Fourth Of July French Toast Bake
A Guest’s Breakfast
Fourth of July French Toast Bake is a fun, delicious, and festive recipe that you can make ahead of time. Crunchy, sweet, and delicious French toast topped with fresh berries and whipped cream is the perfect start to your Summer holiday.
This recipe uses my favorite local to Chicago product, Chateau Bread Dumplings, but any bread can be swapped. I even have my own version of simple bread dumplings you can make yourself.
I buy them locally at many Chicagoland grocery stores in the frozen food section. I love the way they hold up to this overnight french toast.
I also use these same bread dumplings for my Best Thanksgiving Stuffing.
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Make Ahead Whipped Cream
The whipped cream in this recipe is lovely because you can make it ahead of time. I include the recipe in the recipe card below, but I also have a separate post about the make ahead whipped cream here on The Tipsy Housewife.
This whipped cream is rich and decadent. It pairs so well with this French Toast Bake and lovely macerated fruit.
If you are unfamiliar with that word, you can read this post on maceration.
Festive Fruit
I love the look and color of these berries on the French Toast Casserole, especially for this time of year. The fruit just tastes so fresh and delicious.
The added sugar and vanilla is something special for this holiday breakfast.
The Batter
The French toast batter is decadent and rich. I like to splurge on some really good farm fresh eggs for this recipe.
It may be my mind playing tricks on me, but I just think really fresh eggs make this recipe so much better.
As I said, I use the bread dumplings because they hold up to this batter. Lots of other breads will work, just make sure that it is a more dense bread with a chewy crust.
You don’t want to use a light and airy bread. This is so the French toast can set up overnight before baking.
This is the perfect breakfast to enjoy before or after a night of fireworks. Maybe even before and after!
Fourth Of July French Toast Bake Recipe
Fourth of July French Toast Bake is a patriotic crowd pleaser that offers a sweet and crunchy blast of berry-topped flavors.
Ingredients
- For The French Toast Overnight Casserole:
- 2 Boxes of Chateau Bread Dumplings or 8 Cups of Cubed Bread like brioche or French *see post for details on the bread dumplings
- 6 Eggs
- 2 Cups of Whole Milk
- 1 C of Heavy Cream
- 1/3 C of Light Brown Sugar + 2 Tablespoons
- 1/2 t of Vanilla Extract + another 1/2 teaspoon
- 1/4 t of Almond Extract
- 1 teaspoon of Cinnamon
- A couple of shakes of Nutmeg
- 1/2 t of salt
- 1 Stick of Butter
- Maple Syrup & Powdered Sugar
- For The Berries:
- 3 cups of Strawberries
- 2 cups of Blueberries
- 2 tablespoons of white Sugar, divided
- 2 teaspoons of Vanilla Extract divided
- For The Whipped Cream:
- 8 ounces of Cream Cheese, softened
- 1 cup of Powdered Sugar
- 2 cups of Heavy Whipping Cream
- 1 tablespoon of Vanilla Extract
Instructions
For The French Toast Casserole:
- Thaw and cube your bread dumplings. Cut them into small bite sized cubes that are kid friendly.
- Whisk together the milk, cream, eggs, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, 1/3 C of brown sugar, vanilla, and almond extract until well combined.
- Melt 2 T of butter and pour into a 9 x 13 casserole dish.
- Add your cubed dumplings (or bread substitute) to the dish and pour the batter over it. Give it a few tosses to make sure all the dumplings are soaking in the batter.
- Cover and put into the fridge overnight for up to two nights.
- When ready to bake, remove from the fridge, melt the remaining stick of butter and the 2 T of brown sugar, and pour over the top of the casserole, drizzling it as you go.
- Bake at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes. You will know when its done when the casserole is firm in the center.
- When you remove it from the oven, drizzle it with syrup and sprinkle it with brown sugar, then let it rest for 10 minutes.
- Serve by scooping it out like bread pudding.
For The Make Ahead Whipped Cream:
- Whip the cream cheese with the powder sugar on medium speed until it is smooth. I used my stand mixer for this.
- Make sure your heavy whipping cream is cold, add that and the vanilla to a bowl, and whisk by hand or with an electric mixer until peaks form. If doing by hand, this will take some time. Use a deep bowl, as the whipping cream will splash out when using an electric mixer.
- When the peaks form, fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture and beat on medium speed for 1 to 2 minutes.
- You can use immediately or refrigerate up to three days.
For The Fruit:
- Combine the fruit separately with the sugar and vanilla extract and let it sit for at least one hour or even overnight.
- Serve on top of French toast.
If you want another delicious breakfast that will fill you up till lunch time, try my Cheesy Egg Breakfast Biscuits.