Monte Cristo Breakfast Bake

Chef Brandon has brought a simple, fulfilling recipe you make the night before using your favorite cheese and jam combinations. Monte Cristo Breakfast Bake allows you to tailor the ingredients to your flavor favorites and use up the bread from spaghetti night. Let’s get breakfast started.

Ingredients

1 (16-oz)      Loaf French Bread

1/3 C             Honey Mustard Dressing

20 Slices       Canadian Bacon or Ham, Thinly Sliced

20 Slices       Swiss Cheese, Sliced Very Thin (or another of your favorite cheese)

8                     Eggs

2 C                  Half-and-Half

1 C                  Milk

2 Tbsp           Sugar

1 tsp              Vanilla

Powdered Sugar

Strawberry Jam (or another of your favorite jam flavors)

Instructions

1. Slice French bread into 20 slices, 1-inch each. Bread can be a day or two old as the overnight marinating will allow the bread to soak up the delicious custard.
2. Brush both sides of bread slices with honey mustard and arrange the slices in the baking dish in 2 rows, overlapping the slices.
3. Place one slice of cheese and one slice of Canadian bacon/ham between each slice of bread.
4. Whisk together eggs, half-and-half, milk, sugar, and vanilla. Pour over bread slices.
5. Cover with plastic wrap or foil and refrigerate overnight.
6. The next morning, preheat oven to 350ºF. Remove casserole dish from refrigerator and uncover.
7. Bake uncovered for 45 to 55 minutes, until slightly puffed and eggs are set.
8. Get your favorite jam and warm it up in a pan or skilled to make it more of a sauce consistency.
9. Sprinkle casserole with powdered sugar and top with jam.  If you are trying to cut your sugars you can skip the jam, but your tastebuds will love the expanded flavor profile a little bit of jam gives this dish.

What combination did you go with; strawberry and Swiss? We would love to know how it turned out. Share your comments below and photos on social media with #FourWindsCasino or by emailing photos to social@fourwindscasino.com. Tune in to more Cooking Creations with Chef Brandon on our Instagram and Facebook accounts for step-by-step videos.