I’m a big fan of make ahead meals, and this Make Ahead Bacon & Bread Breakfast Souffle is one of our top favorites! It’s always a hit, even among my pickiest kids, I never have to prod them to eat this! In fact whenever they see this is what I made for breakfast the exclaim, “Oh! I love that!!” And best of all, it is SO easy to toss together. For that reason I love it for both weekend mornings and our busy homeschool mornings.
Over the last few years, I went from having to make just one to two full sized casserole dish size pans of this. Hello big family style!
If you are gluten free, you could totally make this with gluten free bread. A hot tip is to toss this together on Saturday, pop it in the fridge overnight, and bake it Sunday morning. This makes for such a lovely and easy Sunday morning.
Make Ahead Bacon & Bread Breakfast Souffle History
This recipe came from my Grandma Peggy. In her time, Grandma Peggy was what I would call the queen of homemakers. She was always so organized and planned and I’ll never forget how she without fail hosted the most well planned out family gatherings.
Sometimes we would get to Grandma’s a day early, and I would catch a very brief glimpse of how she pulled it off, which I never forgot. In fact, you could safely say I learned so much of what I know about hosting events and even homemaking from visiting Grandma Peggy’s.
I loved it when we got there early so I could help Grandma and get a peek into how she orchestrated events. It was so fun for me to see how she did things, and to me it was equivalent to a child catching a glimpse of the tooth fairy, or Santa or something!
The first thing I noticed was that Grandma was always so calm. This is because she had a trusty system for events that you could see she honed over the course of time. You could tell that at some point, early on, a love for her husband and children must have inspired her to create a cheery and joyous atmosphere, and that creating the atmosphere had become a well practiced routine.
From table runners and holiday decor to her giggle that sparked cheer you could always see so much love and thought into that went into every part of her gatherings.
The second thing I noticed was that Grandma would always try to have everything done before the first guests would arrive.
This included the cooking. And boy, could that woman cook. Although both my grandma’s were good cooks, they had very different cooking styles. Grandma Margie was the master of home cooking, but Grandma Peggy was more the Taste of Home type. She was always trying new recipes to make for and dazzle the family. You could be sure to expect something you couldn’t get enough of at her table, and you could be sure to always gain a couple pounds when when visiting her too!
Although my everyday and natural cooking style is more along the lines of my other grandma (Grandma Margie), whenever I want to make something super nice that is sure to be a crowd pleaser and gain raves I fall back on a Grandma Peggy recipe.
Make Ahead Bacon & Bread Breakfast Souffle
I remember the first time I had this dish. I couldn’t get enough! I’m sure you’ll agree, this easy breakfast bacon souffle is the bomb!
Just a couple important notes about the recipe;
You can substitute the bacon for sausage-that’s actually how Grandma made it! Or you can use both-that’s how my mom makes it.
If you use bacon bits you might want to forgo the salt.
You can use turkey bacon.
BEFORE YOU LEAVE CHECK OUT MY OTHER RECIPES HERE
Make Ahead Breakfast Souffle
Ingredients
- 1/2 loaf of french bread (cut into cubes)
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 1/2 cup cooked bacon bits or 1 lb cooked sausage crumbles (or both!)
- 2 cups milk
- 6 eggs
- 1 teaspoon mustard powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (omit if using salty bacon)
- 1 cube melted butter
Instructions
- Layer half the bread, 1 cup of cheese, and half the bacon or sausage, and then repeat with the rest of the bread/cheese/meat. This part isn’t rocket science. You really can’t mess it up.
- Beat the eggs and add the milk, mustard powder and salt if using. Mix well.
- Pour the liquid evenly over the bread, cheese and meat. Next, drizzle the butter evenly over the top.
- Cover with parchment paper and then foil. Refridgerate for 8 hours or overnight. Next morning pull it out and let it sit for 1 hour on the counter. Place in the oven and turn the temperature on at 350F.
- Bake for 30 minutes, and remove the foil and parchment paper. Bake an additional 30 minutes. Let sit for at least 15 minutes before serving.
- Serve with salsa, hot sauce and/or sour cream.
