Christmas Breakfast Tradition - Sausage Soufflé

Sooooooooooo, one good thing to come out of 2020 was that I finally got the recipe to my family's traditional Christmas breakfast meal, a sausage soufflé!

My wife and I made our own version of it for the first time on Christmas day 2020 and it turned out great! (don't tell my mom, but it might have even been the best version yet...) and I'm excited to share it with more people now! Also... I might eat it more than just for Christmas now that I have the recipe, It's a really tasty breakfast meal!

Also, also - while writing this Instructable I found soufflé is kind of a weird word (and kind of fun to type out...) so I had to know what makes a soufflé a soufflé. This link explained it really well IMO. The traditional French version is a fluffy egg dish that is either sweet or savory. Over the last however long there's been tons of iterations on the soufflé, So this might not be the perfect definition of the traditional soufflé, but it is in the savory soufflé ballpark so we're sticking with it!

My version:

Ingredients:

8 slices of plain white bread, cut into cubes

6 eggs

1 lb to 1.5 lbs of sausage

4 - 8 oz of shredded cheddar cheese

1 1/2 cup of milk

1 tbsp pimentos

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp sage

1/4 tsp pepper

Supplies:

Large mixing bowl

Bread knife

Cutting board

Skillet

Spatula

Wisk

Measuring cup

Measuring spoons

Baking pan

Cheese grater

First we need to brown the sausage. I'm cooking the sausage in a cast iron pan, use whatever frying pan you have available. Cook the sausage until it's got that nice brown color and is crumbly.

While it's cooking go ahead and cut the bread cubes. 8 slices of bread is about right.

Sausage probably isn't done yet so lets shred the cheese. Recipe calls for 4 oz... I've seen my mother just put a whole bag of shredded cheese in which is what, 8 oz?! So I shredded until the grater was about half full and have roughly 2 handfuls. So moral of the story, be as cheesy as you want (yes that was permission to tell a cheesy joke in the comments!).

Un-pimento the olives (or just add pimentos...) About a dozen olives yields roughly a tablespoon of pimentos in case you were curious 🤣. Story behind this is Wiferneer had only ever known pimentos to come stuffed in olives, so she used olives the first time we made this dish and it's our little twist on it now.

OK, sausage looks done so lets let it cool while we work on the next step.

Grab your 6 eggs and crack them into your mixing bowl.

Beat the eggs until they're smooth and then add in the 1 and 1/2 cups of milk.

*Optional* - Realize your mixing bowl is way too small... Get a bigger mixing bowl.

Mix the bread cubes and the eggs together. I poured the egg mixture on top of the bread and it seemed to work better than I remember it working last time.

Mix in the cheese next.

Mix in the pimentos.

Sausage should be cooled off by now, so lets mix it in. My mom drains the sausage before putting it in, I chose to just send it. Fat is flavor right?!

Add the sage, pepper and salt. I chose to add less salt since the sausage is pretty salty.

Yes the pepper is in a tupperware container - PSA - only grind pepper in a pepper grinder... This is why I can't have nice things...

Give it all one final mix before putting it into your baking dish.

Take a quick coffee break.

Smoosh it around so it lays in the dish mostly evenly.

Cover the dish and put it in the fridge for at least an hour.

Now we cleanup and wait. I'll cook it tomorrow morning.

It's go time!!!

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (160 degrees Celsius). Uncover the soufflé and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Resist the urge to check on it or poke it while it's cooking...

Can you smell it? Mmmmmmm breakfasty goodness! Pull the soufflé out of the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes before cutting it.

*Bonus feature - The thing I'm using to pull out the oven rack without burning my hands is... wait for it... an oven rack push pull stick. Wiferneer's version has a magnet that makes it really easy to keep next to the oven. If you're curious you can check it out in her Etsy store here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/846490891/laser-engra...

The souffle cuts easily with a butter knife. I like to put a little sour cream and hot sauce on mine. It also keeps really well in the fridge for up to a week and is easy to reheat.

That's it, thanks for letting me share this family tradition with you in the Instructables Breakfast Speed Challenge!

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