Low Carb Blueberry French Toast Casserole

 

Occasionally if I am being nice, I make breakfast for TheHub. He generally is up and gone before I wake and honestly it is no harder for him to pour cereal in a bowl than it would be for me to do it, so I sleep while he pours. (For the record most days he is gone a few minutes before 6) But sometimes, on the weekend I am somewhat accommodating, and every once in a while I try something new and different.

Saturday morning was one of those times. 

I  should be following a keto way of eating but watermelon and corn on the cob have foiled me again this weekend. My intentions were noble, so I thought I would make us a casserole breakfast dish that was very different from anything that is our norm.  Since it was going to be a two step process I began by making the blueberry bread the day before. See recipe here. I rarely follow directions or a recipe exactly, but keto baking is a little different and I had never tried a keto sweet bread loaf before so I did this time*.  I made it as suggested for the French toast casserole omitting the heavy cream and one egg. 

There is nothing even remotely original about this recipe and I am copying it as it was written. I did use just half the loaf of the bread and halved the ingredients because we just do not need a recipe that serves twelve.  This is the link to the actual recipe.

1 loaf keto blueberry bread, cut into 12 slices

2 cups heavy cream

6 eggs, beaten

4 ounces cream cheese cut into small bits

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Place the bread slices on a baking sheet and pop in a 300 degree oven for 10 minutes, flip the slices over and pop them back in the oven for another 10 minutes. The object is to dry them out rather than toasting them. Once dried cut them into small cubes and spread evenly in a greased 9x13 inch pan.

Mix the cream, eggs, vanilla and cinnamon. Gently pour over the bread. Top with the bits of cream cheese then sprinkle the chopped pecans over the top of it.  Bake in a 350 degree over for 25-30 minuted until the mixture is set and slightly browned.

Serve with maple syrup (or blueberry syrup would be good too) I used Choc Zero Sugar Free Maple Syrup ( I know I keep mentioning them, but they have really nice monk fruit sweetened products, and I have no dog in the hunt. I just like their products and I never mention any product unless it is something I personally like and use)

We liked this but there are a couple of things I would do differently and it is strictly our preference. I would use less cream (3/4 cup for the half recipe) and would eliminate the cream cheese entirely. Neither of us felt it added anything and might have even been a taste distraction. That being said, we both like bread pudding, and this was much more like bread pudding than the French toast casseroles I have eaten in the past. (That being said, I have only had them made with French bread with much less liquid to bread) 

I have the other half of the blueberry loaf in the freezer and will make this again another day with the changes. It might work and it might not, but we will see.

If you are not doing keto, you could use any sweet bread in place of the keto version. I would suggest adding a little sugar to the cream mixture though. It was fine for us, but might not be sweet enough if you were expecting something more dessert-ish.

*I thought the bread recipe had entirely too much butter, but overall tasted really good. I will try using 6 tablespoons the next time I make it because after it finished baking the loaf was literally swimming in melted butter.