Sunday, May 12, 2019

Ham and Cheese Croissant Bake


I bought some of those really large croissants at Costco, that were perfect for this dish. I found this recipe on Plain Chicken blog. I love making breakfast dishes for dinner. It is pure comfort food for me. Follow the link for the original recipe. 

This recipe is pretty versatile, so you can use whatever breakfast meat you would like: browned sausage, bacon, ham ... You can easily add some chopped bell peppers and onions if you would like. This is somewhat of a savory dish and if you want more of a sweet dish, you can easily add some sort of berries to it if you would like. In that case, I probably wouldn't add the bell peppers and onion.

I made some tweaks to the recipe and then doubled it, baking in a 9x13" pan. Here is what I did differently:
- I used some deli ham that I needed to use up, so I gave it a rough chop using about 1/2 to 3/4 of a pound in total
- I used shredded Colby-Jack cheese
- I forgot to add the dry mustard. I am not not really a fan of mustard in general, but I will add it to a recipe when calling for dry mustard. Next time I will add it, because in a dish like this, it does give it some good flavor without being too overpowering. However, I might cut the amount in half, since the original recipe is for an 8x8" pan.
- I added the honey, but I thought 4 tbsp would make it too sweet so I only added 1 tbsp of it for the doubled recipe. It gives it a great flavor, so when I do make this again, I will play around with the amount of honey until it has the right balance. 
- The croissants from Costco are huge - larger than 5 inches each, and I ended up using 5-6 of them, which is more than what the recipe calls for if using a 5-inch croissant There is a large amount of custard here, and it worked out just fine. 
- I even drizzled some maple syrup over it at when serving, and it was fantastic.




Print


3 (5-inch) large croissants
1 (8-oz)  package chopped cooked ham
1 (5-oz) package shredded Swiss cheese
     (I'm not a fan of Swiss cheese, so I used a Colby-Monterey Jack cheese blend. Use whatever kind          of cheese you would like, and I'm sure it would be great.)
6 eggs
1 cup half-and-half
1 tsp dry mustard
2 tbsp honey
salt and pepper to taste

Cut up croissants into 10 to 12 pieces. Place in a lightly greased 9x9" deep dish pan. Sprinkle ham and cheese over the croissants. Whisk together the eggs, half-and-half, dry mustard, honey, salt and pepper. Pour egg mixture over the croissant mixture and press the croissants down so they are submerged into the egg mixture. Cover dish with aluminum foil and refrigerate for 8-24 hours.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bake, covered, for 35 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 25 minutes, or until set. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. If desired, drizzle with maple syrup.

NOTE: I followed the baking instructions but because of the amount of custard, there was still some runny egg mixture on the bottom of the pan. So I bumped up the oven temperature to 400 degrees and baked for an additional 10-15 minutes, and it baked it right up just perfectly. 

** UPDATE:
I made this for a second time recently (again, doubling the recipe), and used the following:

- 5" croissants that you can get from the grocery store, using 10 croissants instead of 6
- 10 eggs, instead of 12
- 2 tbsp honey, instead of 4
- I added 1 tsp of dry mustard, but having tasted it without, I prefer to leave it out all together







No comments: