If you're obsessed with everything bagel spice, you're going to want to make Chrissy Teigen's latest brunch creation -- an everything bagel cream cheese breakfast bake.
The model, TV personality, hilarious Instagrammer, and now mom of two, Luna and Miles, is out with her second cookbook, "Cravings: Hungry for More," following up on the success of her bestseller "Cravings."
The new book includes over 100 recipes -- from her go-to nostalgic favorites, signature comfort foods, family favorites, and crowd-pleasing dishes that you can serve for any get-together.
"I was debating, in this book, ‘Do I want to go lighter? Do I want to use coconut oil?,’ and I was like, ‘No,'" Teigen said on "Good Morning America." "I think it’s important to be able to indulge sometimes."
The everything bagel cream cheese breakfast bake from her book is one of those dishes that's anything but basic and will win over any brunch guests.
"I have felt for a long time that everything bagel spice is the bomb. But I've never been that into eating an entire bagel — it's just too much dough at one time," she writes in her new book. "Cutting them up into pieces and baking them with sausage and eggs though . . . That, folks, is everything."
Teigen shared the recipe on "GMA."
Ingredients
1 pound breakfast sausage links* (optional)
2 tablespoons butter, plus more for the baking dish
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 (10-ounce) package frozen spinach, thawed
3 day-old everything bagels, halved and cut into big chunks
2 large tomatoes, cut into chunks
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 and 1/2 cups grated Gruyère or Swiss cheese
1 and 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
8 eggs
2 cups milk
1 cup half-and-half
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 (8-ounce) brick cream cheese, cold, cut into 14 cubes
**If you want to keep this veggie, omit the sausage, increase the butter for sautéing the onions by 1 tablespoon, and add another half of a 10-ounce package of thawed frozen spinach.
Directions
Melt the butter in the skillet over medium-low heat, then add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly golden and translucent, about 9 minutes. While the onion is cooking, pile the thawed spinach into the center of a big clean kitchen towel and roll up the towel.
Over a bowl or the sink, twist the ends toward each other and keep twisting until you wring out as much liquid as humanly possible. (Or make someone else do this.)
Transfer the spinach to the bowl with the sausage and add the onion, bagel chunks, tomatoes, basil, Parm, 1 cup each of the Gruyère and cheddar, 1 teaspoon of the salt, and ½ teaspoon of the pepper. Toss it all together with your hands or a spoon. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, half-and-half, mustard, cayenne, and the remaining 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper.
Grease a 9 × 13-inch baking dish with butter and arrange the bagel mixture in the dish. Pour the egg mixture over the top, pressing down on the bagels so they soak up the liquid. Nestle the cream cheese chunks in all around the pan (they can be peeking out). Cover and refrigerate for at least 1½ hours and up to 12 hours. (The longer you soak, the moister the inside will be.)
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Uncover the dish and sprinkle with the remaining ½ cup each Gruyère and cheddar.
Bake for 15 minutes, reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F, and bake until the top is golden and the center is set, 50 minutes to 1 hour.
Recipe and photographs reprinted from "Cravings: Hungry for More." Copyright © 2018 by Chrissy Teigen. Photographs copyright © 2018 by Aubrie Pick. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.