Christmas morning breakfast casserole and cinnamon rolls in one oven
Short answer for a 9:00 AM breakfast: turn the oven on to 350 °F at 7:55 AM, put the casserole in at 8:10 AM, and the cinnamon rolls in at 8:30 AM. The casserole comes out at 8:50 AM and the rolls at 9:00 AM, as you sit down.
Both recipes I opened bake at 350 °F, so they share an oven with no temperature change. The casserole goes in first because it needs 40 minutes and a short rest before it is cut. The rolls are the last thing out, warm for the icing. The times below come from the same planner as the rest of this site, and the recipes behind them are listed further down.
What the times rest on
- Casserole: Taste of Home, overnight egg casserole says to refrigerate it "eight hours or overnight", take it out 30 minutes before baking, preheat to 350 °F, then bake uncovered for 40 minutes "or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean". The dish in that recipe is 11 by 7 inches. A different pan size or recipe changes the time, so use the one in your recipe.
- Rolls: Williams-Sonoma, overnight cinnamon rolls has the shaped rolls "rise in the refrigerator overnight", then rise in the morning "until half again as high, about 1 hour". It preheats to 350 °F and bakes them "until golden brown, about 30 minutes" in a 9 by 13 inch dish.
- Casserole doneness: the search summary of USDA's guidance gave 160 °F for egg dishes, and 165 °F for casseroles that contain meat or poultry. The sausage version counts as the second kind. I could not check the page itself, so check the FSIS safe temperature chart and put a thermometer in the center. A clean knife is the recipe's cue, and a thermometer is the safer one.
- My assumptions: the casserole rests 10 minutes before cutting and can wait up to 30 minutes, and the rolls wait up to 20 minutes before icing. The oven needs 15 minutes to preheat or to change temperature. The planner lets three dishes share the oven, and this page assumes the two pans sit on separate racks.
Overnight and morning-of timeline, 9:00 AM breakfast
The evening before, assemble the casserole by 11:40 PM at the latest, so it has its 8 hours in the fridge, and shape the rolls and put them in the fridge to rise. On Christmas morning the rolls come out first, because their rise takes an hour, then the casserole, then the oven goes on.
| Time | Step |
|---|---|
| 11:40 PM (night before) | Casserole assembled and covered in the fridge. Rolls shaped, in the pan and in the fridge. |
| 7:30 AM | Rolls out of the fridge for their 60 minute morning rise. |
| 7:40 AM | Casserole out of the fridge, 30 minutes before it bakes. |
| 7:55 AM | Preheat the oven to 350 °F |
| 8:10 AM | Put Breakfast casserole in the oven (350 °F, 40 min) |
| 8:30 AM | Put Cinnamon rolls in the oven (350 °F, 30 min) |
| 8:50 AM | Take Breakfast casserole out (10 min before serving) |
| 9:00 AM | Take Cinnamon rolls out |
| 9:00 AM | Serve |
The casserole sits 10 minutes before breakfast, which is its rest. Rolls and casserole overlap in the oven between 8:30 AM and 8:50 AM. To change a time or a dish, open this menu in the planner. The link keeps your changes.
Different breakfast times
Moving breakfast moves every step by the same amount.
| Breakfast | Oven on | Casserole in | Rolls in | Casserole out | Rolls out |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8:00 AM | 6:55 AM | 7:10 AM | 7:30 AM | 7:50 AM | 8:00 AM |
| 9:00 AM | 7:55 AM | 8:10 AM | 8:30 AM | 8:50 AM | 9:00 AM |
| 10:00 AM | 8:55 AM | 9:10 AM | 9:30 AM | 9:50 AM | 10:00 AM |
| 11:00 AM | 9:55 AM | 10:10 AM | 10:30 AM | 10:50 AM | 11:00 AM |
For a 10 AM breakfast the rolls leave the fridge at 8:30 AM and the casserole at 8:40 AM. The casserole needs its 8 hours of chill, so for an 8 AM breakfast assemble it by 10:40 PM the night before, and for 9 AM by 11:40 PM.
What to do if they need different temperatures
Say your roll recipe says 375 °F for 25 minutes (an example; neither recipe above says this). The planner can't bake a 350 °F and a 375 °F dish together, so it runs the rolls first. The oven goes on at 7:15 AM, the rolls bake 7:30 AM to 7:55 AM, the oven drops to 350 °F, and the casserole goes in at 8:10 AM. That leaves the rolls out for 65 minutes before breakfast, much longer than the 20 minutes this page lets them wait, so the planner flags them as late.
My own reasoning, with no source:
- Bake both at 350 °F. The rolls recipe above already does, and adding a few minutes to a recipe is easier than moving a pan.
- Bake both at the higher temperature and start checking the casserole early. The sides chart on this site cites Safeway's holiday guide, whose example cooks a 350 °F and a 400 °F dish together at 375 °F; whether an egg dish takes that is something I have not verified, so use the thermometer. See the side dish oven temperature chart.
- Bake the casserole first and tent it with foil on the counter while the rolls bake. Its rest is short, so I would keep that wait under 30 minutes.
- With a second oven, the planner has a two-oven setting in the link above.
If you plan dinner too
The oven is free once breakfast is out. The Christmas dinner timelines on this site: