Strawberry French Toast Casserole with Cream Cheese

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 recipe at the bottom 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

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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

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 – I appreciate your feedback! Follow along on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram. Sign up for my email list, too!

Recipe first published on 05/13/2018. Updated with new photos, better text and better wording of the recipe on 05/31/2021.

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