Savoury Baked French Toast

Savoury Baked French Toast breakfast A savoury dish loaded with caramelized onions, cheddar, and bacon bacon, savoury, strata Savoury Baked French Toast bacon, French toast, cheese

Updated. Originally 8th November 2019

This Breakfast strata / Savoury Baked French Toast or Cheesy Bread Pudding is loaded with caramelized onions, cheddar, and bacon all baked together in a casserole dish or the way I like it in a spring form pan… If you prefer savory over sweet when it comes to breakfast, this is definitely a recipe you will love. Pure comfort food that can easily be made ahead and great for feeding a crowd for lunch, brunch or breakfast!

Savoury Baked French Toast

What is a Strata?

A strata (or strada) is a layered breakfast casserole dish made with bread, eggs, cheese, and fillings like meat or vegetables. Often described a cross between a quiche, French toast, omelette, frittata and a casserole. Just like a frittata, this baked french toast can really be made with any leftover bits of cheese and veggies like spinach, baby kale or even sweet peppers or you can even add in some, cooked and crumbled sausage, or cooked chopped ham (leftover ham is great in this strata). It is fluffy, rich, and satisfying, with a bubbly cheese topping. A popular dish for breakfast or brunch and is typically made by soaking stale bread in a custard mixture overnight before baking

Savoury Baked French Toast

Strata Recipe Ingredients

  • ONIONS: We use yellow onions for this recipe - thinly sliced so they caramelize nicely. If you prefer to make this recipe without the caramelized onions you definitely can. I would replace them with sliced green onion (3-4 of them - no need to cook them, simply stir into the custard).
  • BUTTER & OLIVE OIL: The butter and olive oil is for caramelizing the onions. Feel free to omit if skipping the caramelized onions.
  • BACON: I love adding bacon to this strata but you can swap it out for Italian sausage cooked and crumbled. For a speedier version use store-bought real bacon bits.
  • EGGS: You will need 6 large eggs for this recipe.
  • MILK: Whole milk is what I use. You can use something richer like cream but I don’t think this recipe needs it with the cheese and bacon - we have richness covered.
  • MUSTARD: This adds flavor to the custard. Feel free to use ground mustard/ mustard powder or dijon mustard.
  • BREAD: Any sort of hearty day old or stale bread can be used for this recipe like Sourdough, baguette or French bread/stick, cubed. If you don’t have stale bread only fresh see next paragraph for what to do.
  • CHEESE: Use any shredded cheese you have on hand like cheddar, gruyere cheese, pepper jack, gouda or a combination
  • HERBS & SPICES: Apart from salt and pepper, we like to add thyme with the caramelized onions. For more flavor feel free to add more seasoning like onion powder, garlic powder and paprika
  • EXTRA ADD INS: Add in extra veggies like sautéed mushrooms, bell peppers and spinach.

Savoury Baked French Toast

What If I Don’t Have Stale Bread?

No problem. To quickly dry bread for this strata, cube it as stated in the recipe, spread on a baking sheet, and bake at 300–350°F for 10–20 minutes until dry and slightly toasted. Allow it to cool completely before adding to recipe. Alternatively, leave cubes on a tray overnight, or place them in a low oven (200°F) for 1 hour for gentler drying.

Savoury Baked French Toast

How To Make This Breakfast Strata Recipe

  1. Caramelize Onions: Sauté onions in butter and oil until softened and golden. Remove from pan and set aside to cool.
  2. Cook Bacon: In the same pan cook bacon until golden and crispy, remove and set aside to cool. Omit the bacon for a vegetarian strata recipe.
  3. Whisk Together Custard Ingredients: The eggs, milk, mustard powder, salt and pepper in a bowl.
  4. Combine Bread and Custard: Combine cubed bread, egg mixture, 1½ cups of cheese, cooked cooled bacon and caramelized onions.
  5. Chill Mixture Overnight: Zip up bag with bread pudding mixture or cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge for at least 30 mins to 2 hours but preferably overnight to ensure the bread fully absorbs the egg mixture before baking
  6. Transfer Mixture To Prepared Pan & Bake: Transfer mixture to greased pan and bake until set and golden.
  7. Cool & Slice: Cool on wire rack once done for 10-15 before slicing.

Savoury Baked French Toast

Can I Make This Strata Ahead?

TO MAKE AHEAD - prepare the casserole as directed, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or as required (do not exceed 24 hours) and allow it to come to room temperature for 20 minutes before baking. If you’re making this for a later brunch, you could prep in the morning, but make sure it rests for at least 30 min to 2 hours in the refrigerator before baking.I like that you can also do a lot of the work ahead of time before assembling. The onions can be cooked, caramelized, cooled, and stored in the refrigerator a day ahead. So can the bacon - store both separately in an airtight container or ziplock bag in the fridge until I’m ready to put the casserole together - same day or following day.

Savoury Baked French Toast

How Do You Store and Reheat This Strata?

You can easily store cooked and cooled breakfast casserole or leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat individual servings in the microwave or oven as needed.

Can I Freeze This Strata/Savory Baked French Toast?

Yes. If you plan on doing this it easier to bake it first in a disposable aluminum baking pan. Make sure its cooled after baking it and wrap it tightly with plastic wrap and foil. Baked casserole may be stored in the freezer, up to 2 months. Thaw in refrigerator overnight and bake at 350ºF (177ºC) for about 20 minutes or until fully heated through.

Savoury Baked French Toast

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Recipe

Servings: 8
Prep Time: 15-20 mins
Cook Time: 1 hour 20 min
Non Active Time: 30 min to overnight for setting the strata

Ingredients

  • 2 medium onions, peeled, halved and thinly sliced
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil (plus 1 tsp extra for bacon if needed)
  • ½ teaspoon fresh thyme (or ¼ dried)
  • 300g bacon, diced (approximately 10-12 slices)
  • 6 large eggs
  • 1¼ cups whole milk
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • Black pepper to taste
  • ½ teaspoon of mustard powder or dijon mustard (optional)
  • 7 cups (lightly packed) baguette or French bread/stick cut into 2 cm / 1 inch cubes (day old preferably)
  • 2 cups grated cheese, divided (cheddar, gruyere cheese, pepper jack, gouda or a combination)

Directions

Caramelize Onions

  1. Heat butter and oil in a large sized pan / skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and let sauté for 5 minutes, stirring a couple times.
  2. Add the thyme and continue to cook for 20-25 minutes on medium low heat, stirring occasionally. If the onions start to caramelize too quickly, lower heat to the low setting. Once done scrape them into a separate bowl or plate and set aside to cool. (this can be done 1 day ahead and once cool store in airtight container in the fridge)

Cook Bacon

  1. Cook the bacon using the same pan. Heat it over medium-high heat. (Add 1 tsp oil if needed and if pan is not non stick). Add all the bacon and cook until lightly browned. Remove the crispy bacon from pan with a slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel lined plate. (this can be done 1 day ahead and once cool store in airtight container in the fridge)

Prepare Custard

  1. In a large mixing bowl make the custard mixture: whisk eggs, milk, mustard powder, salt and pepper in a bowl.

Soak Bread

  1. Place the bread in a large ziplock bag.
  2. Pour in the egg mixture, 1½ cups of cheese, cooked cooled bacon and caramelized onions.
  3. Seal bag and gently massage the egg into the bread mixture just enough to combine.
  4. Set aside in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or overnight. (Alternatively toss or fold all the ingredients together in the bowl with the egg mixture and cover with plastic wrap before refrigerating)

Preheat Oven & Bake

  1. Once ready to bake remove the mixture from fridge to allow it to take the cool edge off of it while you preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 inch springform pan/cake tin with cooking spray or butter, or a small to medium sized casserole dish (I love using the spring form).
  2. Pour the bread mixture into the cake tin, pat it down a little to compress and then sprinkle the remaining ½ cup cheese over top of the strata.
  3. Cover loosely with foil and bake on a baking sheet for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for a further 20 minutes or until bubbly, fluffy and golden and set. The strata is ready when it is golden brown and puffy, and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Rest & Slice

  1. Remove from oven and allow it to rest for 10-15 minutes on cooling before removing the springform and cutting into slices to serve. Garnish with parsley or chives/scallions and black pepper.

Recipe Note

  • I like to use a springform pan but mine has a very tight seal and doesnt leak at all - if you are nervouse about you spring-form pan leaking no worries just bake it on top of a sheet pan lined with foil for easy cleanup. Or wrap your pan tightly with a layer of aluminum foil.

Savoury Baked French Toast