Did someone say brunch? “Yes, I’d love to join you.” That is pretty much my standard answer whenever anyone invites me to my favorite meal in the world. Restaurant brunches are fine, but what I love most is the food people actually serve at a brunch at home, and the best brunch dishes nearly always start with eggs, bread, cheese and something fresh. There are 27 here: egg frittatas and eggs Benedict, cheesy savory toast, make ahead casseroles you assemble the night before, fruit served as dessert or as salad. Perfect for Easter brunch, Mother’s Day, a spring table for twelve or a slow Sunday for two!
Table of Contents
- 1. How to Make Avocado Toast
- 2. Perfect Brunch Eggs
- 3. Nutella Deviled Strawberries
- 4. Deviled Egg Bouquet
- 5. Bacon Chili Cornbread Muffins
- 6. Dollywood Cinnamon Bread
- 7. Balsamic Roasted New Potatoes With Asparagus
- 8. Smoked Salmon Frittata
- 9. Garlic Mushroom And Brie Toast
- 10. Farmhouse Apple Bread
- 11. Crustless Vegetable Quiche
- 12. Rosemary, Parmesan, and Ham Scones
- 13. Roasted Tomato Caprese Frittata
- 14. Baked Honey Lime Chicken Taquitos with Green Chile Sour Cream
- 15. Mini Dutch Babies With Lemon Curd And Blueberries
- 16. Baked Ham and Cheese Rollups
- 17. Easy Eggs Benedict Quiche
- 18. Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Mushrooms
- 19. Ham and Cheese Hash Brown Brunch Bake
- 20. Maple Caramel Bacon Crack
- 21. Southern Cheese Grits Casserole
- 22. Raspberry Cream Cheese Sweet Rolls
- 23. Shakshuka With Feta
- 24. Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Wraps
- 25. Fresh Mozzarella Cheese Sandwich
- 26. Chorizo Hash Brown Casserole
- 27. Scotch Eggs
1. How to Make Avocado Toast
Six versions of avocado toast, which is more useful than it sounds, because the difference between sad avocado toast and the kind you would pay for is entirely in the toppings and the seasoning. This is our own tutorial, so the variations are ones we actually eat: an egg on top, tomato and feta, chili and lime, and a few more. Toast the bread harder than feels right. Soft bread under mashed avocado collapses by the third bite.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
2. Perfect Brunch Eggs
The trick here is a whoopie pie pan. Crack an egg into each well and bake, and they come out the same size, the same doneness and all at the same moment, which is the part that defeats most people cooking eggs for a group. Eight to ten minutes gets you a set white with a runny yolk, and a little longer takes it all the way through. Slide them onto toasted English muffins with cheese and bacon and you have sandwiches.
Get the full tutorial at Noble Pig.
3. Nutella Deviled Strawberries
Three ingredients, fifteen minutes, and it is the thing that disappears first. Hull and halve a pint of strawberries, nick a little groove in each cut face with the tip of a knife, then pipe Nutella in and top with chopped nuts. The piping is a Ziploc bag with a corner snipped off, not a piping bag. It serves eight, it needs no oven, and it is the dessert end of a brunch table handled in the time it takes coffee to brew.
Get the full tutorial at Lauren's Latest.
4. Deviled Egg Bouquet
Deviled eggs piped to look like flowers and arranged as a bouquet, which is our own tutorial and probably the most look-at-that thing on this list for the least actual skill. The filling is a standard deviled egg; the flowers come from the piping tip you choose and nothing else. Make the filling the day before and pipe on the morning, because piped filling firms up in the fridge and loses the soft edges that make it read as petals.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
5. Bacon Chili Cornbread Muffins
Made with a boxed cornbread mix, which I will defend all day for a brunch that has four other things going on. Bacon and chili go into the batter, so what comes out is savory and a little hot rather than the sweet cornbread muffin people expect. They bake while the oven is already on for something else and they are the one thing on a brunch table that is good at room temperature two hours later. Ours, with the full method.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
6. Dollywood Cinnamon Bread
The copycat of the cinnamon bread people queue for at Dollywood, and it is the sweet anchor a brunch table needs so the eggs have something to sit against. Our version starts from frozen bread dough, which cuts the whole thing down to an afternoon instead of a day. Slice it most of the way through before the butter and cinnamon sugar go on, so it pulls apart in sections instead of needing a knife at the table.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
7. Balsamic Roasted New Potatoes With Asparagus
Two tablespoons of garlic oil, four of balsamic, a pan and 390 degrees. The potatoes get quartered and roast alone for 20 minutes first, then the asparagus goes in for the last 15, which is the only thing you have to get right: asparagus put in at the start comes out gray and sad. The balsamic reduces down onto the potatoes and gives them a dark, sweet crust. It serves four and it is the vegetable side a brunch usually forgets.
Get the full tutorial at Wallflower Kitchen.
8. Smoked Salmon Frittata
Ten eggs, a cup of yogurt, eight ounces of smoked salmon and four of goat cheese, in a 10 inch cast iron skillet. The yogurt is the part worth stealing: it makes the set softer and richer than milk does. Leek, shallot and scallion get softened and set aside first, then everything goes into the eggs at once and cooks eight to ten minutes on low before the oven finishes it. Forty minutes, six servings, naturally gluten free.
Get the full tutorial at Downshiftology.
9. Garlic Mushroom And Brie Toast
Ten minutes, two servings, and it eats like something from a wine bar. Mushrooms fry hard in butter and oil for five or six minutes until they brown and crisp at the edges, and only then do the salt, pepper and garlic go in for a final minute, because garlic added early just burns. Brie goes onto toast under the broiler to melt, mushrooms go on top, fresh thyme over everything. Six ounces of brie covers two slices generously.
Get the full tutorial at Kitchen Sanctuary.
10. Farmhouse Apple Bread
Our own apple bread, and it is the loaf I would put on a brunch table in fall without thinking about it twice. Shredded apple rather than chopped is what keeps the crumb damp for three days instead of one. It is sweet enough to stand in for pastry and plain enough to eat with eggs, which is a narrow gap that most quick breads miss. Bake it the night before; it genuinely improves overnight.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
11. Crustless Vegetable Quiche
No crust, which removes the only difficult part of a quiche and most of the work. Five eggs and three whites go in with a full 16 ounces of cottage cheese, which sounds odd and is the reason it sets creamy instead of rubbery. Broccoli, red pepper, onion and sun dried tomato get sauteed first and cooled before they meet the eggs, or the water they release makes the middle weep. 375 degrees, about an hour, eight servings.
Get the full tutorial at Recipe Runner.
12. Rosemary, Parmesan, and Ham Scones
Savory scones, which are badly underrated, and these carry four ounces of parmesan, four of diced ham and a quarter cup of chopped fresh rosemary. There is a third of a cup of brown sugar in the dough, and it belongs there: it is what stops savory scones tasting like a dry biscuit. The butter has to be genuinely cold and cut small, worked in until the mix looks like coarse meal. Eight scones, 400 degrees, 20 minutes.
Get the full tutorial at Baker by Nature.
13. Roasted Tomato Caprese Frittata
Twenty three minutes from start to table, which is the fastest real dish here. Cherry tomatoes go into a hot oven safe skillet with olive oil until they char and split, three or four minutes, then garlic and spinach just long enough to wilt. Ten eggs and half a cup of milk go over the top with torn fresh mozzarella, four minutes on the burner and ten to twelve in a 350 oven. It is done when the eggs stop wobbling. Eight slices.
Get the full tutorial at Joyful Healthy Eats.
14. Baked Honey Lime Chicken Taquitos with Green Chile Sour Cream
Baked, not fried, which is the whole point and also why you can make thirty of them at once. Three cups of shredded chicken marinate at least 30 minutes in six tablespoons of honey, four of lime juice and chili and garlic powder, then get rolled into tortillas with Monterey Jack and cilantro. Line the sheet with foil, because the filling that leaks out sets like glue. 425 degrees, 15 to 20 minutes. The green chile sour cream is two ingredients.
Get the full tutorial at Eat Cake For Dinner.
15. Mini Dutch Babies With Lemon Curd And Blueberries
The batter goes in a blender: three eggs, half a cup each of flour and whole milk, vanilla and two teaspoons of lemon zest. Butter melts in the skillets in the oven first, and the batter hits hot butter, which is the only reason these puff. Twenty minutes at 425, then drop to 300 for five more. Do not open the door. Lemon curd and fresh blueberries on top, powdered sugar over that. Serves four and takes half an hour.
Get the full tutorial at Nerds With Knives.
16. Baked Ham and Cheese Rollups
A crescent dough sheet pressed out to roughly 13 by 18, covered in thin ham and twelve slices of swiss, rolled tight from the long side and cut into twelve. What makes them is the glaze poured over before baking: melted butter, poppy seeds, yellow mustard, dried minced onion and a little Worcestershire. Seam side down or they unroll. 350 degrees for 25 minutes. They reheat properly, which is rare for anything with pastry.
Get the full tutorial at High Heels and Grills.
17. Easy Eggs Benedict Quiche
Eggs Benedict for a table of ten without poaching a single egg, which is the sort of trade I will always take. Canadian bacon and chives go into a pie crust, then six eggs whisked with a cup of milk, mustard powder and cracked pepper. 350 degrees for 35 to 45 minutes, longer for a deep dish. It is done when the filling jiggles like jello rather than sloshing. The hollandaise is made in a blender and takes two minutes.
Get the full tutorial at Lively Table.
18. Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Mushrooms
Eight large white mushrooms, half a cup of ricotta, a quarter cup of finely chopped fresh spinach and two cloves of garlic, with grated parmesan over the top. Pull the stems out rather than cutting them, so the cap keeps its shape and its wall. Twenty five to thirty minutes at 375 until the tops go golden. They are a one bite thing, they are vegetarian without announcing it, and they are the savory item a brunch table of sweet things needs.
Get the full tutorial at The Busy Baker.
19. Ham and Cheese Hash Brown Brunch Bake
Twelve servings, and the one you assemble the night before. A 28 ounce bag of O’Brien hash browns, a pound of cubed ham steak, three cups of pepper jack, ten eggs, two cups of half and half and half a cup of sour cream. Here is the step everyone skips and then wonders why theirs is watery: thaw the hash browns spread out on paper towels and pat them dry. 350 degrees for about an hour.
Get the full tutorial at Melissa's Southern Style Kitchen.
20. Maple Caramel Bacon Crack
Four ingredients: a pound of bacon, a package of crescent rolls, a quarter cup of maple syrup and three quarters of a cup of brown sugar. Read the maker’s own correction before you start, because she updated it: parchment paper, never foil, and 375 degrees rather than the original 325, so the base actually cooks through. Prick the dough with a fork so it does not balloon. Twenty five minutes. It is sweet, salty and completely indefensible, and it goes first.
Get the full tutorial at The Domestic Rebel.
21. Southern Cheese Grits Casserole
Quick cooking grits, not instant, and that distinction decides whether this works. Four cups of water, a cup of grits, then two cups of sharp cheddar, milk, butter, Worcestershire, garlic powder and ground red pepper stirred in off the heat. Four beaten eggs go in last, which is what turns grits into a casserole that slices. Parmesan over the top, 350 degrees, about 65 minutes. Eight servings, and it is Easter and Mother’s Day brunch food in the South for a reason.
Get the full tutorial at Grits and Pinecones.
22. Raspberry Cream Cheese Sweet Rolls
A yeast dough, a cream cheese filling and a cup and a half of frozen raspberries, which work better here than fresh because they hold their shape. Toss the berries in half a tablespoon of cornstarch right before rolling and the juice thickens instead of running out the ends. Roll from the short edge for taller rolls. Eight or nine rolls, about two and three quarter hours with the rise, fifteen minutes in the oven.
Get the full tutorial at Chocolate With Grace.
23. Shakshuka With Feta
Eggs poached directly in a spiced tomato and pepper sauce, with feta crumbled over, all in one skillet. It is the dish that makes a brunch look like you know what you are doing and it is genuinely a pantry recipe underneath. Serve it in the pan with bread for scooping, because there is no elegant way to plate it and nobody has ever minded. Fair warning that this one sits behind a subscription, so check before you plan around it.
Get the full tutorial at NYT Cooking.
24. Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Wraps
Ten minutes, one serving, no cooking. An eight inch low carb tortilla, two ounces of smoked salmon, two teaspoons of cream cheese mixed with basil and pepper, red onion sliced thin and a handful of arugula. Warm the tortilla between two damp paper towels so it rolls without cracking, which is the difference between a wrap and a mess. It is the one on this list you make for yourself on a Tuesday and eat standing up.
Get the full tutorial at Diabetes Strong.
25. Fresh Mozzarella Cheese Sandwich
The real work here is the arugula pesto, made with cashews and nutritional yeast instead of parmesan and pine nuts, and it is worth making a double batch. A whole red pepper roasts at 500 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes until the skin blisters, then the skin slips off and it gets cut into strips. Fresh mozzarella, pesto, peppers, Italian bread, onto a hot cast iron griddle. Fifty five minutes for two, most of it the pepper.
Get the full tutorial at Healing Tomato.
26. Chorizo Hash Brown Casserole
Half a pound of Mexican chorizo with onion and jalapeno, shredded hash browns, sour cream whisked with an egg, a cup of enchilada sauce and a bag of shredded Mexican cheese, in an 11 by 7 dish at 350. Leave the chorizo grease in the pan and cook the potatoes in it, because that is where the flavor is and pouring it off is the common mistake. This is the brunch casserole for people who think brunch is too polite.
Get the full tutorial at Spicy Southern Kitchen.
27. Scotch Eggs
Twelve ounces of pork sausage split into four, each patted into a thin patty about four inches across and sealed completely around a hard boiled egg. Then flour, beaten egg, panko, pressing the panko in so it holds. Fry at 340 degrees, two at a time, and keep the oil there. Thirty minutes for four, with a mustard sauce of spicy brown mustard, mayo, sour cream and a few drops of hot sauce. Cut them in half to serve, always.
Get the full tutorial at Tammilee Tips.
