Adventures in Cooking: Savory Sweet Breakfast Casserole

This morning being Sunday is a day I usually have a big breakfast, eggs, bacon & toast, or waffles. Last Sunday I had a traditional southern breakfast of Biscuits & Sausage Gravy.

I wanted French toast this week. I also wanted bacon & eggs. How could I combine the 3 together?

Here is my concoction. The Savory Sweet Breakfast Casserole

Ingredients:

8 eggs
4 Slices of Bread (I used light wheat)
1 lb Bacon
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 milk or cream (separate into 1/4 cups as they will be used seperately)
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup maple syrup
Pinch of Salt (to taste)
Pinch of pepper (to taste)

Set your oven to 375°F

Spray a 9X9 baking pan

Take 2 of the eggs, the cinnamon and vanilla and combine
Dip the slices of toast 1 by 1 in the egg batter and place in the greased baking dish
Once all four slices have been dipped and are in the pan slowly pour the maple syrup over the top making sure it gets on each piece of bread
Cook the bacon until it's on the verge of becoming crispy, since this will be going into the over for additional cooking the bacon should be slightly underdone.
Layer the bacon on top of the bread slices so you cannot see the bread below
Sauté the mushrooms
Combine the remaining 6 eggs, mushrooms, the remaining 1/4 milk, salt & pepper.
Pour over the bacon/bread in the pan
Cook in oven for 30 minutes
Serve immediately.

It may take a few bites to get used to the flavor as you have the savory bacon & mushrooms and eggs and then the soft sweet (but not soggy) French toast layer. Nevertheless, it was quite tasty. My imagination led me to believe the bacon would be this nice layer between the egg & French toast, but the bacon rose and layered itself throughout the egg mixture. I was pleasantly surprised when the dish was served the eggs had risen to the top, I was concerned when I poured the egg mixture in, that the eggs went down into the bread and would be absorbed by the bread even though I had already dipped the bread into the egg mixture.

I may try this again in the future with better break like a breakfast loaf or cinnamon bread, and I may add cheese into the main egg mixture for additional savoriness.