This breakfast strata with croissants is the perfect breakfast casserole to wake up with. The soft buttery pillars of the croissants paired with the sharp cheddar cheese make you think you're eating a breakfast sandwich in a casserole dish.

A casserole dish filled with breakfast strata with croissants and text above it.

We've reached December, the final month of 2019. Like I said in my November wrap up post, I'm pretty okay with this year being done with. It was a great year, but next year is going to be even better!

I wanted to give you guys another breakfast option for the holidays. Maybe you wake up Christmas morning and make this breakfast strata with croissants or maybe even New Year's Day. The flavors compliment each other so well with the bacon, cheddar and soft texture from the croissants. It's a recipe that warms the heart!

What Is a Breakfast Strata?

When I was telling my friends what I was making, they are all like "what is a str-a-ta?" Well a breakfast strata is generally a dish made out of bread, eggs and cheese. The bread used for a strata is generally Italian bread, but I love croissants and I really wanted to emulate a breakfast sandwich in this breakfast casserole.

A side by side picture of before and after the casserole.

Breakfast Strata Ingredients

I actually tested this recipe out in two different ways. The first time I used spinach and mushrooms (trying to make it vegetarian), but I didn't love the mushrooms with the croissants so I switched it up with bacon and cheddar. I think this is the winning combo.

Eggs: I used 9 whole eggs and 3 egg whites. 12 whole eggs seemed too heavy to me, but 9 was okay lol. 😂
Cheddar cheese: I would recommend the sharper the better. It gives a lot of flavor. I always tell people buying a brick of cheese and shredding it yourself using a cheese grater is SO much better than buying the bagged cheese. The brick cheese melts better and is more natural than bagged cheese.
Gruyere cheese: If you cannot find gruyere cheese in a brick, I would recommend mozzarella or Swiss. If you wanted to get crazy, use pepper jack.
Bacon: I used turkey bacon, but if you don't mind using regular bacon you can do that as well. Make sure when you cook it you make it nice and crispy. The crunch gives the breakfast strata casserole a nice texture.
Croissants: I bought my croissants at Meijer to eliminate a step in this recipe, but feel free to make your own. The fluffier and bigger the croissants, the better.
2% milk: I used 2% milk for a little more fat and flavor, but the recipe only calls for half a cup so skim milk would be okay too. The only substitution I would stay away from is any flavored milks (like vanilla almond milk).

The great thing about this breakfast strata with croissants is that you can change up the cheese and have it take on a completely different flavor.

A fork with food on it over the breakfast strata with croissants dish.

Can you make this the night before?

I would not recommend putting the egg mixture and croissants together the night before. You want some of the tops of the croissants to still be flaky and soft. If you did want to prep this the night before, you can combine the egg mixture with the cheese and bacon. Just don't add it to the casserole dish with the croissants.