Holiday Breakfast Strata

I probably first heard of "breakfast strata" about 10 years ago when a sophisticated family friend served it for brunch. As a geographer's daughter well-aware of the study of stratigraphy, a layered breakfast of eggs and bread and whatever else sounded exactly right.

For the past few years I've been making a breakfast strata on Christmas Eve to heat & eat on Christmas morning. So far I haven't been following a firm recipe, but I'm ready to commit this year. They're always a hit!

Ingredients: 

• 1/2 pound (or more) of breakfast sausage (I use our co-op's sausage which isn't in casings)
• about 8 slices of your favorite crusty bread (whole wheat or white)
• 8 ounces grated fontina cheese (or more)
• 3 eggs
• 1.5 cups milk
• 4 scallions, chopped
• salt & pepper (used an herbed or garlic salt if you like)

Assembly:

1. Fry up sausage and make sure it's in little bits. (If you're using links, I guess you should cut them up at some point)
2. Place half the bread in the bottom of a glass baking dish--I used an 8 x 11.5 dish. Just use enough pieces to make a fairly covered layer. A few gaps are OK.
3. Sprinkle one-third to one-half of the cooked sausage, and the same fraction of grated cheese over the bread.
4. Repeat with more bread to make another layer, then the rest of the sausage and the rest of the cheese.
5. Beat the eggs with a fork and then add milk, scallions, and salt & pepper. Whisk all together.
6. Pour the egg-milk mixture over the ingredients in the dish. Cover with foil or plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
7. In the morning, preheat oven to 350˚. Remove covering from strata and bake about 30-35 minutes (you should see bubbling in the bottom through the glass dish).
8. Let cool slightly before serving. You can also hold it in the oven (with heat turned off) for up to an hour if you are expecting guests soon.

This was really yummy! The point of the crusty bread is not so much the crust but the nice yeasty loft and open structure you get from a bakery bread--unlike a loaf of sandwich bread that is thick and would probably turn out pudding-y.

Happy Christmas to all! Do you have an easy go-to breakfast for Christmas morning? When I was a kid it was often Sara Lee coffee cake. Mmmm.