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If there’s one brunch recipe you need in your life, it’s this Baked Blackberry Ricotta French Toast. Not only is this french toast incredibly easy, it’s also better than any other french toast you’ve ever had. Soft, buttery, sweet, and filled with blackberry jam, ricotta cheese and fresh blackberries. It’s the perfect brunch entrée for both spring and summer gatherings.
Welcome to another installment of Recipes my mom LOVES. If you hadn’t guessed from yesterday’s post, my mom loves brunch type food. Breakfast is her jam (get it? like her breakfast jam? no? OK. stopping now) and she’d eat it for every meal if she could.
One of the main reasons I developed a love of cooking was through my mom, and no, not because she loves to cook. In fact, she’s much more of a baker, and her cooking skills tend to be limited to pasta with butter. This is not to say she can’t/could not learn, because I one hundred percent know that she could, but she just doesn’t care to cook. Although I’m told she did do most of the cooking back when my brothers were little, before I was born, and when I was a baby.
Anyway, as a kid mom and I would do breakfast for lunch any chance we got. Meaning on the days I played hooky from school because I was “sick”. Right. Right. We’d make chocolate chip banana pancakes and huddle by the fire. It was the best, and it’s where my love of cooking really started to kick in.
Fast forward a few years to where we are today. I am very much grown-up, no longer living at home, and yet here I am, still making sweet breakfasts inspired by my mom.
Some things will never change. Not complaining.
Side Note: when and how did I get so old?!
Over the years of writing HBH, I have ventured out from our classic banana pancakes and created more than a few new breakfast recipes. This blackberry and ricotta filled baked french toast is high on my list of favorites, and moms too. So much so that it’s the only thing she’s asked to have on Mother’s Day this Sunday. Well, ok this french toast and then these crepes. French toast for breakfast, crepes for dinner with a big spring salad. You know, to round out the meal.
What? It’s Mother’s Day. She’s living it up.
OK. Here are the details.
Like I said, this french toast is not like any you’ve had before. Each piece is stuffed with sweet blackberry jam before getting dipped through an eggy, buttery, ricotta based batter. The pieces of toast are then layered in a baking dish and left to sit for an hour, or even overnight, to really let the batter soak into the bread.
Once the bread has soaked for a while, it’s time for the oven, where this dish will bake up to a sweet and golden perfection.
Now, you can of course just eat the french toast as is, but you guys know me, I need toppings. So I whipped up some ricotta and served it alongside the warm french toast with a light drizzle of maple syrup.
Yum. Yum. And YUM.
There’s truly nothing not to love about this french toast and what’s great is that if you are planning to make it for your weekend brunch, you can prepare everything the previous day and then just bake it up the morning of your brunch.
Super simple. So delicious. And you know, really pretty too!
You guys all know I love a dish that’s pretty and delicious.
Trust me when I say, all the moms of the world will also love this french toast. Also trust me when I say, anyone who’s not a mom will love this french toast. So basically, this french toast will be well loved by all.
You just need to make it so you can experience it for yourself.
Ready, set…
If you make this Blackberry French Toast and love it, please be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! I love, love, love hearing from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every one of you. Oh, and of course, if you do make this, don’t forget to also tag me on Instagram so I can see! I love looking at the photos of recipes you all have made. It makes my day!
Watch the How-To Video:
Baked Blackberry Ricotta French Toast
Servings: 10 servings
Calories Per Serving: 328 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 1 loaf challah bread, sliced into 1 inch thick slices
- 1 jar (10 ounces) blackberry or blueberry preserves
- 6 large eggs, beaten
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk
- 16 ounces whole milk ricotta cheese
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 tablespoons salted butter, melted
- 1 cup fresh blackberries
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- powdered sugar and maple syrup, for serving
Instructions
- 1. Grease a 9x13 inch-baking dish with butter. 2. Slice each piece of bread in half, cutting almost all the way through, but leaving a 1/4 inch at the bottom. Spread the inside of the bread with blackberry jam, press to enclose (see above photo). 3. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, 1 cup ricotta, maple syrup. vanilla, lemon zest, salt, and butter. Submerge each piece of bread into the egg mixture, allowing the bread to sit at least a minute and soak up the eggs. Arrange the bread in the prepared baking dish. Pour the remaining egg mixture over the bread slices.4. Cover and place in the fridge for 1 hour or overnight. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Sprinkle half the blackberries over top the french toast. Transfer to the oven and bake for 45-50 minutes or until the French toast is golden and crisp. If the tops of the bread begin to brown too quickly, loosely cover the french toast with foil.5. Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Gently fold in the remaining 1 cup ricotta. Stir in 1 tablespoon powdered sugar, if desired. 6. Serve the french toast warm, topped with whipped ricotta, fresh berries, and maple syrup. Enjoy!
GO.
You knocked it out of the park with this one!!!! Fabulous
Hey Kristin,
Happy Saturday! Thanks a bunch for giving this recipe a try, I am so glad it was enjoyed! xTieghan
Wow this is gourmet! My husband and I have outgrown our like of sweet breakfasts in many ways, so this fit the perfect bill between rich and healthy! I found the combination of everything the most important part of the dish–everything compliments and balances each other so well! I almost didn’t want to make the fresh cream on the side with the berries because I was worried it was rich enough, but the fresh cream was absolutely essential, in my opinion to cutting the richness with the tang of the fresh ricotta. Even without the added sugar it was the perfect topping! One small issue I had is that the whisk wasn’t enough for my taste to remove the clumpy texture of the cheese and I really prefer the ricotta to be whipped before adding it to the sauce. It didn’t easily fold into the whipped cream for me either…I had to beat it in which loses some of the loft of the cream. Maybe it’s supposed to be clumpy, but it didn’t seem right…The baked sauce also seemed curdled when it came out of the oven and I really didn’t love those bits which seemed like scrambled egg. Perhaps it was a mistake to not soak the sauce for an hour at least before baking…when I poured it in before baking it almost came to the top of my baking pan. For that reason, this is a pretty time consuming prep, so give yourself the time, which I tried to skimp on! Overall, it was still so good and worth the effort because it lasts 2 days for us.
Hey Jen,
I am thrilled you enjoyed this recipe, thanks so much for making it! Happy Sunday! xTieghan
The pictures show a cast iron crock, can this be used in lieu of the 9×13 for presentation purposes?
Hey Katy,
Yes, that will work. I hope you love the recipe, please let me know if you have any other questions! Happy Holidays! xTieghan
Wow. Made this fabulous dish this past weekend when my grown kids visited & used a loaf of brioche. The biggest challenge was cutting the slit for jam, but leaning the slice on the rest of the loaf helped. The lemon elevated the flavor. We’ll definitely be having this again!!
Amazing! I am really glad this recipe turned out so well for you, Kim! Thank you for trying it! xTieghan
OMG – heavenly! Loved the lemon zest flavor with the blackberries. A well-enjoyed birthday brunch.
Thank you so much Chrysanthe! xTieghan
Hi! This looks so great! Planning to make this tomorrow for Father’s Day brunch, can this be done in half? And can this be done in a Staub round Cocotte? 🙂
Hi Ysabel,
Yes you can cut this recipe in half and also do in a round cocotte. I hope you love the recipe, please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
I made this with strawberries and it was incredibly delicious! Love that it wasn’t overly sweet and also how the lemon zest popped right through (and besides, anything with ricotta is a definite yes for me!) This was just a Saturday morning bake but I will definitely use this for holidays, etc!
Thank you so much Kate! I am so glad this turned out so well for you! xTieghan
I made this recipe with Blueberries and it’s the best French toast I’ve made . It was for a big family brunch and was an absolute hit. Thank you!
Thank you! xTieghan
Can this recipe be frozen and baked at a later time? I want to make it prior to Christmas so I am not stuck in the kitchen preparing breakfast instead of enjoying being with my family.
Hi Gigi, I have never frozen this before baking. I would recommend preparing the french toast 1-2 days ahead of time and keeping in the fridge instead of freezing. I am worried about freezing the eggs. I do not know how that will turn out once baked. If you just keep in the fridge, you can then bake as directed in the morning. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you and happy holidays! xTieghan
Just made this for Easter for the first time and the family loved it. Easy to make not to sweet. This will be a hit for a long time
Thank you Leslie! xTieghan
As a mother of six kids, it’s hard to find recipes that EVERYONE likes. This recipe was a home run. I googled “French Toast and Ricotta” because I knew I wanted to incorporate ricotta into my breakfast routine. But this recipe quadrupled my breakfast expectations. And I have hand-made tortillas for breakfast burritos on many a day, so my breakfast enthusiasm is hard to beat. This one is a huge win in my book!!! Thank you!!!
I am so glad you loved this recipe, Kacie! Thank you! xTieghan
Recipe turned out great! I made it the night before and put it in the oven in the morning. So easy and great option to feed and impress a large group of people.
I am so glad you loved this Jenny! Thank you so much! xTieghan
Wow, this wonderful recipe truly made breakfast preparation eeaassyy. I put all of the ingredients together the night before and baked it the next morning. I used croissants, instead of brioche, and blueberries, instead of blackberries. My husband and son thoroughly enjoyed this new spin on French Toast. Thank you.
I am so glad you all loved this recipe Vanessa! Thank you!
Loved this recipe! I did the overnight and it was delicious! I served this for my family on Christmas morning and they were shocked at how good it was! Thank you!!
Thank you so much Morgan!
Making this now! Sounds so delicious! question: I’m confused as to how to “stuff” the bread with the jam? How do you “enclose” it as you said? Then do you dip each piece in the egg batter, with the jam on it? Can’t tell from the pics. Thank you! Love your recipes!
Hi! You will make a slit in the top of the bread, this is where you should stuff the jam. Then dip that whole piece into the egg mix. Does this make sense? Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe. Thanks so much!! xTieghan ?