Buttery Breakfast Casserole Recipe (2024)

Goodness! Did all you complainers bother to do the math? It's meant to be 8-10 servings. Let's go crazy and call it FIVE instead. What do you end up with in terms of calorically relevant food per person? About 1 croissant, about 3 g oil, about 2.5 oz sausage, approx an egg and a half, a good 1/2 cup of milk, 1.6 oz heavy cream, and 1.6 oz Gruyere. Health food to wolf down on my way to the squat rack? No. A delight to share with my family on our favorite morning of the year? To be sure.

This is the bomb !!! In every good sense I can think of !!!! People need to get over themselves and quit being such naughty children ! If you don't like the list of ingredients, that's your problem. Don't make it and don't criticize it. Life is too short to not savor ever single bite of deliciousness out there. And no, I do NOT weigh over 200 pounds. I believe moderation is important, including moderation....:-)

I did a practice run with sweet sausage and Swiss cheese, It is wonderful. I think the possibilities are endless. Quiche Lorraine style with bacon onion and Swiss. Mushrooms and breakfast sausage. Ham and Broccoli with cheddar, Veggie style with onion, mushroom, green pepper and fresh tomato. Thank You Melisa Clark - I Love You :)

Two suggestions: Toasting delicate croissants at 500 degrees for 5-10 minutes will result in ash. I toasted mine at 350 for 5 minutes. Second: I prepared this Friday night as the blizzard was approaching and woke up Saturday morning to no power. The casserole sat until Saturday night's dinner instead. During that time, the croissants disintegrated into nothing-ness. Still very tasty but the bread would have added nice texture. Don't prepare more than 12 hours in advance is my advice.

So delicious! Did a trial run before I had a house full of guests. Cut the room temp left overs into individual portions wrapped and froze. A month later unwrapped a frozen portion heated at 350° F. For 15 min. Still delicious!

This recipe was a hit the first time I made it for Christmas morning and every time since. I used sauteed garlic and spinach instead of sausage and it was a fantastic substitute!

While I'm not a vegetarian, I somehow have the impulse to substitute sautéed crimini mushrooms for the sausage. I also want to challenge her idea that a grainy bread won't work for this. Large rye croutons sautéed in butter, perhaps? Am I crazy? This is not about health - I just like tasting things with depth.

Melissa, please ignore the curmudgeons, but answer the query about the liquid in the photo of the finished casserole. Thank you.

I've made a very similar recipe with these changes: frozen waffles instead of croissants (toast in 350F oven til crispy & golden), maple breakfast sausage instead of Italian; cut back to 1-3/4 cups milk & add 1/4 cup maple syrup--Robust dark grade, which used to be called grade B; and sharp cheddar cheese--Cabot extra chart for preference. It's a family preference, and no wonder: delectable!

I live in Argentina and croissants are not nearly as buttery here nor did I remember the 4 hrs soak, however I actually skipped my husband's roast pig Xmas eve in order to enjoy this Christmas morn. I used leftover chorizos from the grill the night before and ham since there is no italian sausage and mozz with the Gruyère and since everyone else was full it lasted 24 blissful hours in the fridge. Best part of my holiday, oink oink.

This was fun to make yesterday and it was just devoured by me and my family. I've tried all different versions of breakfast casseroles through the years and this is the best one yet. I think the croissants make the biggest difference with the Gruyere cheese a close second. Thanks for sharing and Happy Holidays!

This was a hit with my family and they are picky eaters. I modified the recipe based on some recommendations. I toasted the crossaints in 350° for 10 mins, I used 2lbs of sweet sausage because my boys are meat eaters. I sautéed the sausage w/ onions & garlic as well. Then I added spinach & diced tomatoes (drained) w/the sausage/crossaint mixture. I used Gouda because they didn't have Gruyere. I also cut the milk down to 2 cups. Baked it as indicated and it was fabulous!

Delicious. I used breakfast sausage because i like it more than Italian anyway. I baked less than the recommended time and it wasn’t liquidy-probably because I used a larger-than-recommended baking dish.

Tina & Bill’s comments

I didn't toast the croissants before cooking and I think it affected the whole texture of the dish, it was very mushy. Flavours were nice but the texture was unappealing

Followed the recipe to a T, put in fridge at 11pm the night before.. then oven at 350 at 745 and after 60 mins the bottom was still soupy and it was very undercooked. We had to each microwave our servings to finish cooking because we didn’t have time to wait. So disappointed.

made this with carmelized onions and bacon instead and it was great!

Delicious, made for two Christmases in a row

This freezes and reheats remarkably well! I made over Christmas because I was worried we wouldn't have enough food. Ended up with way too much and froze half of it. Reheated for 30m at 375ish about a month later and it was just as good as straight out of the oven!

Made this for a New Year’s breakfast to feed a large group. It was a hit, and relatively simple to prepare. I agree with notes around lowering the temp to toast the croissants. The goal is to get them a little crunchy. Other than that note, it was excellent!

Reduce milk to 2 cups instead of 3Watch the toasting of croissants- would do that at 350 and not 500No need to let it soak more than 1-2 hrs. Def on the shorter side. No need to use sage

I toasted my (yummy CostCo) croissants at 500° for 2 minutes only and they were brown. Ripping them is hard—2 pieces for the dish, one in my mouth. The dish is easy, nice to have it made a day ahead, was delicious and reminded me of James Beard’s quiche. It’s rich enough that I may use Half and Half rather than cream next time and add some greens next time.

Use only 2.5 cups milk and make the night before.

Was planning to make this for Christmas morning but instead made 1/2 recipe for New Year’s Day using leftover diced ham instead of sausage. Very tasty and also good reheated. Croissants made nice light texture and lucky me to have fresh sage in the garden!

I made this for New Year's Day brunch and it was a huge hit! This is def flexible as desired - apologies to purists! A guest of mine doesn't eat pork, so I used chicken italian sausage (2 hot, 3 sweet) and it worked well. Per comments, increased eggs to 10 (large), added mushrooms (~12 oz) sauteed in the same pan as the sausage. Added chopped spinach. Used milk and heavy cream (1 C each), equal parts white cheddar and gruyere. FINALLY, used thickly sliced brioche bread bec that is what I had ;)

I added spinach and loved the addition. This is a terrific breakfast casserole! Always a fave.

Terrific breakfast casserole. I used sage sausage and added a little bit more sage. I also added spinach which is a nice green addition to the scallions.