Wow your taste buds with this festive focaccia appetizer topped with sweet caramelized onions, tart cranberries, and creamy brie. It will become your new favorite holiday starter! Continue reading “Focaccia with Caramelized Onions, Cranberries, and Brie” » LEGGI TUTTO
This dish is ready when you are! Layers of potatoes, cheese, eggs, and bacon make this a hearty breakfast. Prepare ahead and refrigerate it overnight for a fuss-free Christmas morning.
Today I’m posting something savory to balance out all the sweet things I’ve been making. I’m a huge fan of breakfast casseroles (see this fave) and I’m always on the lookout for a worthwhile recipe that will make Christmas or New Year’s morning easy.
This cheesy omelet bake scored high marks during recipe testing and ended up being lunch for about 3 days in a row. So, if you’re a breakfast every hour person like I am, you’ll probably love this for any meal. And what’s not to love about bacon, eggs, and cheese that sits atop a layer of hash browns? It’s all good.
I decided to create a breakfast buffet for this post, because these Panettone Muffins are not to be missed! I’ve made them a few holidays in a row, and they are always a crowd-pleaser.
And for something special to sip, I mixed up a batch of Sparkling Pomegranate Punch. Here it’s made just the same as the recipe I’ve linked, except this time I topped it with some pineapple sherbet. Turns out, this was a really good idea.
The omelet bake is already pretty easy to put together, but I have a shortcut to recommend anyway. Pre-cooked bacon will remove the step of cooking raw bacon and it crisps up wonderfully as it bakes on top of this casserole. It requires nothing more than a quick chop.
This will serve 6-8 hungry people, or if your Christmas morning is more intimate, then leftovers keep well and reheat easily in the microwave. It’s great for lunch with an arugula salad on the side, or even a little cup of mandarin orange segments, which I serve with breakfast often.
[click to print]
Triple Cheese Omelet Bake
Yields about 8 servings2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup (75 grams) chopped onion
1/4 cup (40 grams) chopped green bell pepper
26 oz. (1 large bag) frozen shredded hash brown potatoes, thawed
2 cups (226 grams) shredded Swiss cheese
12 slices of bacon, cooked
8 oz. (1 package) cream cheese, softened
6 large eggs
1/2 cup (120 ml) milk
1/2 cup (56 grams) freshly grated parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/3 cup chopped scallions, optionalPreheat oven to 350°F. Evenly spray the inside of a 3 quart baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.Melt the 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook chopped onion and green pepper in the butter, stirring constantly until tender and the onions turn translucent. Set aside.Evenly spread the hash browns in the bottom of the prepared baking dish, and sprinkle with Swiss cheese. Chop the cooked bacon and sprinkle half of it over the cheese, and top with the cooked vegetable mixture.In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat cream cheese on medium speed until softened. Add eggs and milk; beat until smooth. Scrape down sides and bottom of mixing bowl to make sure ingredients are thoroughly blended. Add parmesan cheese, salt and pepper; beat until just blended. Pour the egg mixture over ingredients in the dish and sprinkle with remaining half of the bacon.Bake uncovered for 35 minutes, or until set and lightly browned. Let cool 5 minutes and top with chopped scallions, if using. Serve immediately.Make ahead: This dish can be assembled, covered, and chilled overnight in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before baking, or add 10 minutes to the bake time if the dish is still chilled.
link Triple Cheese Omelet Bake for Christmas Breakfast By Heather Baird Published: Monday, December 21, 2020Monday, December 21, 2020Triple Cheese Omelet Bake Recipe LEGGI TUTTO
This easy fruitcake is perfect for the holidays. It’s light, tender, and full of dried fruits and nuts. Sprinkle the loaf with brandy, or leave it out! Either way, this fruit cake is a welcome addition to the holiday table.
Photography Credit: Elise Bauer
Are you a fruitcake lover? Though this traditional holiday cake is often maligned (I guess some people don’t like candied fruit?), it’s wonderful when well prepared.
This fruitcake is our family’s favorite, packed with dates, walnuts, raisins, and glazed cherries. Think raisin bread, on steroids. The recipe comes from the wife of a family friend, Patricia, who for years sent us a loaf every Christmas.
We usually have to make at least two loaves—one to eat right away because we just can’t wait, and the other to sprinkle with brandy and save for Christmas day. These loaves also make terrific gifts.
Video! The Best Holiday Fruitcake
How to Make Fruitcake
Fruitcake is really just like any other quick bread or loaf cake, only with a lot more fruit and nuts added. You make a simple cake batter, stir in the fruits and nuts, and bake until a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.
The resulting cake is dense and looks like a beautiful mosaic when sliced, with fruits and nuts in every bite.
You can sprinkle the cake with liquor (we like brandy), or leave it alcohol-free. The liquor will make the fruitcake more moist, and will help it last longer.
Tips for the Best Fruit Cake
Toss the fruits and nuts in flour before mixing them into the batter. This will help keep them evenly distributed throughout the cake during baking.
Place a pan of water in the oven alongside the fruitcake. This will help with a more even, gentle cooking.
It’s best to slice this fruitcake with a knife with a serrated edge, such as a bread knife.
How Long Does Fruitcake Last?
Fruitcake lasts longer than most other cakes because it is filled with nuts and candied fruit. It will last even longer if you sprinkle it with a spirit like brandy. Just keep it tightly wrapped.
Without brandy, the cake will last tightly wrapped a week or more.
With brandy, the cake can last a month or more.
How to Store and Freeze Fruitcake
Cool the fruitcake completely, poke a few holes in the top of the cake and sprinkle it with brandy if desired. Wrap the loaf tightly with aluminum foil and store it on the counter.
To freeze, wrap the loaf in plastic and then in aluminum foil and freeze for up to three months.
More Festive Holiday Treats
Updated December 20, 2020 : We added a new video to help you make the best fruitcake ever. No changes to the original recipe.
Best Holiday Fruitcake Recipe
Best to slice this fruitcake with a knife with a serrated edge, such as a bread knife.
Ingredients
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (236 ml) full fat sour cream
1 cup (130 g) chopped dates
2 cups (280 g) raisins
1/2 cup (75 g) chopped glazed cherries (can sub dried sweetened cranberries)
1 cup (100 g) chopped walnuts
2 cups (260 g) all-purpose flour [divided into 1/4 cup (30 g) and 1 3/4 cups (130 g)]
1/2 cup butter (1 stick, 113 g)
1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
Grated rind of one orange
1 teaspoon salt
1 to 2 ounces (30 to 60 ml) brandy (optional)
Method
1 Preheat the oven and prepare the pan: Preheat oven to 325°F (160°C). Line a 9×5-inch loaf pan with greased parchment paper or brown baking paper, cut to fit the pan.
Place one piece to run the length of the pan and stand up above the rim about an inch. Place the other piece or pieces to cover the other sides. When the cake comes out of the oven, you can easily remove it by holding the sides of the paper and lifting the cake out of the pan.
2 Mix together sour cream and baking soda: In a small bowl, mix together the baking soda and sour cream; set aside.
3 Toss the fruits and nuts with flour: Combine the dates, raisins, cherries, and nuts with 1/4 cup of the flour and toss to coat the fruit and nuts. Set aside.
4 Make the fruitcake batter: Beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Mix in the egg, then the orange rind, then the sour cream/baking soda mix.
Add the flour and the salt and mix together. Combine fruit/nut mixture with creamed ingredients and mix well to distribute the fruit and nuts evenly.
5 Bake the fruitcake: Scoop the batter into a prepared 5×9-inch loaf pan, and press down to even the surface.
Place the batter-filled pan into the preheated oven. Place a separate pan of water in the oven either on a rack underneath the fruitcake or beside it. (The water will help with a more even, gentle cooking.)
Bake at 325°F (160°C) for approximately 1 1/2 hours to 1 3/4 hours, or until the internal temperature is between 205°F and 209°F, and a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Water may need to be replenished during baking. If the top of the fruitcake is getting too browned as it bakes, tent it with some foil.
6 Cool on a rack: Remove to a rack to cool for 5 minutes. Use the edges of the parchment paper to lift the cake out of the pan. Let cool completely.
Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and then aluminum to store. If you want, poke a few holes over the top of the cake and sprinkle on a few ounces of brandy or bourbon. This will make the fruitcake more moist and will help it last longer.
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Elise Bauer
Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family’s recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.
More from Elise LEGGI TUTTO
This holiday season, start a new tradition with gingerbread pancakes. Rich molasses, cinnamon, clove, and ginger added to classic buttermilk pancakes make a short stack worthy of Christmas morning. Top with whipped cream and caramelized pears to make this an extra special treat. Continue reading “Gingerbread Pancakes with Caramelized Pears” » LEGGI TUTTO
Chocolate pots de crème are deeply chocolaty with luxurious texture. This recipe adds a note of woodsy pine with the addition of rosemary.I recently mentioned how much I value make-ahead desserts during the holiday season. This is yet another that I love. Like most French desserts, it is rich and decadent. This version has a note of pine that seems so fitting for winter. Traditionally, pots de crème are baked in a water bath. This recipe is made on the stove top and skips baking entirely, which speeds up the process but doesn't compromise any of the texture or flavor this dessert is know for.Continued, click to read more… LEGGI TUTTO
This easy breakfast casserole is adaptable to whatever ingredients you have on hand—cheese, veggies, meats—and can be assembled the night before and baked in the morning. Or eaten for dinner—your choice!
On vacation, having too much fun to realize that nothing has been planned for meals, fridge mostly empty, remembering that uh-oh, I’m the one in charge of feeding my friend’s children that day.
Oops!
Open the refrigerator door, see half a dozen eggs, half a carton of milk, some cheddar cheese, leftover sausage from biscuits and gravy the day before, a little broccoli, a leftover ear of corn (cooked).
Open the freezer and see half a loaf of sliced bread. Saved!
Whew. I won’t have to reach for the boxed mac and cheese.
Video! How to Make a Breakfast Casserole
What is a breakfast casserole?
Have you ever made a breakfast casserole?
The basic ingredients are eggs, cheese, milk, and bread. It’s the easiest thing in the world to put together. We have a sausage breakfast casserole on the site that is one of my favorites.
The great thing about a breakfast casserole is that you can add almost anything you want to the base. Italian sausage is my all-time favorite, but bacon or ham will do, too. Or make it veggie with zucchini, broccoli, basil, and onions.
The first time I served this to the kids they insisted that it had to go on the website. The name they picked was “Open Fridge Breakfast Bake” because basically that’s what I did—opened the fridge, put everything I could find into a casserole dish, and baked it.
How to Make a Breakfast Casserole
To make a breakfast casserole you beat some eggs, add milk and cheese, add cubed bread, add “mix-ins” like mushrooms, veggies, sausage, and herbs, put it in a casserole dish and bake.
Easy, right? The ingredients basically all come together in one big casserole pan, but there are a few steps I would recommend first:
If you are using a lot of mushrooms, sauté them a bit beforehand to release some of their moisture.
You can add cooked, sturdy veggies such as broccoli into the casserole, or put them in raw. If using raw veggies, cut them into smaller pieces and know that they’ll be crunchier if you put them in raw instead of cooked.
If you are adding sausage or bacon, cook it first before adding it to the casserole.
The proportions of ingredients are adjustable. If you add more eggs, it will result in a casserole that is more firm and less likely to deflate.
Day-old or stale bread works best for a breakfast casserole, but if you don’t have any, just leave slices of fresh bread out on the counter to dry for a few hours, or put the slices in a low oven (200°F, 10 min) or toaster for a minute (just enough to dry them a little).
What to Serve With a Breakfast Casserole
Breakfast casserole is truly a meal in itself! It has starch (bread), milk, cheese, meat, and vegetables. It can be made for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
Serve it with some sliced fresh fruit on the side for breakfast, or if making for dinner, a green salad. If you omit the veggies in the casserole, consider serving some sautéed vegetables on the side. Or if leaving out the meat, some crispy bacon or cooked sausages.
Make Ahead Instructions
Breakfast casseroles are almost designed to be made ahead. You can assemble the whole thing the night before, put it in the fridge (covered), and bake it the next morning. It’s minimal work when you wake up and a low stress breakfast if you have a group of people to feed.
How to Keep and Reheat a Breakfast Casserole
This breakfast casserole will keep for a few days in the fridge, covered. You can microwave it until it’s hot, one serving at a time, or you can reheat the whole casserole in a 350°F oven for 15 to 20 minutes until it’s heated through.
Do you have a favorite breakfast casserole combo? If so, please let us know about it in the comments.
MORE EASY, LAZY BREAKFAST Casseroles
Updated December 19, 2020 : We added a new video to help you make the best breakfast casserole ever! No changes to the original recipe. Enjoy! LEGGI TUTTO
A simplified version of the classic French beef stew that contains all of the flavors, but none of the fuss, of Boeuf Bourguignon. Slow cooker beef stew made in a rich red wine, bacon, and thyme braise is now weeknight dinner ready!
Forget the fuss of a typical Boeuf Bourguignon, but keep all the scrumptious flavors!
A classic Boeuf Bourguignon, which was made famous by Julia Child in her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking, is a beef stew slowly simmered in burgundy wine. While that sounds simple enough, the dish is notorious for having over two dozen steps and requiring niche ingredients like pearl onions.
I wanted to keep that perfect melding of French Boeuf Bourguignon flavors such as bacon, wine, and thyme, but in a recipe that would be viable for a weeknight meal.
Behold: Slow Cooker Beef Burgundy!
In this slow cooker version, beef is cooked gently until tender in a braise of herbs, vegetables, and red wine. The stew is simple to make yet elevated in both presentation and taste. We make swaps throughout, such as replacing pearl onions with white sweet ones and cooking the mushrooms in the stew, rather than sauteing them separately, to take out the intimidation factor of the classic version.
The Best Wine for Beef Bourguignon
Burgundy wine is ideal for this dish, and although all Burgundy wines originate from the Burgundy region of France, you may know them under different names.
In this region, the most common grapes are chardonnay, which is a white Burgundy, and pinot noir, a red Burgundy. Because this recipe uses a red wine, that means pinot noir is the best wine to use in this dish.
You’ll want to choose a dry pinot that isn’t fruit-forward. High minerality and acid are also ideal to best mimic the characteristics of grapes grown in Burgundy. What matters most, however, is that you use a wine you enjoy because that’s what your stew will taste like and you’ll have three glasses left over that you may want to drink.
Best Cut of Beef for Beef Stew
A chuck roast is the standard for beef stews, and this recipe is no different. You don’t need to cut it yourself unless you prefer to; buying beef that’s already been pre-cut is perfectly acceptable here and will yield perfect results.
Bacon: The Beef Stew Flavor Enhancer
The bacon in this recipe is more for flavor than texture. Even though you’ll cook it until crispy, hours in the stew will leave it soft and barely noticeable.
It adds smoke, salt, and that amazingly indescribably umami that enhances all the other flavors of a dish. Because it isn’t adding much texture, you could substitute the bacon with three tablespoons of bacon fat, and sauté the beef in that instead.
How Long Does It Take to Make Slow Cooker Stew
The beauty of a slow cooker recipe is being able to separate your prep time from your cooking time.
Plus, the base of the stew is made directly in the cooker, including the flour used to thicken it, so no additional time is needed on the stovetop. If you prefer even thicker stew, take the lid off for the last twenty to thirty minutes of cook time.
Prep this stew in the morning, then cook it low and slow all day. Make extra bacon for breakfast (two birds/one stone). Remove the bacon from the skillet then sear the beef in the bacon fat.
Put the bacon, seared beef, and all remaining ingredients directly into the slow cooker. Leave behind the bacon fat when you scoop out the beef, but don’t stress if some beef has fat clinging to it. One or two tablespoons of bacon fat will only enhance the richness of the dish. You’ll need about 15 minutes to get this all together.
The stew is ready to eat once the collagen in the beef has broken down enough for you to easily pull it apart with a fork.
What to Serve With Beef Stew
Serve it alongside a light salad and crusty bread; the bread will soak up the juices beautifully. If desired, garnish with fresh herbs such as parsley, rosemary, thyme, or marjoram when serving.
How Long Does Beef Stew Keep?
This will keep several days in the fridge and reheats easily either on the stovetop or in the microwave. The stew will last in the freezer for up to three months.
More Beef Stew Recipes LEGGI TUTTO
This month, we welcome back Marta Rivera for more of her meal plans. Marta is a trained chef, mom of twins, an Army wife, and a Simply Recipes recipe tester and developer!
It’s the most wonderful time of the year!!!
I don’t know if I’m more excited about Christmas, or about the fact that we only have a week left until we’re out of 2020! (It’s the latter, in case you’re wondering.) But, I am excited to make all of the indulgent holiday recipes which I consider to be a few of my favorite things.
This week’s recipes are pretty straightforward, easy to double, and freezer-friendly. Well, all with the exception of the prime rib for Christmas Day, but that’s part of the plan. Let’s go easy on the days leading up to the holiday, then go all out with a meal made for a Dickens’ novel. LEGGI TUTTO
