I love breakfast.
It is - as you've all been told over and over again - the most important meal of the day but it's also the most versatile.
You can literally bake, toast, fry, poach, or cook up anything you want and it would be acceptable breakfast food.
You can have steak and eggs for breakfast no questions asked (unless you have high cholesterol), but what if you ordered steak and eggs for dinner?
While I would commend you on making breakfast an all day event, some people would definitely think it odd to want scrambled eggs at night.
And as for those All-Day Breakfast joints (which are phenomenal), notice they specify that it's breakfast they're serving all day, not lunch because who orders pancakes and bacon for lunch?
But you want salmon for breakfast? You got it.
You want fajitas with the sunrise? Sure thing.
You want last night's cold pizza with your coffee? Coming right up.
Breakfast is the bomb.
You can have literally anything you want and it's not weird.
And if you have company coming over for breakfast or staying the night and expecting to be well fed the next morning then I have found 3 amazing recipes you can try!
I started thinking about more interesting breakfast recipes this morning when I stumbled across a selection of recipes from the April issue of Canadian Living.
I saw a recipe (and drool-worthy picture) for a British breakfast called
TOAD IN THE HOLE
If you like sausage as much as I do (ha-ha, grow up) then this English gem should be making an appearance on your table sooner rather than later. It's as easy as this:
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a cast-iron skillet, heat 2 tbsp vegetable oil over medium-high heat and then brown 6 sausages (banger-style is ideal but you can really use any kind you like).
2. Transfer the sausages to the oven and cook until the insides are no longer pink, about 15-20 minutes.
3. In a bowl, whisk together 3 eggs, 1 cup flour, and 1/4 tsp salt. You should end up with a thick paste. Slowly whisk in 1 cup milk until the mixture smooths out. Stir in 2 tsp chopped rosemary and pour over the sausages.
4. Bake for 25 minutes until crisp and brown, and resist the urge to open the oven door! This could deflate the nice puff your flour mixture will create around the sausages.
The second breakfast recipe that is great for company is very different from Toad in the Hole. If you like having something sweet (pancakes drenched in syrup, crepes, waffles, french toast, or muffins) for breakfast, then this recipe is for you! It's best served warm so unless you want to be the host/hostess with the most/mostess and wake up at 5:30 am to make this fresh, make it the night before and pop it into the oven for 5-10 minutes to warm it up before you serve it!
MONKEY BREAD
(picture and recipe from bakingbites.com)1. Lightly grease a bundt pan and set aside.
2. In a bowl, mix together 2 1/2 tsp dry active yeast and 1/4 cup warm water and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.
3. Stir in 1 cup of flour, 1 tsp salt, 3 tbsp sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1 egg, 2 tbsp melted butter, and 3/4 cup warm milk. Mix until the dough is fairly smooth (if you have a stand mixer, throw on your dough hook and let 'er rip). Gradually add in another 2 to 2 1/2 cups flour and mix until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Knead the dough for 3-4 minutes. Place back in the bowl, cover with plastic and let sit for 30 minutes.
4. While you wait, get out another bowl and whisk together 2 cups brown sugar, 1 1/2 tbsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp allspice. Set out another bowl beside the first and in it place 1/2 cup melted butter.
5. After the 30 minutes is up, turn out the dough on a lightly floured surface and gently flatten out the dough using your hands. Cut small pieces of dough off to form small balls. Do this by rolling the dough in your ever-so-slightly floured hands. Dunk each ball into the butter and using a fork, transfer the dough ball into the brown sugar mix and roll it in the bowl to cover it. Place the dough ball in the bundt pan. Repeat this step until all of the dough has been cut into dough balls. Cover the full bundt pan with plastic wrap and let it rise until almost doubled in bulk, about an hour.
6. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the monkey bread for 30-35 minutes then let cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto the serving dish.
**This bread is best warm and gooey so, again, if you make this ahead of time, don't remove it from the bundt pan and pop it back in the oven for a few minutes before serving!
Finally, if you want to keep your breakfast more low-key but still retain that element of elegance, I have the solution for you.
This is a recipe that I saw on Everyday Italian with the lovely Giada Di Laurentiis a few years back but I can't find it nor do I remember her exact steps.
So it's inspired by her, with a twist all my own.
Scrambled Egg Baguette
(the actual results will look different to this but this was the closest picture I could find)1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with tin foil.
2. Cut a baguette (your choice of type of bread, ciabatta works well as do french baguettes) length wise into top and bottom. Carefully pull out most of the soft inner part of the loaf, leaving a hollow middle section in the bread. Make sure you leave high sides and the ends intact. Place the hollow baguettes on the baking sheet and set the bread you removed aside.
3. In a bowl, whisk 5 eggs with 1/3 cup milk, 1/2 tbsp butter, and 3 tbsp finely chopped chives. Rip the bread you set aside into bite-sized pieces and add into the egg mix. Pour the mix into the hollowed out baguette and place in the oven. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the eggs are fully cooked.
4. Cut the baguette into your desired serving size, serve and enjoy!
Easy, right?
Hope you can use at least one of those recipes for a delicious breakfast this weekend!
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