- 15 hours ago
Hosting a holiday brunch or just craving something cozy for Christmas morning? These 5 festive breakfast casseroles will make your kitchen smell amazing and your guests come running. From cheesy comfort to sweet cinnamon rolls, these make-ahead bakes are perfect for feeding a crowd — and letting you actually enjoy the morning, too. Nicole’s lineup includes everything from a hearty Amish-style breakfast casserole to a decadent eggs Benedict bake, plus a few cozy surprises in between. Whether you’re planning ahead or cooking last minute, these recipes will help you start the holiday right — warm, easy, and full of flavor.
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00:00There's one thing you can expect to see on the table during the holidays, and that is a breakfast casserole.
00:05I've got you covered with five delicious breakfast casseroles that are not the same ol' same ol'.
00:10You know, you've worked hard all holiday season, you've done all the shopping, you've done all the cooking,
00:15and you want to enjoy your Christmas morning, these are the recipes for you.
00:18I'm going to start with a cheesy Amish breakfast casserole.
00:22I'm going to start out by chopping up some sweet onion.
00:25Instead of sausage here, you're going to cook off a pound of bacon.
00:28And then instead of the classic sausage casseroles that have bread that's been soaking overnight,
00:33we're just doing hash browns here.
00:34So these are all make-ahead, you can make them the day before,
00:38and then all you have left to do Christmas morning is pop it in the oven.
00:41Alright, chop your bacon, cook it until it's crispy, and then just drain it on some paper towel.
00:46That is the smell you love, and don't be throwing away that bacon grease.
00:50Alright, then we're just going to mix everything else in the bowl, and I'm going in with nine eggs.
00:55What's interesting is this kind of casserole doesn't have a ton of milk.
00:58Well, it doesn't have any milk or cream in it, but it does have a little bit of cottage cheese
01:02in combination with the cheddar and Swiss cheese, so it is quite cheesy.
01:07And then four cups of shredded hash browns.
01:10Attempted to put the whole bag in.
01:12Four heaping cups. I'm really only left with like one left.
01:14I try to follow the recipes so hard, I just can't do it.
01:21It also doesn't say salt and pepper.
01:23There is salt from the bacon and cheese, so you may not need a ton.
01:25Give this a stir before I add in the cheeses.
01:28I like this addition.
01:29Some cottage cheese. Cottage cheese and eggs just go together.
01:33Casseroles are just one of my favorite things,
01:36because they're just a one-pot wonder that's full of perfect bites, and that's what I love.
01:40Two cups of cheddar, and then one and a quarter cups of Swiss cheese.
01:45All right, make-ahead situations.
01:47Most casseroles can be made-ahead, let's be honest.
01:50This one, I feel like you could make even two days before.
01:54Nothing's going to go bad in here, and the potatoes are covered now with cheese and eggs,
01:59so they're not going to turn brown.
02:00So you could stop at this point and then freeze it for probably up to a month.
02:05Grease your baking dish. Down we go.
02:07You could also throw in, like, some hot sauce or chopped jalapenos in here.
02:11Whenever I'm doing something with hash browns, I don't want to, like, make it super flat.
02:15I kind of like to make it a little scraggly.
02:16That way, some of those little hash browns sticking up will get brown and crispy.
02:20We're going straight into the oven, 350 degrees, for about 50 minutes.
02:24If you could smell this, you would know how awesome it is.
02:29I'm going to sprinkle it with some chives just to add a little pop of color.
02:33I don't know what makes me think I can just dig right in, but I kind of feel like I can.
02:36The eggs really held this together substantially, and you can see those little bits of creaminess in there,
02:41thanks to the cottage cheese and the other three and a half cups of cheese we have in there.
02:48The potatoes are so tender. It's cheesy. It's eggy. It's perfectly seasoned.
02:53I love the little bite of bacon in there, and I love that this is a casserole that didn't include cream of blank.
02:59It's going to feed a lot of people and keep them full until the party.
03:01I love a little something sweet when it comes to breakfast.
03:04This is overnight apple cinnamon roll casserole.
03:08All right, so you start out with two cans of the big cinnamon rolls, or if you do the small cinnamon rolls, you can do four cans.
03:14And don't toss the icing. We'll use that later.
03:18I also think this is a way to stretch the cinnamon rolls, because, you know, like, if you just serve cinnamon rolls,
03:23this is only going to serve, like, five people, because they're all going to take, like, two cinnamon rolls.
03:27But when you cut them up and stretch it out, you can feed, you know, eight to ten people.
03:31I really, the hardest part's open in these cans.
03:34I mean, I screwed that up straight from the beginning.
03:37Tune in tomorrow when I open this can.
03:40I bet the generic brand would work just fine.
03:43Do not put that in there, because we are trying to get sponsored here.
03:47Hallelujah.
03:48Just take your cinnamon rolls and cut them into, like, one-inch pieces.
03:51All right, then you're going to scatter these pieces into your casserole dish.
03:54Just make sure they get, like, separated.
03:56All right, so you're just going to take a can of apple pie filling and kind of scatter this around.
04:01Kind of keeps the cinnamon rolls moist and a little bit gooey inside.
04:05And then we pour over some heavy cream.
04:07Going to do one and a quarter cup, and then just let it soak.
04:10All right, that's the extent of the prep, so you'll cover this up and just stick it in the fridge.
04:14You want those cinnamon rolls to kind of absorb some of that cream, so we wait.
04:19All right, so then before you go to bake it, we're going to top it with a streuseli oat topping.
04:25And you can make the topping ahead of time and just keep it in a Ziploc bag until you're ready to bake.
04:28Start with softened butter, half a cup of flour, then a quarter cup of oats, brown sugar, and then a teaspoon of cinnamon.
04:36Teaspoon and a half.
04:37Then just take a fork, or your hands work great here.
04:40You're just going to mix everything together until it's, like, large crumbs.
04:44I do just find it easier to get in there with your hands.
04:47I mean, this dessert really combines the best of everything.
04:50You get gooey cinnamon rolls, you get apple pie, you get apple crumble, because you've got this topping.
04:56That's what you want it to look like.
04:57It's got those large crumbs right there.
04:59It's fine sitting out overnight, but if you want it, you know, if you're going to hold it any longer, I would just pop it in the fridge.
05:04Okay, I'm really excited about these cinnamon rolls.
05:07And I'm going to top it with our streusel topping.
05:09And then this goes into the oven 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.
05:15If you want to know what heaven smells like, this is that.
05:19You're going to get everything in this.
05:21You've got, like, the juicy fruit, but then you've got creamy, but then you also have all this toasty kind of crunch.
05:26Remember that frosting?
05:27This is both of the cans of frosting that came in the cinnamon rolls.
05:32And I'm just going to add in some cinnamon.
05:34And then you're going to drizzle it over, just like how you do when your cinnamon rolls come out of the oven.
05:38Then it's going to start to, like, kind of melt in there.
05:40That is how you cinnamon roll right there.
05:43Let's dig in, shall we?
05:45See how all those little bits of cinnamon roll have absorbed that heavy cream.
05:50You're like, where did the heavy cream go?
05:51It's inside.
05:52I know you're kind of thinking, gosh, that's going to be too sweet, but it's really not.
05:56I mean, the only other, like, sugar we added was just to the topping.
05:59The cinnamon rolls themselves are not actually that sweet, and they almost have a little bit of a salty bite to it.
06:04And then the heavy cream just kind of mellows it out.
06:14That's probably what heaven tastes like, too.
06:15This one almost leaves me speechless.
06:18Hot and steamy, creamy, crunchy, all the things.
06:21If you're looking for something sweet to serve up on the holidays, one million percent, you better make this one.
06:26This next one was inspired by something I have seen off TikTok, and it was breakfast enchiladas.
06:32And I'm like, why have I never done this before?
06:35And also, before you start, I know these are not real enchiladas, okay?
06:39Nothing about this is a real enchilada, but it sounds like a cute name.
06:42I'm going to start with about a cup of red bell pepper.
06:46I've got some sausage cooking, just some breakfast sausage.
06:49Then you're going to take a bunch of green onions, save a little bit of the green parts for garnish at the end,
06:54and then just chop up the rest and add it with the bell pepper.
06:56Sausage is browned.
06:58And then while it's still hot, just go ahead and toss your bell pepper and onion in there.
07:02And I'm going to add in just a little bit of salt and a little garlic powder.
07:06You're going to take eight of these, I guess this is about eight-inch tortillas.
07:11Add in your filling along with some cheese.
07:14Just got a 9 by 13.
07:16I'm going to give it a little spray.
07:18And then you're going to roll these up and place them seam side down in your dish.
07:22I'm just using a sharp cheddar here, but you could use like a Mexican blend cheese or whatever you want.
07:27This casserole you can whip up a couple days in advance.
07:31I'd say up to two days in advance.
07:32And now for our little custard to go over.
07:36Eggs and a little half and half.
07:38What's great about this is that as these cook, the eggs kind of find their way inside the tortillas too.
07:45So it's almost like you're getting a little sausage, egg and cheese burrito.
07:48But it's going to have this creamy enchilada sauce.
07:52Some Mexican nut sauce.
07:53A little bit of salt and pep.
07:55And a little more garlic powder.
07:57And you're going to take some green enchilada sauce.
07:59I'm just going to add about a quarter cup in this mixture.
08:02Save the rest for the top.
08:04Then to make this creamy, and again I'm not using a can of cream of, aren't you proud?
08:08I'm going to add just a tablespoon of flour.
08:10And you want to do this while the mixture is cold so that it dissolves in here.
08:13You're just going to pour this over the enchiladas.
08:16I'm going to top it with the rest of the can of enchilada sauce.
08:20You know the drill.
08:21And just pop it in the fridge one or up to two days in advance.
08:25All right, enchiladas are ready.
08:27I'm going to pop them in the oven at 350 degrees.
08:29After about 30 minutes, I'm going to uncover, top with a little more cheese, and finish them off.
08:33The brunch casserole of my dreams right here.
08:36You know how we poured the eggs over?
08:38You can see they just kind of like snuck inside.
08:41How did that happen?
08:42This is a very hearty and filling casserole.
08:45It's going to be kind of creamy in there, and so full of flavor with that enchilada sauce we used.
08:50Oh, look at that.
08:53That's not deliciousness on a plate.
08:56I don't know what is.
08:57That creamy, oozy-ness.
08:59All right, so I'm going to go in with a little avocado and some salsa, because that just sounds good to me.
09:04And then some of those green onions we saved from earlier.
09:07Y'all, does that now look so good?
09:09This is not your old sausage, egg, and cheese.
09:12All the perfect bites.
09:13You can just see them.
09:14Oh, my God.
09:15That's a big bite.
09:16She can do it.
09:23Mmm.
09:25That's the most perfect breakfast bite of the day.
09:28It's creamy.
09:28It's got all those just, you know, traditional kind of like Mexican flavors.
09:35But with a breakfast twist, mmm.
09:37The salsa, the avocado paired with this, those are the perfect toppings.
09:42It's like perfectly savory.
09:44The sausage is so flavorful that you didn't really have to add that much seasoning.
09:47The creaminess from the cheese and that sauce.
09:50If you don't do anything else today, you better make this one.
09:53I'm telling you right now.
09:53Here's another oldie but goodie.
09:55It's the perfect use for your day-old stale bread.
09:59We are making French toast casserole.
10:02This is the easiest way to serve up French toast to a crowd because, you know,
10:07French toast is one of those short-order cook situations.
10:10And ain't nobody got time for that on Christmas morning.
10:12We'll start out with about five cups of French bread.
10:15A brioche bread would work well here.
10:17Any kind of, you know, something that's a little bit sturdy or buttery.
10:21If your crust is too hard, you can just kind of trim it off and just use the inside.
10:26But it's good because the drier your bread is, the more it's able to soak up that custard
10:30and then, in the end, be kind of creamy inside.
10:34All right, so for the custard, it's going to be four eggs.
10:36All right, and then it's one and a half cups of milk.
10:38I can tell you right now you're going to want to use whole milk.
10:40You could also use half and half here.
10:42But the fattier, the creamier it's going to be.
10:44I'm going to drop in a little vanilla.
10:46And then two tablespoons of sugar and a little bit of salt.
10:49I'm telling you, this is a good entertained one because it is so cheap,
10:53especially if you're using leftover bread.
10:54Everything else is a pantry staple.
10:56Essentially, you could just make this one for free.
10:57You want to be sure it's really well blended.
10:59You don't want to see, like, chunks of yellow because then you know it's not blended properly
11:02or thoroughly.
11:03Then you're going to take your casserole dish.
11:06You're going to want to butter it all around.
11:08Put our bread in.
11:09All right, and then pour the custard over.
11:10And you're going to want to press all the bread cubes into it so that it's all, you know,
11:14soaked up.
11:15Kind of like how you do bread pudding.
11:16Then we're going to take a couple tablespoons of the butter and kind of dot it on top.
11:21This is going to mimic cooking it in the butter in the skillet.
11:24All right, and then we're going to top it with a little bit of cinnamon sugar.
11:27And then this will give us that little crunchy crust.
11:29You're at the point where you can just cover it and pop it in the fridge overnight.
11:32However, this is a casserole that you actually don't have to wait the night before.
11:36Obviously, ideally, it's the night before.
11:38But you could also just do this as long as you have 30 minutes before you're ready to cook.
11:41All right, French toast ready to go.
11:44350 degrees for about 45 minutes.
11:47This is puffed up.
11:48It's golden brown and delicious.
11:51It's gotten to be like kind of souffle-ish in there.
11:53I'm loving the toasty top because then it really kind of does give you that French toast feel.
11:59I think we can dig right in.
12:01It's nice and like creamy kind of custardy in there.
12:04As you let it sit, it's going to kind of come together.
12:06And when we add our little toppings, it's really going to feel like French toast.
12:10I'm going butter, a little butter first because I put butter on my French toast.
12:15Also going to go with some berries to make it well-rounded and healthy.
12:19So I'm going to look at French toast.
12:21It's about time to break out the mimosas.
12:26It's both sweet and savory.
12:28It's really like French toast and bread pudding had a baby.
12:31The extra toasty top is key.
12:33And I would totally serve this with the little bites of juicy fruit.
12:37It just kind of ties the whole thing together.
12:40Cover it up in syrup and call it a day.
12:43My final trick is an ode to what I really do every single Christmas morning, which is make
12:48eggs benedict.
12:50We are going to make it easy this year with an eggs benedict casserole.
12:54It's the only time I make it.
12:55I make it once a year and I make the hollandaise and I do it all.
12:58But like I said, I'm giving myself a break this year and you should too.
13:01Eggs benedict is one of those things that you really can't, you know, make it ahead.
13:05And it is kind of like a made-to-order situation.
13:08But man, is it good.
13:09So we're going to put eggs benedict in a simple little package with a couple little shortcuts.
13:13But it does have all the essential ingredients.
13:16Starting with Canadian bacon.
13:18Chop it up and put half in the bottom.
13:20And then your English muffins.
13:21I'm just going to dice these up.
13:23You can make this casserole up to a day ahead.
13:26All right, and then another pack of Canadian bacon on top.
13:29So far, by far, the easiest eggs benedict I've ever made.
13:33For this, we're going to go eight eggs and two cups of milk.
13:36To this, I'm going to add in three chopped green onions.
13:38And then a little bit of onion powder and then salt.
13:41And give her a whisk.
13:42Pour it over, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it sit in the fridge overnight.
13:47It's right next to the Bloody Mary mix.
13:50Now that feels like brunch.
13:53That feels like appropriate.
13:54Worse to it, Wally.
13:57After it's been soaking overnight, now you're going to cover it with foil.
14:00And it goes in at 375 for about 30 minutes.
14:02And you're going to uncover it and let it go about 15 more.
14:05And we took a shortcut on the eggs benedict casserole.
14:08So you know we're going to take a shortcut when it comes to the hollandaise.
14:11And I am not too proud to use this.
14:13You simply just whisk some milk, a packet of hollandaise, and some butter.
14:17I like to add one extra tablespoon of butter than the recipe calls for.
14:20Whisk this in while it's cold and then bring it up to a simmer.
14:25All right.
14:26As the butter melts, the whole thing comes together.
14:28For a little touch of trickery, just a little pinch of cayenne, just again, kind of adds to
14:34that we made this factor.
14:36All right.
14:36If you're ready to serve up some eggs benedict, let's do it.
14:39She's gorgeous.
14:44I did forget to sprinkle paprika over it before I baked it.
14:47But guess what?
14:48It's not too late.
14:49It smells so good.
14:51Those little bits of green onion really flavor the dish.
14:54You're going to want to let it sit for a few minutes before you dig in.
14:56We have never done eggs benedict like this, but we are about to together, and it's going
15:00to be amazing.
15:01But it is not complete until we get that hollandaise.
15:05Hollandaise for the holidays.
15:07Don't go skimpy on this.
15:09A little more fresh green onion.
15:11And that, my friends, is what I'm talking about.
15:14I've had my coffee.
15:15It really is time for a bloody at this point.
15:21Hmm.
15:22I like that a lot.
15:25I don't know.
15:25I don't think I've ever had a breakfast casserole with English muffins.
15:28It's less like bread absorbed, just egg.
15:32It's not super spongy.
15:33It's more like creamy.
15:34I'm sorry to my family.
15:35I will not be making eggs benedict from scratch this year.
15:38100%.
15:39This is our Christmas morning breakfast.
15:41The holidays are busy enough as it is.
15:43Make one of these recipes, grab your coffee, and enjoy your morning.
15:47And thank me later.
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