Mini Mushroom, Sausage and Gruyere Strata

Yesterday, I learned how to crack an egg with one hand.

[egg cracking]

It's kind of a cool, fun thing.

Hi, everyone, I'm Molly from the Bon Appetit test kitchen

and today, I'm here with The Incredible Egg

to make mini mushroom, sausage, and Gruyere strata.

I developed this recipe with the intent of creating a dish

that would be equally as delicious eaten for brunch

as it would as a side for dinner.

So this dish is jam-packed with eggs.

There are four whole eggs,

And then the two additional egg yolks,

and what's that going to do is give these individual strata

a really rich custard

to bind all of the bread and sausage and mushroom together.

But it's also gonna give it a little bit of lift,

and so they'll souffle a bit in the oven.

I'm cracking four whole eggs into a bowl.

[eggs cracking]

I'm whisking together these four eggs and two egg yolks

until no streaks remain.

And now, I'm adding three cups of half-and-half.

I'm adding two teaspoons of salt

and a little bit of freshly ground black pepper.

So there's our custard.

We're gonna set that aside.

So I have some brioche that's been torn into small pieces

and is toasting in the oven at 325,

and I'm gonna go check on it.

Okay, so this has been in here for about 15 minutes,

and it's looking nicely toasted.

I'm mostly looking to dry out the brioche,

because that will allow

the bread to absorb the custard later on.

Everything else that we build in this skillet

is ultimately gonna end up in that bowl,

along with the custard.

We're going to start browning our sausage.

You don't actually need to cook the sausage

all the way through,

I'm just looking to get some good color on it

to develop flavor.

The sausage is gonna continue cooking in the oven

inside the strata.

Three tablespoons of olive oil,

and then while that's heating,

I'm going to pull apart these wild mushrooms.

Today, I'm using shiitake, oyster, and maitake mushrooms.

It's a natural pairing,

Mushrooms, sausage, Gruyere, eggs,

and they're finding each other today

in the form of a strata.

So I'm gonna add three-quarters of a pound

of breakfast sausage.

I'm gonna press down on the sausage

with the back of my spoon to encourage

contact with the pan,

and also increase the surface area that is browning.

Breaking up some of the sausage now that it's cooked

and browned on one side.

I'm transferring all the little bite-sized pieces

into the bowl with the brioche.

Throwing in half a pound of torn mushrooms

Quick stir,

just to make sure that everyone gets evenly coated

in that sausage fat.

I'm gonna leave it for about four or five minutes

undisturbed,

so that they get nice and golden-brown underneath.

Those are looking nice.

I'm gonna season them with salt.

I'm gonna add one tablespoon of butter,

just to add a little bit of an additional fat to the pan,

because the mushrooms have soaked most of it up,

and that'll give something for

the sliced garlic and shallots to soften in.

I'm also adding one tablespoon of chopped rosemary.

Smells delicious! That rosemary, man!

So the mushrooms are now getting added

right into the bowl of bread.

Stirring everything to sort of evenly distribute

all of the ingredients before the custard goes in,

so that there's a little bit of everything

in every ramekin.

I'm going to add four ounces of grated Gruyere cheese.

I'm pouring the custard evenly over everything in the bowl.

So we'll let this sit for five,

[taps bowl]

and in the meantime, I'm gonna go get my buttered ramekins.

Now, I'm just going to distribute it among eight ramekins.

These are eight ounce ramekins,

generously buttered so that nothing sticks

when it comes out of the oven.

I feel like this guy could use a little more.

Well, into the oven at 325 for about 30 to 35 minutes.

If you look closely, you can see that the custard has set.

It's just past that liquid state.

I feel like I found the perfect bite.

There's a little bit of mushroom,

a little bit of sausage,

and it's all bound together with my incredible eggs.

[funky guitar music starts]

It tastes as delicious as it smells.

[blows]

It's sort of breakfast-y because of the addition

of breakfast sausage,

but then it's also sort of dinner-y because

there's mushrooms and Gruyere.

So, these are my mini mushroom, sausage,

and Gruyere strata,

and I hope you enjoy them!