Blueberry Breakfast Buns

Breakfast at our house is usually pretty simple– cereal or toast, or on occasion a poached egg– but sometimes on weekends we like to splurge a little and have waffles or pancakes. Sadly, both of those require someone to stand at a hot waffle iron or stove and make them, while the rest of the family eats– it hardly seems fair. Breakfast casseroles are a great way to deal with this issue, especially where (as in this recipe) all the prep is done the night before, so all you have to do in the morning is pop it into the oven and wait!

I created this recipe on a whim because I saw a bag of dinner rolls on sale at the grocery store– day-old bread is probably the best because it’ll soak up moisture more easily, but you can use pretty much any kind of roll or bready item. The end result is basically French toast, stuffed with a cheesecake-y filling with nice pops of flavor from the berries. You could use raspberries, blackberries, or strawberries if you like, but I like the blueberry-cream cheese combination the best. And since we’re right in the middle of blueberry season, I recommend you take advantage of it!

Blueberry Breakfast Buns

• 12 small rolls/buns (like dinner rolls or Hawaiian rolls)
• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1 pint blueberries
• 6 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 3 tbs. coarse sugar (optional)

• The night before you want to serve these, spray a 9×13″ baking pan with baking spray.
• Mix together cream cheese and powdered sugar until reasonably smooth.
• Slice open each of your rolls to form a pocket, and spread a generous tablespoon of cream cheese inside each roll.

• Stuff some blueberries into each roll, and arrange rolls in your baking pan. Scatter the rest of the blueberries over the rolls.

• Whisk together eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon, and pour very slowly over your stuffed rolls. You want to give the tops of the rolls a chance to absorb as much liquid as possible. You can even poke holes in the top with a skewer if you want, to really help the liquid soak in.
• Cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate until the next morning.
• When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Remove your pan from the refrigerator to warm up a bit while your oven heats.
• Remove the foil and sprinkle the top of your rolls with coarse sugar. Replace foil.
• Bake for about 20 minutes, covered, then remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes.

• Let the rolls cool for about 5 minutes before serving with maple syrup.