- Hey, guys, today I'm gonna give you a great idea
for a back to school breakfast.
It's my mini egg stratas made in a muffin tin.
Now, if you're not familiar with a strata,
it's a popular brunch item
and it has eggs in it and heavy bread
and it's baked like a casserole.
So it's somewhere between a bread pudding and a quiche
and what I like about this recipe
is I'm gonna show you how to make one batter
and then actually create three different types of stratas
based on the fillings you choose.
It's a great idea for back to school
because you can make a big batch of these on Sunday night
and then bake them off and have them in the freezer
ready to go for several weeks.
Let me show you how to put it together.
So the first thing we're gonna do
is whip up our basic batter
and then in a large bowl you're gonna crack 10 eggs.
To that, you're gonna add a half cup of heavy cream.
Now, you could use milk.
I tend to use the heavy cream
because I find that it gives the stratas
a lot more structure
but you definitely could use the milk
if you're looking for something a little bit lighter.
A quarter teaspoon of salt and some freshly cracked pepper
and that's all there is to it.
You're gonna whisk that all up and then set it aside
and then you wanna take out a 12 cup muffin tin
and you do wanna line it with some muffin papers.
Now, you could definitely use standard muffin papers
but I like to use these tulip papers
'cause they're a bit higher.
They're also great once the stratas are baked
because you can unwrap them
and you'll see, you'll have like a little square,
almost like a little napkin,
a little plate you can eat them on
if you're waiting for the bus
or you're actually having to eat this in the car
which I get it, I know that there are mornings
that happen that way.
Then you wanna fill your papers with a heavy bread.
I like to use a whole wheat Italian loaf.
I find that that's a really good consistency
for something like this.
I wouldn't use sandwich bread
because it's just too thin
and doesn't really have the weight
of something like an Italian loaf
or even French bread would work too.
And as you're filling the bread,
try to leave some nooks and crannies
'cause that will make it easier to pour the egg batter in.
I've done it before where I've packed the bread in there
real dense and then tried to pour the egg in it
and it doesn't absorb right away
and it spills all over and makes kind of a mess.
So do leave your little nooks and crannies
and that'll help the egg find its way through.
Okay, so once you got all your bread situated,
now we're gonna talk about the fillings.
So these are a few that I like best
but I will leave you some other ideas in the description
for some other combos that would be great
but basically, I do three different kinds
and it works out really well in the muffin tin
because then that way you have four of each kind.
So first up, we're gonna begin
with a cheddar cheese jalapeno combo.
So you can take the jalapeno peppers,
dice them real fine, sprinkle them on the bread
and then top with some cheese,
just some grated cheddar cheese is what I'm working with.
In the next step, we're gonna take
some diced cherry tomatoes.
So I like to just cut them into quarters,
top them on the bread
and then add some freshly grated mozzarella cheese
and a little sprinkling of herbes de Provence
and then for the last one,
I'm gonna do some sliced Black Forest ham,
some little squares of Swiss cheese
and then some freshly snipped chives.
That's a really good combo too.
This is a great recipe to make
if you live with a couple of roommates
because then everybody can have their own filling
that they like
and then you can put them in the freezer
marked with their name on it
then once you have all your fillings ready to go,
we're gonna go back to our egg batter
and I like to transfer it into a smaller Pyrex pitcher
because that will make it easier to pour in your wells
and then you're just gonna go ahead and fill each well
with enough batter to kinda cover the bread
and go all the way up to the top of the tulip paper
and as you find yourself running out of batter
which can happen if your bread is too dense
and it's sort of sucking it up really quickly,
you can just add to the recipe by taking one egg
to maybe two to three teaspoons of heavy cream
and season it with a little salt and pepper
and then you can add into the wells that you need
and then I like to let this tray sit out
for just about 10 to 15 minutes
to allow for all of that egg batter to soak into the bread.
It'll just give you a more custardy finish in the inside
and then we're gonna bake at 375
for anywhere from 20 to 25 minutes
just until all the stratas have puffed up
and are a bit golden brown
and when you pull them out, you will see how delicious
and tasty they look.
It'll be really hard not to pop a few in your mouth
while you're just waiting for them to cool down.
You don't have to wait for breakfast.
You can give 'em a try.
And then once they are cooled down,
you can transfer them to a freezer safe container,
cover it with foil or a lid, whatever you have
and then just reheat in the microwave
when you need breakfast.
I hope you guys give this one a try
and let me know what you think.
Subscribe for more quick and easy recipes
and I'll see you back here next week with another one.
Until then.
(calm music)