Christmas morning breakfast idea: Make an overnight breakfast casserole

Got milk? Got Eggs? Grab a loaf of bread and get ready to make the easiest Christmas breakfast option.

With the hustle and bustle of the holidays (and snowy weather predicted) you need a hassle-free, go-to dish for Christmas morning or brunch. And a breakfast casserole is just the ticket.

Here's why breakfast casseroles tend to trend around the holidays:

• You can make breakfast casseroles savory or sweet — such as a French toast casserole.

• Little effort is required. They are assembled the night before serving and don’t require any heavy lifting or out-of-the-ordinary ingredients.

• Since it’s already assembled, it’s ready to pop in the oven Christmas morning. This is a huge bonus for those on the go.

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Breakfast casseroles are comfort food at their best. Breakfast casseroles are everything you might eat at breakfast — eggs, sausage, potatoes, and cheese, all tossed together and cooked in one dish. These are especially ideal when you have overnight guests (or need feed a crowd).

There are no hard-and-fast rules for a breakfast casserole. The basic concept is that it’s assembled the night before and refrigerated to allow the dry bread to soak up the liquid.

Here are some breakfast casserole basics along with some favorite recipes from our archives to try.

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Choose your bread

Use plain sandwich bread, sweet challah, leftover rolls, croissants, croutons or anything you have on hand. Cut bread into cubes or leave in slices. Figure a heaping 6 cups of bread cubes if you're using a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Make sure the bread is several days old and dry. Dry the bread in a 300-degree oven for 30 minutes if you need to.

Choose your add-ins

Cheese and add-ins: Use shredded cheddar, Monterey Jack, mozzarella, fontina or fontinella. Cheese blends such as Italian or Mexican also work well, or you can use some Parmesan or Gruyere. The amount of cheese you include should be about half the amount of bread you used. If you used 4 cups of bread cubes, use 2 cups of cheese. Add-ins include cooked sausage and bacon, sautéed ham and vegetables like peppers, onions and mushrooms, potatoes, and sauteed spinach and kale.

Choose your liquid

Eggs and milk: These, along with the bread, help bind the casserole together. The combination of eggs and milk should equal or come close to the amount of bread you use. If you use 4 cups of cubed bread, use 2 cups of milk and 2 cups of egg, then add in desired seasonings, herbs or ingredients such as hot sauce and Dijon mustard.

Assembly basics

Butter a baking dish and scatter or layer the bread in the dish. Scatter cooked meat and vegetables over the bread. Sprinkle with all but about ½ cup of the cheese. Pour the milk-egg mixture over the bread. Press down slightly on the mixture so all the bread gets some moisture. It's OK if some bread is exposed at the top. Sprinkle with reserved cheese. Cover with foil and refrigerate at least four hours or overnight so the bread soaks up the liquid.

Custard French Toast

Serves: 6 / Prep time: 15 minutes (plus overnight setting time) / Total time: 50 minutes

FRENCH TOAST

¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter, softened

12 ¾-inch-thick French bread slices

6 eggs

1½ cups 2% milk

¼ cup sugar

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon salt

Powdered sugar

MAPLE SYRUP

2 cups maple syrup

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted

To make the French toast: Spread a thick layer of butter over bottom of heavy large baking pan with 1-inch-high sides. Arrange bread slices in pan. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, milk, sugar, syrup, vanilla and salt. Pour mixture over bread. Turn bread slices to coat. Cover with plastic and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove the plastic wrap. Using a spatula, transfer bread slices to buttered baking sheets; discard any remaining liquid. Bake 10 minutes. Turn bread over and continue baking until just golden, about 5-8 minutes longer.

Meanwhile, prepare the syrup. In a heavy medium saucepan, combine the maple syrup and walnuts. Bring to simmer and keep the syrup hot.

Transfer cooked toast to plates and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve immediately, passing Maple-Pecan Syrup separately.

Adapted from epicurious.com.

Tested by Susan M. Selasky for the Free Press Test Kitchen.

Overnight Croissant Breakfast Casserole

Serves: 10 / Prep time: 30 minutes / Total time: 1 hour, 30 minutes, plus overnight chilling time

The original recipe called for country ham, but you can use whatever ham you have. Country ham is dry-cured with salt and seasonings and smoked. It's then aged for months and even a year or more. By comparison, city ham is cured and smoked. You can think of country ham like prosciutto or serrano ham. It's salty and somewhat chewy.

12 to 15 mini croissants (day old or dried in oven)

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

8 ounces diced ham

1½ pounds sweet onions or other onions, chopped or sliced into 1-inch long pieces (about 4 cups)

5 ounces baby spinach, roughly chopped

6 large eggs

2 cups whole milk

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

6-8 ounces fontina cheese, shredded (about 2 cups), divided

Lightly butter a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Arrange croissants, slightly overlapping, in 2 rows.

In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium heat. Add the ham and saute until it's lightly browned. Using a slotted spoon, transfer ham to a large bowl. (If using country ham, reserve drippings in skillet.) Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil to the skillet; stir in onions. Cook, stirring occasionally until deeply browned, about 20-30 minutes. Add the spinach; cook, stirring often, until wilted, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer onion/spinach mixture to bowl with ham; let cool 10 minutes.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, mustard, salt and pepper. Add egg mixture and 1½ cups of the cheese to bowl with onion mixture and stir to combine. Pour mixture over croissants. Sprinkle the top with the remaining ½ cup cheese. Cover with aluminum foil and chill 8 hours or up to overnight.

When you're ready to serve, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Uncover the casserole and place on a large-rimmed baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven until golden brown and the center is set, about 50 minutes to 1 hour. Cover with foil after 25 minutes, if necessary, to prevent excess browning.

Adapted from Southern Living Magazine, December 2018 issue. Tested by Susan Selasky for the Free Press Test Kitchen.

Strata with Sausage, Cheese and Herbs

Serves: 12 (generously) / Prep time: 20 minutes / Total time: 1 hour

You can use turkey sausage or mild or hot Italian sausage in this recipe. Or you can use frozen vegetarian crumbles.

20 ounces sweet Italian sausage, casings removed if in links

1 tablespoon butter

1 medium onion, chopped into ½-inch pieces (about 1 cup)

8 ounces cremini mushrooms, cleaned, sliced

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme, optional

1 cup heavy whipping cream

½ cup half-and-half

10 eggs

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

16 ounces egg bread or country bread (preferably 1 to 2 days old), cut into ½-inch-thick slices

2½ cups shredded Fontina or Swiss cheese

Butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch-by-13-inch baking dish.

In a large skillet over medium heat, break up sausage and sauté until golden brown, about 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside on paper towels to drain. Add the 1 tablespoon butter to the same skillet and melt. Add the onions, mushrooms and bell pepper and sauté until they are tender. Remove from the heat and cool.

In a medium bowl, whisk the thyme if using with the cream, half-and-half, eggs, salt and pepper, and set aside.

Lay half of the bread in the buttered baking dish, sprinkle with half of the sausage mixture, half of the mushroom mixture and about half of the cheese. Repeat layering with remaining bread, sausage, mushroom and cheese. Slowly pour egg mixture over top. Press down on the bread so it gets covered with the egg mixture. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove the strata from the refrigerator while the oven is preheating. Uncover and place the baking dish on a baking sheet to catch overflow. Bake 40 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven. Allow to sit 10 minutes before serving.

From and tested by Susan Selasky for the Free Press Test Kitchen.

Contact Detroit Free Press food writer Susan Selasky and send food and restaurant news to: sselasky@freepress.com. Follow @SusanMariecooks on Twitter.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Breakfast casseroles: A go-to dish for Christmas morning breakfast