Whether the morning meal on Christmas Day is structured or catch-as-catch-can, breakfast can be as carefree as the day.
With a little planning, the quiche or casserole can go into the oven while gifts are ripped open; the fruit salad can come out of the fridge while bacon comes to a slow sizzle.
Dec. 25 is the one day when the season’s food fest either culminates early in the day or is the launching pad for a day-long feeding frenzy, what with muffins and cookies and punch and eggnog.
Catherine Cavoto knows a thing or three about starting the day in a hearty way.
An instructor at the Seasoned Chef Cooking School, Cavoto prepares a sturdy Christmas brunch that sustains her and her two daughters through their mad round of family visits.
“We drive from our house in Denver to Arvada to Berthoud to Westminster and Colorado Springs,” she says. “So I like the dishes that can be made ahead of time and baked Christmas morning.”
Cavoto’s favorite is baked stuffed French toast with a blueberry-cream-cheese filling served with brown-sugared bacon.
“I’m absolutely addicted,” she says. “People blanch when they hear it, but it’s so good and a great accompaniment to the French toast. It’s a pretty lively time for us, so we start with an early Christmas morning breakfast and head out.”
Some families re-create the Christmas-morning meals they had as children.
Troy Heller grew up in a household where his grandfather did the holiday cooking. Heller, who commutes from Fort Collins to the Tech Center as executive chef at Yia Yia, plans to continue the family tradition, but with some variations of his own.
“When I was a kid, I lived with my brother, grandparents, an aunt and uncle and their 2 kids, so essentially it was a big family,” he says.
“Christmas mornings were great. My grandfather had been a cook in the army in World War II and cooking was his deal.
“We lived in Florida then, so we’d have fresh grapefruit, maybe hard boiled eggs, some toast and these wonderful muffins he called ‘cat heads’. They were carrot cake muffins and we’d eat them with butter.
“We’d get up at the crack of dawn, our cousins would come over and we’d have a ball.”
This year, Heller’s holiday breakfast will include early rising, a quiche made with lump crab, roasted garlic, Gruyere and hollandaise and some fresh fruit.
“It’s nice because the quiche can be made the night before in a pre baked pie shell,” Heller says. “All you have to do is finish it in the oven, let it cool and serve it up. My mother-in-law usually sends a big box of grapefruit and oranges, so we’ll have fresh-squeezed orange juice and maybe stuffed French toast with ham and cheese in the middle. We won’t go crazy, but we’ll have a nice meal and probably go back to bed.”
If you’re stumped for a holiday morning casserole, look no further than the recipes we offer or go to bbonline.com. Full of recipes from bed and breakfast inns from across the country, the website has are enough ideas to keep cooks busy for a dozen holidays.
Less is more on Christmas Day, as in, the less time spent in the kitchen, the more time to enjoy a festive morning.
So make life easy on yourself. Layer a platter with smoked salmon, sprinkle it with your favorite garnishes, including capers, chopped red onions and strategically placed dabs of cream cheese.
Plate the bacon, slice the strata, spoon the fruit salad and enjoy what is, food-wise, one of the most wonderful days of the year.
Christmas Morning Casserole
A whole breakfast, baked and ready to go. From “The Best of Gooseberry Patch Old Fashioned Christmas Favorites.” Serves 10-12.
Ingredients
6 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup Cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon parsley flakes
1 tablespoon dried onion flakes
1 tablespoon oregano
1 pound ground Italian sausage, browned and drained
1 cup biscuit mix
2 cups milk
Directions
On Christmas Eve, mix all ingredients and pour into a lightly greased lasagna pan.
Cover and refrigerate overnight. On Christmas morning, while everyone is opening gifts, pop the pan into a 350- degree oven and bake 1 hour.
Wine ideas: Eggs can pose challenges with wine, but with all this cheese and sausage, it’s no problem. Sparkling wine is always welcome – Iron Horse and Gloria Roederer make terrific examples in California that run in the mid-$20s-but a soft, gentle red could do just as well. A simple, affordable barbera from Italy like Michele Chiarlo’s Le Orme or Vietti’s Tre Vigne ($13 and $17, respectively) would be warming.
-Tara Q. Thomas
Lemon and Basil Eggs over Foccacia
From Giada De Laurentiis, host of “Everyday Italian” on the Food Network, serves 6-8.
Ingredients
1 large loaf foccacia bread
2 tablespoons Meyer lemon olive oil, or 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil combined with 1 teaspoon lemon juice
3 eggs
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup milk
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut top off foccacia and hollow out the bread inside. Tear top of the foccacia and the inside bread into 1-inch pieces and save for the egg mixture. Brush inside of foccacia with lemon olive oil. Place on a baking sheet and toast for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk eggs. Add basil, cheese, salt, pepper and milk. Whisk. Stir in up to 4 cups of the bread pieces.
Carefully pour egg mixture into toasted foccacia bottom. Return to oven and bake until eggs have cooked, about 35-40 minutes.
Cut baked foccacia into 6-8 pieces and serve immediately.
Wine ideas: The combination calls for something delicate but also acidic, or that lemon is going to taste more bitter than it should. What to do? When in doubt, pour bubbly. Spring for Champagne, or buy Prosecco, Italy’s bargain bubbly. Le Bellerive and Nino Franco are two favorites that run about $15.
-Tara Q. Thomas
Bagels and Lox Buffet
If there’s one time to spread cream cheese on thick, it’s with lox. Bagels with neutral toppings allow the taste of the other ingredients to come through, so save the “everything” bagel for another occasion. Discount grocery stores like Sam’s Club and Costco usually sell cream cheese in large blocks. Serves 6.
Ingredients
2 hard-boiled eggs
1 medium cucumber
1 small red onion
1/4 cup capers
6 assorted bagels (plain, salt, sesame, poppy)
1/2 pound lox
12 (or more) ounces cream cheese
Directions
Separate hard-boiled egg yolks from whites. Chop whites into barley-size pieces. Food process or finely chop yolks. Set aside. Thinly slice cucumbers and red onion (a mandoline works best). Drain capers.
To assemble: Pre-slice bagels. On a large platter, or several plates, gently arrange lox in a single layer. Pre-slice part of the cream cheese block. Arrange sliced cucumbers and onions. Place capers, egg whites, and egg yolks in separate bowls. Guests may toast bagels (or not) and assemble toppings as desired open face or sandwich style.
Wine ideas: Some people like Champagne with their bagel and lox; others prefer a still white with a slight bit of sweetness, like Hugel’s Gentil from Alsace. To me, those are fine, but nothing beats a hot cup of coffee.
-Tara Q. Thomas
Blueberry Cream Cheese Stuffed Baked French Toast
A make-ahead showstopper from Catherine Cavoto’s Christmas Breakfast class held at the Seasoned Chef. Serves 8.
Ingredients
1 loaf French bread
1 1/4 cup sugar, divided use
2 tablespoons cornstarch
6 cups fresh blueberries
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons orange marmalade
1 teaspoon vanilla
7 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups half-and-half
2 tablespoons brandy
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup powdered sugar
Directions
Cut half of the French bread into 1-inch cubes and place in the bottom of a greased 9-by-13-inch pan. Combine 1/2 cup sugar and cornstarch until smooth and toss with blueberries.
Sprinkle blueberries evenly over bread.
Stir cream cheese and add 1/2 cup of sugar, sour cream, marmalade and vanilla. Spread this mixture very gently over blueberries.
Cut remaining French bread into 10 1-inch thick slices, arrange over cream cheese.
Beat eggs, milk, half-and-half, brandy, remaining 1/4 cup sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg and pour over bread.
Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Preheat oven to 350.
Bake for 45 minutes covered, then uncover for approximately 15 minutes to allow top to puff slightly and set. Allow to cool slightly. Sift powdered sugar over before serving.
German Apple Pancake
This is adapted from a Christmas morning favorite of cooking teacher Catherine Cavoto. You’ll need a 10-inch ovenproof skillet. She uses a nonstick skillet for the sake of easy cleanup, but a regular skillet will work as well. You can also use a cast-iron pan like her mom always did. If you do, set the oven temperature to 425 in the first step, and in the third step, cook the apples only until they are barely golden, about 6 minutes. Cast iron retains heat better than stainless steel, making the higher oven temperature unnecessary. If you prefer tart apples, use Granny Smiths; if you prefer sweet ones, use Fujis. To serve, dust the apple pancake with confectioners’ sugar and pass warm maple syrup, if desired. Serves 3.
Ingredients
1/2 cup unbleached flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup half-and-half
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/4 pounds Granny Smith or Fuji apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2 inch slices
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Directions
Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position, preheat oven to 500.
Whisk to combine flour, sugar and salt in medium bowl. In second medium bowl, whisk eggs, half-and-half and vanilla until combined. Add liquid ingredients to dry and whisk until no lumps remain; set batter aside.
Heat butter in 10-inch ovenproof nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until sizzling. Add apples, brown sugar and cinnamon; cook, stirring frequently with heatproof spatula, until apples are golden brown, about 10 minutes. Stir in lemon juice.
Working quickly, pour batter around and over apples. Place skillet in oven and immediately reduce oven temperature to 425. Bake until pancake edges are brown and puffy and have risen above edges of skillet, about 18 minutes.
Using oven mitts to protect hands, remove skillet from oven and loosen pancake edges with heatproof rubber spatula; invert pancake onto serving platter. Dust with confectioners’ sugar, cut into wedges, and serve with bacon or sausage or, what the heck, both.
