Italian Easter Bread Breakfast Casserole, a fast and easy Delicious French Toast type Breakfast Casserole, Cinnamon and Brown Sugar make it Perfect!
Whenever Easter rolls around I have this huge nostalgia for the Chocolate Factory that was right beside us. We would step out of the house in the morning and the smell of chocolate was the perfect soft and inviting perfume.
There was nothing like those Chocolate Eggs and Christmas Torrone! Unfortunately they are no more and we now purchase our Chocolate Easter Eggs in the Supermarket!
At Christmas Time there is Panettone and Pandoro, the difference being that Panettone is more of a fruit bread, usually containing candied fruit and raisins and Pandoro is just what it translates to – a Golden Bread.
And of course Easter has it’s own Bread, Colomba, which mean Dove in English and yes that is the shape of this Sweet Bread. And I might mention, one of my favourites.
Italian Easter Bread Breakfast Casserole
I have always been interested in Breakfast Casseroles, not much of a French Toast lover but the thought of it baked intrigued me. And even better this Italian Easter Bread Breakfast Casserole has no need for an overnight soak. Bonus!
My Easter Bread Breakfast Casserole, is made with cut up Colomba or you could use any kind of Sweet Bread. I made an egg, milk, brown sugar and cinnamon mixture and poured it over the cut up bread. Mixed it all together and …..
While the bread soaked I made a Cinnamon Crumb Topping, I am a big fan of Crumb Toppings. I made sure to bake it long enough because neither I nor the Italian like our baked food soggy!
I let it sit for about 5 minutes before we dug in, we drizzled it with a little Maple Syrup, but I’m sure a dusting of powdered sugar would have been tasty too!
I have to say the leftover bit of this Italian Easter Bread Breakfast Casserole was enjoyed by friends and especially my youngest daughter cold. Either way I hope you enjoy it too.
Italian Easter Bread Breakfast Casserole
Ingredients
BREAKFAST CASSEROLE
- 4 cups Colomba medium cubed (or any sweet bread)
- 2 tablespoons butter melted
- 3 eggs
- 1 1/4 cups milk
- 1 1/2 -2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
TOPPING
- 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 3 tablespoons butter
Instructions
BREAKFAST CASSEROLE
- Pre-heat oven to 375° F. Use a 9 1/2 x 6 1/2 inch casserole dish.In a medium bowl whisk together eggs and milk until well combined, whisk in cinnamon, brown sugar and salt.Add melted butter to casserole dish, top with cubed sweet bread, pour egg mixture on top, stir gently to combine, set aside.Top soaked bread cubes with crumb mixture, bake for approximately 45-60 minutes until puffy and baked through. Let sit 5 minutes, serve with maple syrup or powdered sugar. Enjoy!
TOPPING
- In a small bowl mix together cinnamon, brown sugar and flour, cut in butter and combine to form small crumbs.
Nutrition
Other Breakfast Treats you May Enjoy!
Traditional Italian Breakfast Cookies
Alessia L says
Hi there I have a frozen loaf of Colomba from Easter as well and this is exactly what I’ve been wanting to do with it. Do you think making it the night before would be ok or would the delicate bread soak it up too much? Thanks so much!
Rosemary says
Hi Alessia, good question, I think if you want to make it overnight, maybe add only 1 cup of milk. I think it would be fine overnight in the fridge. Let me know if you try it.
Georgina Selman says
Thank you! We were given a whole Columbia cake today and I given it’s a cold weekend I went on the search for a bread and butter-esk type pudding. This was perfect. I doubled the recipe to use the whole cake and I added stewed plums over the top of the soaking bread. Yum!
Rosemary says
Hi Georgina, thanks so much, so glad you enjoyed it. And the stewed plums, great idea! Have a great weekend.
donna rigsbee says
hi
could you give an example of another sweet bread or comment on the characteristics of columba bread? heavy, light, yeasty, etc.
thanks so much!!
donna
Rosemary says
Hi Donna, I would say Columba is quite light, almost like a raisin bread or breakfast cake (not a heavy type) and no I don’t find it yeasty at all. Hope that helps.
Alyssa Mosher says
This looked amazingly delicious AND THEN you put on syrup and made it look that much more heavenly. Thank you for this recipe 🙂
Rosemary says
Thanks Alyssa, hope you enjoy it. 🙂