Overnight Breakfast is the perfect Christmas morning or New Year’s Day breakfast casserole. Or brunch if you partied into the wee hours of the morning. You make it the night before and bake it in the morning. Low maintenance! What’s even better about this is you can be totally creative in what ingredients to use. I’ve made it with leftover turkey and switched out the cheddar for Swiss and Brie. I’ve used stale croissants, made sweet versions with raisin bread….the possibilities are endless!
Some people call this Wife Saver. I don’t like that title because it implies that women are the ones doing the cooking. Married women. Kind of old fashioned! But whatever you call it, this breakfast casserole is versatile and easy, not to mention yummy. This time I’m making one with meat and one vegetarian.
Jump to RecipeMake Overnight Breakfast tonight, bake it tomorrow
Start your Overnight Breakfast by laying out some chunks of bread to let them get stale. You can speed up the process by toasting them in a low temperature oven. Use about half a slice of bread per serving. Lay them in a large baking dish or 2 smaller dishes if you’re making 2 versions. You can make this in one large baking dish if you aren’t doing two versions.
Chop up onions or leeks, peppers, mushrooms and spinach. This looks best if you use a variety of colours. I used spinach this time but parsley works too. Mushrooms release liquid so don’t use too many. Arrange the veggies evenly over top of the bread. Cube the ham and sprinkle over top of one dish.
Shred the cheese and divide evenly over the top of each dish. Whisk the eggs and add Dijon, milk, salt and pepper. Pour evenly over each dish. The liquid should be about an inch from the top. Cover with plastic wrap and press down slightly. Refrigerate over night.
In the morning preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Bake the Overnight Breakfast on the middle rack for about an hour until it’s puffed up and no longer jiggly in the centre. If you’re making smaller sizes they’ll be done in 45-50 minutes. Let them rest for about 10 minutes before serving. They will deflate as they cool.
Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients
- 4 cups large cubed stale bread
- ½ sweet red pepper, chopped
- ½ sweet yellow pepper, chopped or other colour pepper
- ½ leek, sliced lengthwise, then chopped or ½ mild onion
- 4 large mushrooms, sliced
- 2 large handfuls spinach, chopped
- 1 ½ cups cubed cooked ham
- 2 cups shredded old cheddar cheese
- 8 eggs
- 3 ½ cups milk
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
Instructions
- Cut bread into cubes or chunks and lightly toast in oven until no longer soft. Do not over toast. Arrange bread in large 9 x 13 baking dish or 2 smaller dishes.
- Chop peppers, clean and slice leeks or onion and mushrooms. Chop spinach. Cube ham. Scatter over bread chunks.
- Shred cheese and sprinkle evenly over casserole.
- Make custard by whisking together eggs, milk, dijon, salt and pepper. Pour over top of casserole. Cover with plastic wrap. Press down gently to ensure custard mixture completely coats casserole ingredients. Refrigerate over night.
- Preheat oven to 325° and ensure rack is set in middle of oven.
- Bake uncovered for approximately 60 minutes or until puffed up and set in centre. Reduce time by 10 minutes if making 2 smaller pans.
- Let rest at least 10 minutes before serving. Casserole will deflate slightly.