9 Easter Brunch Recipes for Easy Entertaining
9 recipes to help you pull off Easter brunch without a hitch.
[Collage photographs: Vicky Wasik, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]
It doesn't take a lot to convince us to stop whatever we're doing on a weekend morning and enjoy a long, drawn-out brunch. And there's no better excuse for a pull-out-all-the-stops midday meal than a sunny Easter Sunday in early spring. We'll likely have a collection of our friends and (favorite) family over, so this year we're opting for dishes that are easy to scale up—and won't have us sweating it out in the kitchen while everyone else enjoys the nice weather on the patio. That means easy eggs Benedict, a tall stack of fluffy pancakes, and enough bacon to feed an army.
Need more than nine recipes to get inspired? Check out our complete Easter brunch page.
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Soft-Scrambled Eggs
[Video: Serious Eats Team]
Scrambled eggs—plain and simple—are one of the easiest and most delicious breakfast and brunch staples. They're easy to whip up for two people, but it's not much more work to crack a dozen eggs and scramble in bulk. This recipe produces soft, moist, just-cooked eggs perfect for spreading on toast or spooning straight into your mouth.
Foolproof Eggs Benedict
[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]
When paired up, our Foolproof Hollandaise Sauce and Foolproof Poached Eggs make for, well, a truly foolproof eggs Benedict. A toasted English muffin—go with homemade English muffins if you have the time!—and ham crisped in butter round out this classic brunch dish.
Foolproof Eggs Benedict Recipe »
Easy Mixed-Cheese Quiche
[Photograph: Daniel Gritzer]
Quiche is an ideal brunching dish because it's easily scalable. Got a few unexpected, last-minute RSVPs? No problem; just bake an extra quiche. This particular one has the added benefit of using up any bits of old (but still perfectly good and edible) cheese you've got hanging around in your fridge, resulting in plenty of melty pockets of cheese set in a warm, silky custard and contained in a flaky pie dough. The quiche's simplicity lets every one of its elements shine.
Easy Mixed-Cheese Quiche Recipe »
Monte Cristo Crepes
[Photograph: Morgan Eisenberg]
This lovely brunch dish was inspired by the iconic Monte Cristo sandwich, traditionally stuffed with ham, cheese, and a tangy mixture of jelly and mustard. Here, we swap out the sandwich bread for thin, golden-brown crepes, which can be made in advance and refrigerated to save you time the day of. Once rolled with all the sandwich fillings, the crepes are dipped in an egg mixture, French toast–style, then pan-fried until crisp.
Thick and Fluffy Pancakes From Homemade Pancake Mix
[Video: Serious Eats Team]
These pancakes are amazing for more reasons than I can count, but I'll try my best. First, you can make the easy homemade pancake mix that acts as their base months in advance. While I don't usually have that kind of foresight, that means you can theoretically do most of the work for these fluffy, rich pancakes weeks before your guests arrive. Before brunch, all you'll have to do is add milk and an egg (or several, if you've scaled up the recipe) and get cooking.
Thick and Fluffy Pancakes From Homemade Pancake Mix Recipe »
Baked Bacon for a Crowd
[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]
Though this recipe was designed with big crowds—and therefore lots of bacon—in mind, I've begun using this same technique at home even if I'm cooking only five or six strips. While the cooking method should be adjusted slightly depending on how you like your bacon, the basic idea is simple: Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, lay out your bacon strips, slide it into the oven, and wait patiently until the tray of bacon has reached your ideal crispness.
Baked Bacon for a Crowd Recipe »
Perfect Quick-and-Easy French Toast
[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]
I'm of the opinion that French toast is best kept simple. It's a dish that relies on pantry and refrigerator staples—bread, milk, eggs, and a few spices—and should be easy to whip up for a bunch of hungry guests. Our recipe uses a ratio of egg, milk, and sugar that results in delightfully custardy French toast, not too dry and not too soggy, with a golden crust and crisp edges.
Perfect Quick-and-Easy French Toast Recipe »
Classic Banana Bread
[Video: Serious Eats Team]
Banana bread might not be an Easter brunch classic, but having a warm loaf at the center of your table is never a bad idea. Ours is loaded with coconut oil, oat flour, and thick Greek yogurt, so it's tender and moist, and gets a kick of warm spice from cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. After you make it for your guests, it might just have to become a yearly Easter tradition.
Classic Banana Bread Recipe »
Blueberry-Lemon Scones
[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]
Having one sweet on the table isn't usually enough for a crowd, so you'll probably want to get a batch of these blueberry-lemon scones in the oven, too. Though these scones contain both coconut oil and coconut milk, their flavor isn't distinctly coconutty, instead remaining light and lemony, while the coconut milk and oil produce the fluffy crumb you'd expect of a scone made with butter and cream.
Blueberry-Lemon Scones Recipe »
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