Make-Ahead Spinach & Mushroom Brunch Casserole

A hybrid omelet & French toast recipe makes breakfast for a crowd.

© Lindsay McSweeney

Sep 26, 2009

No meal like brunch cries out for delicious make-ahead dishes. While a cook has all day to prepare dinner, brunch usually must be made with just a few hours of preparation. So unless there's an eager kitchen staff willing to show up at 4 AM, the home cook usually falls back on just a few dishes to feed a hungry, morning crowd. Pancakes, waffles, omelets, French toast are all easy, adaptable, and familiar. But they each have the same challenge; these breakfast recipes convert a cook into a short-order chef--constantly ladeling pancake batter or flipping omelets to be able to deliver individual, hot servings.

The Perfect Brunch Recipe Solution

With this drawback in mind, the perfect brunch solution is a make-ahead recipe. The food shouldn't be so heavy that it weighs down the day, but it should still be filling. Ideally, the recipe should be adjustable to feed as few as 4 or as many as 16. Finally, the recipe should be versatile enough to allow for modifications that will accommodate vegetarians or satisfy those who believe breakfast isn't breakfast without sausage or bacon. This casserole meets all of those criteria.

An Egg-Bread-Custard Base Provides Structure

The structure for this casserole is similar to a lasagna. Instead of pasta, dried-bread is used as foundation layers and precooked vegetable, cheese, and/or meat make up the fillings between the layers. A simple custard (egg & milk or cream) is poured over the dish, the casserole is covered with plastic wrap, weights are placed on the top, and the casserole is refrigerated for up to 24 hours. When the casserole is baked, the whole dish turns a beautiful brown and puffs, just like a souffle.

Modifying the Basic Breakfast Recipe

The recipe below can be modified in several ways:

• Various melting cheeses can be substituted, try Swiss, cheddar, mozzarella, or havarti--or a combination.
• Instead of spinach, try other greens or chopped vegetables like broccoli or arugula.
• Adding sauteed sausage, crumbled bacon bits, chopped ham, or prosciutto to the filling is an easy method to convert this casserole from vegetarian to a meat-lovers special.
• To feed more than 8 people, make two casseroles--one vegetarian and one with meat, if desired.

Spinach & Mushroom Breakfast Casserole

Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients

• 16 slices Challah bread
• 5 tablespoons butter, divided
• 8 ounces button mushrooms, washed and sliced
• 2 large shallots, minced
• 20 ounces frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dried
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly ground
• 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 cup white wine
• 12 ounces shredded Monterey Jack cheese, or combination of Monterey Jack and Colby
• 12 large eggs
• 3 1/2 cups half-and-half

Instructions

1. If the bread isn't stale and dry, bake the slices in one layer in a low (300 degree oven) for about 30 minutes, turning the slices over after about 15 minutes.
2. Rub a 13 x 9 inch pyrex or other heat-proof casserole dish all over with 1 tablespoon of the butter, and set aside.
3. Over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet, preferably non-stick. Add the mushrooms and shallots and saute until the shallots are soft and the mushrooms have exuded all their liquid, about 10 minutes.
4. Add the chopped spinach, nutmeg, salt, and pepper to the skillet and combine until mixed and heated through. Put the spinach mushroom mixture into a bowl.
5. In the now empty skillet, add the white wine and reduce (by simmering) to approximately 1/4 cup.
6. When the bread has finished toasting, remove and add enough slices to the casserole dish to cover the bottom with one layer of bread. Dot the bread slices with one tablespoon of the butter.
7. Spread half of the spinach over the bread layer. Top with 4 ounces of the cheese.
8. Repeat the bread, butter, spinach, and 4 ounce cheese layer.
9. Whisk the eggs, half-and-half, and reduced wine together, and pour over the casserole.
10. Sprinkle the last 4 ounces of cheese over the casserole and cover tightly with plastic wrap.
11. Put the casserole on a flat baking sheet. Weigh down the casserole with heavy boxes (three boxes of chicken broth or sugar work well). (The baking sheet is optional, but it helps capture any liquid that may overflow and also helps transport the casserole in and out of the refrigerator.)
12. Slide the baking sheet with the casserole onto a refrigerator shelf. Refrigerate from 8 - 24 hours.
13. Approximately two hours before serving, remove the casserole from the refrigerator. Remove the weights.
14. Let the casserole sit at room temperature while preheating the oven to 325 degrees, about 20 minutes.
15. Bake the casserole until the top is well-browned and puffed, about 1 hour and 10 minutes. Remove and let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

(This was adapted from a recipe published by Cook's Illustrated magazine).

Spinach & Mushroom Casserole

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