Dining with Dimon: Cream Cheese French Toast Bake

This cream cheese stuffed french toast is indulgent to the extreme! Eggy custard, dollops of vanilla cream cheese, and melted brown sugar streusel… I’m craving more already. Perfect lazy weekend brunch for Dining with Dimon round three!

I was so excited when Rebecca suggested making french toast – it’s not something I make often, but every time I do I want more. And I just had to mess around a little since I can’t leave anything alone. Add some cream cheese, lots of vanilla, extra cinnamon… and let’s make it ahead of time so we can really have a lazy morning with our shared mimosas.

Confession time. This is where you lose all faith in me as a food blogger… because in twenty-four years of life, I had no idea how easy it was to make french toast. Okay, I didn’t think it was super complicated, but there had to be more to it than one skillet and three ingredients.

Nope. The rest of you knew this already, I’m just a liiiiittle slow catching up.

When Kirk offered to make french toast on a lazy Sunday last spring, I was so smitten. He’s a great cook but I’m usually hogging the kitchen. I was confused when he set a warm plate in front of me less than ten minutes later. That’s all it takes to make fluffy delicious syrupy french toast?

Mmhmm. Which is why everyone else in the world already knew about it.

This is almost rich enough to be called a bread pudding. The key here is what kind of bread you use: basic grocery store French bread is going to be just fine, but you want to cube it ahead of time get some crusty edges. This is perfect for that slightly-stale half loaf on your counter because it will soak up all that egg custard goodness.

If you want to make this the night before for a lazy morning, use very crusty bread. If you just woke up but want it in the oven and then your mouth ASAP, use fresher bread. They’ll have different textures but either dish will be empty before you know it.

Print Recipe

Cream Cheese French Toast Bake

Eggy custard, dollops of vanilla cream cheese, and melted brown sugar streusel are perfectly indulgent for brunch.

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time45 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Servings: 6 servings

Calories: 284kcal

Author: Mountain Cravings

Ingredients

• ½ loaf french bread
• 6 oz. light cream cheese softened
• 2 T. powdered sugar
• 1 t. vanilla
• 4 eggs
• 1¼ cups milk
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 t. vanilla
• ½ t. cinnamon
• 2 T. flour
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ½ t. cinnamon
• 2 T. butter cold
• maple syrup (optional)

Instructions

• Cube bread (at least an hour ahead of time if possible) and spread out on a baking sheet to harden.
• When you’re ready to assemble, grease an 8”x8” baking dish and layer half the bread cubes in the bottom.
• Cream together cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla and dollop evenly over bread. Top with remaining bread cubes.
• Whisk together eggs, milk, brown sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon. Pour evenly over bread cubes, making sure the entire top is soaked. At this point, the dish can be covered with plastic and refrigerated until ready to bake.
• Preheat oven to 350°.
• Whisk together flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Use your fingertips to cut in cold butter until the mixture is coarse and sprinkle over the dish.
• Bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes until golden brown. Drizzle with maple syrup if desired and serve immediately.