Baked Blueberry French Toast Casserole with Maple Butter

So when we moved to Savannah a couple weeks ago, we didn't really know anyone, but we ended up meeting the girl that lives above us! And her sweet mother bought us this delicious blueberry cobbler bread from a bakery back where she lives. So we couldn't really decide what we wanted to do with it, I mean it was delicious enough to eat on its own, and then we thought that it would be awesome as french toast. We ended up making it into a baked french toast casserole and it turned out so good! We topped ours with some homemade maple butter and fresh whipped cream. But also, don't feel obligated to use blueberry bread, you could substitute any kind of bread you wish or even add chocolate chips, fresh fruit, or nuts. Just get creative! Enjoy :)

Baked Blueberry French Toast Casserole with Maple Butter & Whipped Cream

For the Bread:

1 Loaf (or 24 oz) of Blueberry Bread, Cubed & Dried

2t Brown Sugar

1T Butter, Cubed

For the Batter:

4 Large Eggs

1C Half & Half

½C Whole Milk

1T Sugar

½t Vanilla

¼t Cinnamon

¼t Salt

1t Brown Sugar

For the Maple Butter:

½C Maple Syrup

4T Butter 

Directions:
1. For the bread, you first need to cut the loaf of bread into cubes. Place these cubes onto a baking sheet and let them become stale overnight. Once these cubes are stale, grease a baking dish and stuff them into the dish and press down as hard as possible, so it’s fully packed.
2. Next, you have to make the batter to soak the stale bread cubes. In a medium mixing bowl, add the eggs, half & half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, salt, and brown sugar. Using the immersion blender, blend the mixture until it’s completely creamy. You can use an immersion blender or a whisk will work just fine. Pour the batter over the bread cubes and press down so that the batter soaks into all of the cubes on top.
3. Cover the dishes with tin foil and let it sit over night.
4.The next morning, preheat the oven to 350. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on your oven and what size baking dish you used. We used to individual baking ramekins, but you could easily do this is a large pan as well.
5. Serve hot with whipped cream, maple syrup, or maple butter.

source: baked french toast casserole