Vegan Blueberry Maple French Toast Casserole

One of my favorite things to do with a bunch of leftover bread is french toast casserole!  I will often times put bread in the freezer if we don't eat it all in a couple days because I don't want it to get stale.  But sometimes I forget it is in there.  I had a bunch of sourdough bread in my freezer I had bought from a couple times when we had soup, and I decided it would make a wonderful Vegan Blueberry French Toast Casserole!  At first I was just going to make a plain french toast casserole, but I remembered I had some blueberry jam on hand so I thought I would make it blueberry!

This is actually really easy to make!  For regular french toast you would toss the bread with an egg and milk mixture, but for mine, I use flax eggs (ground flax seed mixed with filtered water), and plant based milk which happened to be oat milk this time because it was what I had on hand. If you wanted it a little more rich you could use coconut milk instead, I have used that before also. I sweetened the milk mixture with maple syrup and vanilla and it was just right!  I also added in a touch of maple extract since I wanted it to be more maple flavored but if you can't find this ingredient, it is optional.

You just toss the bread with the mixture briefly, and it is ready to go.  I also added in some blueberries because I wanted double blueberry goodness! I dropped the jam randomly into the casserole so there would be plenty of blueberries throughout.  This jam was some that Eric's Dad made and it is just the right amount of sweet.  If you can not find blueberry jam you could use another flavor of jam or just leave it out and use a few extra blueberries.  It will still be delicious!  A note on the blueberries, I used frozen and thawed (drained well) because it is winter where I live and the fresh are outrageously expensive this time of year but you can use either.

I sprinkled the casserole with a little more sugar before throwing it into the oven to create a crispy top and in it went!  It smelled heavenly while baking, like french toast and blueberry muffins!  This turned out so delicious!  It has kind of a soft and fluffy texture on the inside, is crispy on top and the pockets of sweet blueberries and scent of vanilla and maple make it totally crave worthy!  You can top it off with maple syrup if you like, which is what my husband did because he likes things pretty sweet, but I enjoyed mine with a little coconut whipped cream and it was fabulous!  If you are looking for something delicious to make for brunch, give this Vegan Blueberry Maple French Toast Casserole a try!

Vegan Blueberry Maple French Toast Casserole

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

Bread Pudding:

• 2 Tbsp ground flax seed, mixed with 6 Tbsp filtered water
• 1 3/4 cups oat milk (or your favorite plant based milk)
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp maple extract (optional)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 6 cups lightly packed cubed sourdough bread
• 1/2 cup blueberries
• 1 cup blueberry jam
• 2 Tbsp maple sugar (or coconut sugar)

For serving:

• Maple syrup (optional)

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F degrees, and oil a two quart baking dish or 8x8 inch square pan.
2. In a bowl, whisk together the flax seeds and water mixture, oat milk, maple syrup, sea salt, and maple extract, and vanilla until well combined, then add the bread crumbs and blueberries toss to coat in the mixture.
3. Transfer half the mixture to the prepared baking dish, then spoon half the blueberry jam over it by the teaspoon.  Pour the remaining mixture over that (including the liquid, pour it over them), then drop the rest of the jam over it as you did the first time. Sprinkle with the maple sugar.
4. Place in the oven on a tray, and bake for about 30 minutes or until the top is starting to brown and the liquid has absorbed at the bottom.
5. Remove from oven.
6. Serve with maple syrup if desired!