The new Christmas Wifesaver recipe

I have an old, stained photocopy of my mother’s “Wifesaver” recipe — that she made every Christmas morning — in my terribly curated recipe book.

And while she’s never been one to stray too far from a recipe, we’ve played with it over the years and tried several variations that put the original to shame. This year’s version may be the best yet.

Your friends or loved ones may call this a cheese souffle (like Emma Waverman‘s family does), Christmas Casserole or Homemaker’s Surprise, but they all follow the same concept: it’s breakfast lasagne.

Oh, and you need not celebrate Christmas to enjoy a Wifesaver. Nor must you be a wife to cook it. This is great any time of year — if you have a New Year’s Day brunch coming up, it’s the perfect excuse to give this recipe a try.

If you’re looking for the original Christmas Morning Wifesaver recipe, here it is:

We’ve tried this with sourdough bread, leftover baguettes, French and Italian loaves. We used to follow the recipe and remove the crusts but we don’t bother anymore. We usually use spiral-cut ham or peameal bacon but this year we also tried regular bacon. (It seems any pork by-product will work.)

You can also use just about any cheese you like, or a mixture of your favourites. It works with and without the Worcestershire sauce, and whether or not you sautee the onions and green peppers.

There’s truly no limit to Wifesaver creativity.

But I finally decided to write about the best holiday recipe of all time because we knocked this year’s out of the park. (Pat, pat.)

What you’ll need for your Christmas Wifesaver

• A skillet, deep casserole dish or roasting pan (this year, we doubled the recipe and used our HUGE skillet)
• One day of prep (you have to assemble this dish and let it sit overnight)
• An oven (there’s no microwaving this baby), preferably with convection to bake the Wifesaver evenly
• Stale bread (we usually buy it two days ahead of time, slice it and leave it out overnight)

Our Wifesaver 2.0 recipe

• One loaf of stale brioche, sliced about 1-1.5cm thick
• Two packages of PC Naturally Smoked Peppercorn-Crusted Hickory Smoked Thick Cut Bacon, baked on cookie trays in the oven (here’s how)
• Two-year-old Balderson cheddar cheese, grated
• Half a medium onion, diced and sauteed
• Half a green pepper, diced and sauteed
• Six large or extra-large eggs
• 1/2 tsp. table salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 1 tsp. dry mustard
• A good dash or two of dry red pepper flakes
• 1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 3 cups homo (whole) milk
• 1/2 cup of margarine or butter
• A handful or two of crushed Corn Flakes

How to assemble your Wifesaver

Bake your bacon in the oven.

Baking it in the oven ensures the strips stay super flat.

Sautee onions + peppers.

Add a bit of butter or coconut oil to a pan and sautee on medium heat. Do not overcook.

Grate cheese.

Notice I didn’t specify how much cheese you need. That’s because I use an ungodly amount. Just grate as much as you want, really.

Make your milk + egg mixture.

Whisk together your eggs, milk, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, dry mustard and Worcestershire sauce.

Start layering.

Bread, cheese, bacon, veg, repeat. The bigger the dish, the more layers you can add. Obviously you need to consider doubling your recipe like we did if you need it to fit in the biggest skillet ever, like the one shown above.

Pour the milk + egg mixture over the whole thing.

Once you’ve got your top layer of bread, add whatever remaining veg you have in your pan. Then pour the liquid overtop. You can add leftover cheese if you want, too. Because cheese.

Cover with cling film + refrigerate.

This needs to be chilled for a solid 6-8 hours before cooking. That’s why it’s recommended that you prep this the day before you plan to cook it, so you can refrigerate it overnight.

Heat oven + add the final ingredients.

The next morning, add the melted butter or margarine to your uncooked Wifesaver and crumble Corn Flakes overtop. We use a lot because it adds a really good crunch. (Note: this post is not sponsored by Corn Flakes, but we’ve tried other cereals and nothing works quite the same way.)

Bake + rest according to original instructions.

Voila! Golden goodness.

Enjoy!

It’s layer-upon-layer of YUMazing brunch food, perfect for sharing with family and friends during the busy holiday season.

We’ve also discovered — through challenging trial and error — that the Christmas Morning Wifesaver pairs very well with a Bailey’s or Rumchata Coffee… Don’t say you weren’t warned.