Blueberry Layered Stuffed French Toast

I do love baked french toast.  It is so nice to wake up, pop the casserole in the oven and have something so delicious ready with no morning effort on my part.  I decided to try something a bit different after seeing some fresh from the oven baguettes at the the store yesterday.  I likened this recipe to a baked french toast lasagna and it was so good this morning! 

The recipe:

Ingredients:
1-2 French Baguettes (I used one and half but I love fresh bread too much to not eat any of it!)
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup of milk (I used skim but it's all your preference)
8 oz softened cream cheese (I used low fat but again, your preference)
1/4 cup granulated sugar.



After slicing the baguettes into rounds, I put them in a large bowl.  I mixed together all of the wet ingredients and whisked until they were full incorporated.  I poured the mixture over the rounds and used my hands to really mix them up.  You could use a spoon but you want to really, really be sure that every piece gets soaked in the egg mixture. 

Really, really soak it in!!

Once that is ready, set it aside and mix the cream cheese and sugar together.  Set aside to use as the middle layer for the french toast lasagna.

Then, put two layers of baguettes soaked in the egg mixture on the bottom of a greased casserole dish.  I then put about 3/4 cup of blueberries scattered over them, another layer of baguettes spread with the softened cream cheese mixture and another 1/2 cup of blueberries.  One more layer of baguettes completed the layering. 

Put the lid on it, cover it with foil, or whatever else you'd like to use and pop it in the fridge to rest overnight. 

In the morning, preheat the oven to 375 and set the casserole out to warm up a bit.  Put in the oven for about 45-55 minutes, covering with foil or a lid for the first 30 minutes to not overbrown or dry it out. 

Once it's done, let it set for about 5-10 minutes before cutting it. 

I love the color of the egg coming through, and you can see it's a wonderful blend of cream cheese, blueberries and the wonderful chewiness of the bread. 

And, just if you need further proof of how awesome this truly is, I'll leave this final picture for you.  A fantastic, super easy, make ahead breakfast.  I make this for company that stays over because it lets me enjoy the morning as much as they do.