I opt to assemble the casserole with two layers of strawberries – the ones in the middle get super juicy and help to naturally sweeten the bake, while the ones on top stay bright red and make it look oh-so appetizing!
- The cream cheese and streusel take a simple breakfast casserole from good to extra special – without having to make a huge fuss over it! The streusel is easy to make with just 3 ingredients, and the cream cheese makes hardly any extra work for the cook.
Ingredients you’ll need
Here is a visual overview of the ingredients in the recipe. Scroll down to the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for quantities!
Ingredient notes
- Milk: We usually use whole milk or 2%, but use whatever milk you enjoy. If you want to use dairy-free milk, vanilla almond or vanilla soy would be great choices.
- Maple syrup: You can use brown sugar in place of the maple syrup, or use both, or use none at all for a slightly less sweet breakfast.
- Bread: I highly recommend using stale bread. If you only have fresh, cube it, spread it on a baking sheet and bake at 275°F for 10-15 minutes, until starting to feel dry (do not let it brown, though). My favorite type of bread for this casserole is a white sourdough or a simple white bread (I do often use homemade bread by my husband, but storebought is perfectly fine!). Challah or brioche is also delicious, but in my testing of this recipe I noticed you need to reduce the milk by ¼ cup if using a very soft type of bread (brioche, Texas toast, challah…) compared to a more sturdy one like sourdough.
- Strawberries: You can use fresh or frozen, just make sure to thaw the frozen ones for 10-15 minutes on the counter so you can slice them and reduce the milk by ¼ cup to counteract more juices releasing from frozen berries. This also works awesomely with blueberries or raspberries – I even have recipes for a plain blueberry French toast casserole and a crockpot raspberry chocolate French toast bake!
- Cream cheese: Regular cream cheese or reduce fat cream cheese both work in this recipe. Feel free to leave it out if you prefer.
How to make a Strawberry French Toast Casserole
assemble ingredients first layer second layer add streusel after chilling
1. Assemble the ingredients: Whisk together the milk/eggs/maple syrup/ground cinnamon/vanilla. Cube the bread and cream cheese. Slice the strawberries. Make and refrigerate the streusel.
2. First layer: Place ⅔ of the bread in a 9×13 inch casserole dish, then top with ⅓ of the berries and all of the cream cheese. Pour over ⅓ of the milk mixture.
3. Second layer: Top with remaining bread and remaining strawberries, then pour over the remaining milk mixture. Make sure to evenly pour it to moisten all of the bread cubes!
4. Chill: Cover the dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight, or at least 2 hours.
5. Bake: To bake, remove from the refrigerator and uncover. Top with the chilled streusel, then bake at 350°F for 40-50 minutes, until fully cooked through. Let sit on the counter for 10 minutes before serving.
Recipe tips
- Egg mixture: Use a measuring jug that’s large enough for some vigorous whisking. Trust me – you’ll regret grabbing that small one just because it’s in the front of the cabinet. And don’t be lazy with the whisking. You want the eggs all beaten up and mixed in with the milk, otherwise you’ll have scrambled egg in your casserole.
- Bread: Best practice here is to go small enough so the cubes are bite sized, but not so small that they dissolve in the casserole. If you really want to bother yourself with an inch measurement, go about 1 inch. But please be kind to your sanity and don’t actually measure.
- Chilling time: You have to chill the casserole so that the bread can soak up all the egg mix. If you don’t, you’ll end up with bread cubes baked into a custard. A soaked French Toast Casserole is big and puffy and bakes up really nicely. You can get away with ~2 hours, but best is always overnight.
- Baking time: The casserole may seem like it is fully baked after 25-30 minutes, but it’s always still quite soggy for me. I do mostly bake it for around 45 minutes to get it fully set and easy to serve. It’s fine for the top to lightly brown, but if it gets too dark, either place it on a lower rack in the oven or loosely cover the top with aluminium foil.
French Toast FAQs
If your bread can’t soak up all the egg mixture, your bake can turn out soggy. To counteract this, make sure to use day-old bread and let it sit in the fridge overnight.
If you don’t have stale bread on hand, you can dry the cubed bread in the oven for around 10 minutes at 275°F.
You need to bake the casserole until it’s fully cooked in the middle, and there is no runny egg left visible. The bake will be puffy and golden brown on top when it’s done.
I recommend checking the internal temperature with a food thermometer. It has to reach 165°F for casseroles, according to the government’s food safety chart. See the full chart here.
Serving ideas
Apart from extra strawberries and maple syrup, here are some of our favorite sides:
- Add a side of air fryer bacon
- Serve the casserole with a Greek Yogurt berry fruit salad or a cheesecake berry fruit salad
- Make a Strawberry Champagne Cocktail or an Elderflower Champagne Cocktail to serve at a special brunch!
PS If you try this recipe, please leave a review in the comment section and add a star rating in the recipe card – I appreciate your feedback! Follow along on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram.
Printable recipe
Strawberry French Toast Casserole with Cream Cheese
Recipe details
Ingredients
For the casserole
- 5 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups milk
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅓ cup maple syrup OR brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 16 oz stale bread cubed; see notes
- 1 (8-oz) block cream cheese diced
- 2 cups sliced strawberries
For the streusel
- ⅓ cup white flour
- ⅓ cup white sugar
- 3 tablespoons cold butter cubed
To serve
- extra strawberries
- maple syrup
Instructions
- Make streusel: Combine flour and sugar in a medium bowl. Cut in cold butter until coarse crumbs form (there should be no dry flour left – I just use clean fingertips to "rub" butter into flour/sugar). Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
- Make egg mixture: Whisk eggs, milk, cinnamon, sweetener and vanilla together in a measuring cup.
- Layer casserole: Place ½ of bread in a greased 9×13 inch casserole dish. Top with cream cheese and ⅓ of strawberries. Pour over ⅓ of egg mixture. Top with remaining bread, strawberries and egg mixture, making sure all bread cubes are covered in egg mixture.
- Chill: Tightly cover casserole and refrigerate for at least two hours, better overnight.
- Bake: Once ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F. Bake casserole for 40-50 minutes, or until set. Allow to rest on counter for 10 minutes before serving.
Notes
Ingredient notes
- Milk: We usually use whole milk or 2%, but use whatever milk you enjoy. If you want to use dairy-free milk, vanilla almond or vanilla soy would be great choices.
- Maple syrup: You can use brown sugar in place of the maple syrup, or use both, or use none at all for a slightly less sweet breakfast.
- Bread: I highly recommend using stale bread. If you only have fresh, cube it, spread it on a baking sheet and bake at 275°F for 10-15 minutes, until starting to feel dry (do not let it brown, though). My favorite type of bread for this casserole is a white sourdough or a simple white bread (I do often use homemade bread by my husband, but storebought is perfectly fine!). Challah or brioche is also delicious, but in my testing of this recipe I noticed you need to reduce the milk by ¼ cup if using a very soft type of bread (brioche, Texas toast, challah…) compared to a more sturdy one like sourdough.
- Strawberries: You can use fresh or frozen, just make sure to thaw the frozen ones for 10-15 minutes on the counter so you can slice them and reduce the milk by ¼ cup to counteract more juices releasing from frozen berries. This also works awesomely with blueberries or raspberries – I even have recipes for a plain blueberry French toast casserole and a crockpot raspberry chocolate French toast bake!
- Cream cheese: Regular cream cheese or reduce fat cream cheese both work in this recipe. Feel free to leave it out if you prefer.
Recipe tips
- Egg mixture: Use a measuring jug that’s large enough for some vigorous whisking. Trust me – you’ll regret grabbing that small one just because it’s in the front of the cabinet. And don’t be lazy with the whisking. You want the eggs all beaten up and mixed in with the milk, otherwise you’ll have scrambled egg in your casserole.
- Bread: Best practice here is to go small enough so the cubes are bite sized, but not so small that they dissolve in the casserole. If you really want to bother yourself with an inch measurement, go about 1 inch. But please be kind to your sanity and don’t actually measure.
- Chilling time: You have to chill the casserole so that the bread can soak up all the egg mix. If you don’t, you’ll end up with bread cubes baked into a custard. A soaked French Toast Casserole is big and puffy and bakes up really nicely. You can get away with ~2 hours, but best is always overnight.
- Baking time: The casserole may seem like it is fully baked after 25-30 minutes, but it’s always still quite soggy for me. I do mostly bake it for around 45 minutes to get it fully set and easy to serve. It’s fine for the top to lightly brown, but if it gets too dark, either place it on a lower rack in the oven or loosely cover the top with aluminium foil.
Nutrition
More recipe information
Recipe first published on 05/13/2018. Updated with new photos, better text and better wording of the recipe on 05/31/2021.
Terri Way says
The recipe was great but there wasn’t anything on here to tell me how long to bake or what temperature to bake at. Aldo nothing about when to put the strusel on. Had to look up another recipe to find out. That’s why you get two stars. Be sure to proof read before publishing!!
Nora says
Terri, you are right – the streusel part slipped through my typing fingers in the final recipe card. It is mentioned twice in the post though, and the baking time/temperature is listed both in the post and in the printable recipe card. I’m always glad to have my hiccups pointed out because I’m a human, not a machine, and even though I proofread every post twice I do make an occasional mistake. I do, however, ask readers to carefully go through the post before claiming such a mistake – most of the time, we just read too fast and miss the information that’s right there. Glad you enjoyed the casserole either way!
Catherine says
If I want to halve this, so I’m not going to be wasting six servings, should I go with two eggs or three since the recipe for one full size is 5 eggs? Thanks!
Nora says
Catherine, I would either use 2 eggs and add an extra 2 tablespoons of milk, or use 3 eggs and reduce the milk by 2 tablespoons. Hope this helps!
Traci says
This was absolutely delicious! Of course I have enough for the whole neighborhood! Next time I will alter the recipe and do it in custard cups for 2!!
Nora says
I’m so glad, Traci! And I’d love to hear how it turns out as a small batch!
Kevin Nelson says
If one inch cubes is what is needed you should say that in the ingredients not your comments below, the comments are not part of a recipe.
Nora says
“Best practice here is to go small enough so the cubes are bite sized, but not so small that they dissolve in the casserole. If you really want to bother yourself with an inch measurement, go about 1 inch.” It’s right there in the recipe card, Kevin. And I respectfully disagree, comments have always been a part of recipes. Or have you never picked up an old cookbook, scribbled full of comments or post-it notes the cook added to the recipes?
Mallory says
Hi there! I can’t wait to make this for Easter brunch. Quick question… can you explain approximately what 16 oz of French bread looks like? Is that like 1.5 baguettes? I’ve always made a French toast bake with bread the doesn’t crust over well and I’d like to try to really follow your recipe. Thanks!
Nora says
Mallory, sorry for my late reply! As far as I know, French bread/baguette comes in so many different sizes (I quickly checked online and found everything from 8oz to 14oz) so I would definitely recommend checking labels/asking the baker if at a bakery and then weighing out the 16oz at home.
Michelle says
Is the casserole covered or uncovered when baking?
Nora says
Hi Michelle, you bake it uncovered. Sorry if there was any confusion about this in the recipe!
Renna says
Hello,
I just want to ask if you put the streusel before baking?
Thanks
Nora says
Hi Renna, yes, it goes on right before baking.