Cheese and Bacon Bread Bake Cake [strata]

Strata, breakfast casserole, savoury french toast bake or bread pudding. It doesn't matter what you call this, it's totally delish and can be made ahead so it's great for feeding a crowd! It tastes like a cross between a quiche, french toast and an omelette.

Ingredients

• 10 oz / 300g bacon , diced
• 6 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups milk (full or low fat)
• 1/4 tsp salt (ordinary table sale) or 1/2 tsp sea salt flakes or kosher salt
• Black pepper
• 7 cups (lightly packed) baguette / french stick cut into 2 cm / 1 inch cubes (preferably slightly stale)
• 2 cups grated cheddar cheese (Note 1)
• Parsley , finely chopped (garnish - optional)

Instructions

• Heat a large non stick pan over high heat. (Use a bit of oil if not using non stick). Add all but 2 tbsp of bacon (reserve for topping) and cooked until lightly browned. Remove from the fry pan and drain on a paper towel.
• Whisk the eggs, milk, salt and pepper in a bowl.
• Place the bread in a large ziplock bag. Pour in the egg mixture, 1 1/2 cups cheese and cooked bacon (reserve the uncooked bacon). Seal and massage the egg into the cubes. Set aside in the fridge for at least 30 minutes (until all the egg is soaked into the bread) or overnight.

TO COOK

• Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
• Spray a 21cm/8" springform cake tin (Note 2). Pour the bread mixture into the cake tin, pat down to compress and scatter with remaining uncooked bacon and remaining 1/2 cup cheese. Cover loosely with foil or with a pan lid.
• Bake for 25 minutes, then remove the lid and bake for a further 10 minutes until bubbly and golden on top.
• Allow to rest for 5 minutes before removing the springform and cutting into slices to serve. Garnish with parsley if using.

 Recipe Notes:

1. You can substitute with any other flavoured melting cheese eg. tasty, gouda, Monterey Jack.

2. If you don't want to make this in a springform pan, use a 10"/25cm square baking dish. Also, you can mix the bread and egg mixture straight into the baking dish instead of in a ziplock bag. The ziplock bag is used to prevent egg mixture from leaking from the springform pan while it is set aside.

3. Nutrition assuming 8 servings. The calories are overstated because the bacon is drained of fat but I can't determine how much fat is drained.

Recipes by www.recipetineats.com