French Toast Strata With Fresh Berries

The picture sold me on this one.  It was in the April issue of Ladies' Home Journal.  I'm all over a breakfast that I can prep the day before.  The recipe calls for raspberries, but we picked up some blackberries and blueberries at the farmer's market on Sunday, so that's what I used.

Here's the recipe with my notes:

French Toast Strata With Raspberries

5 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 C milk (I didn't have enough regular milk, so I added some heavy cream and buttermilk)
7 Tbsp granulated sugar (divided, don't be like me and dump all 7 into the egg mix)
5 oz cream cheese
Butter for dish
15 oz loaf of brioche or challah, thinly sliced and quartered (I have to make a special trip to get either one of these breads, so I used a round loaf of sourdough that I had on hand)
2 pints of raspberries (I used half blueberries and half blackberries - not quite 2 pints)
Confectioners' sugar

Add eggs, milk and 4 Tbsp sugar to a bowl or deep dish.

Whisk to combine.

In another bowl, combine cream cheese with 1 Tbsp sugar.

Butter a 2 1/2-quart baking dish.

Quickly dip half of the bread slices into the egg mixture and arrange them in a slightly overlapping layer on the bottom of the dish.

Top with bits of half the cream cheese and half the berries.

Repeat with remaining bread, cream cheese and berries.

Pour remaining egg mixture over the top and sprinkle entire dish with 2 Tbsp sugar.

Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 4 hours or up to 24 hours.

Heat oven to 350.

Remove plastic wrap and bake strata until eggs are set and top is golden brown, about 55 minutes.

Cover with foil if top gets too brown.

(I did this about 30 minutes in)

Dust with confectioners' sugar and serve warm or at room temp.

Here's breakfast on my plate:

Wipe the drool off your face and get in the kitchen.

This can be yours tomorrow morning.