Our 40 Best Christmas Brunch Recipes

By Bridget Hallinan
Updated December 12, 2019
Greg DuPree
Christmas morning isn’t complete without with an impressive brunch spread—think savory stratas and casseroles, stacks upon stacks of pancakes, and a few sweet dishes like cinnamon rolls and sponge cake. It’s all about cozy, comforting food you can indulge in before the busy day begins, and with dozens to choose from, you’re bound to find a recipe you’ll love. Read on for some of our favorite Christmas brunch ideas.Related: Guide to Christmas recipes
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Christmas-Morning Casserole

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Chef Bryan Voltaggio loves this make-ahead dish: a classic baked bread-and-egg casserole with bites of pepperoni, mushrooms and gooey cheese. It’s as good for dinner as it is for breakfast.

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Kentucky Hot Brown

© BARNARD & MEYER
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Star chef Bobby Flay smothers an open-face turkey sandwich with cheese sauce and bacon for his version of the over-the-top Louisville classic.

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Open-Face Egg and Griddled Ham Breakfast Sandwiches

© Nicole Franzen
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F&W's Justin Chapple poaches a dozen eggs at once in a muffin pan in the oven, making his cute and tasty breakfast sliders extraordinarily easy to prepare for entertaining.

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Coconut Pancakes

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For brunch chef Adam Schop sprinkles shredded coconut onto his pancake batter; when the pancakes cook on the griddle, the coconut gets nicely toasted. The finished pancakes get a layer of extra coconut before serving.

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Sausage-and-Maple Bread Pudding

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This fantastic breakfast bread pudding is a fun, all-in-one take on French toast with maple syrup and sausage. Melted ice cream enriches the “custard” base.

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Country Ham Flapjacks with Maple Syrup

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Using store-bought corn muffin mix and leftover chopped ham to make these savory flapjacks is a quick and clever trick.

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Glazed Cinnamon Rolls with Pecan Swirls

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Baking these cinnamon rolls in big batches makes the effort worth it—they take time but are so satisfying.

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Bacon, Cheddar and Onion Quiche

MICHAEL TUREK
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“To make a proper tarte flambé, you need a wood-burning oven with a stone floor,” explains Jean-Georges Vongerichten of the thin-crusted Alsatian pizza topped with bacon, onions and fromage blanc. Here, he folds those same basic ingredients (replacing the fromage blanc with cheddar) into a light custard and bakes it in a buttery pastry crust. “Not everyone has a pizza oven at home, so I decided to make it in the form of a quiche.”

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Hellfire Club Bloody Mary

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Black pepper, Tabasco and fresh chile give this delicious Bloody Mary variation a fiery kick.

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Blueberry-Banana Pancakes

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Tyler Florence made these pancakes at home one weekend morning with his son Hayden. They’re a slight variation on a recipe from his book, Tyler Florence Family Meal.

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Light and Fluffy Baked Apple Pancake

© Michael Turek
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Maple-glazed sautéed apples topped with an egg-white-lightened pancake batter become a deliciously satisfying brunch dish.

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Lemon Bundt Cake

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This beautiful Bundt offers lemon cake bliss: a moist, lemony crumb with a crackling sugary glaze.

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Eggs Benedict Salad

Abby Hocking
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To mimic hollandaise, Justin Chapple makes a richly flavored yogurt dressing, and he tosses that with greens, torn ham and crunchy English muffin croutons. It’s a deeply satisfying and healthy alternative to heavier brunch options.

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Guava-Cream Cheese Pastries

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These delicious, easy Cuban hand pies have a crisp, buttery puff pastry shell that’s filled with warm guava paste and cream cheese.

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Warm Bacon-and-Egg Salad

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“I like a fried egg,” says April Bloomfield about the topping on her arugula salad. “Especially when it’s fried in bacon fat.” She likes to use rich duck eggs when she has them.

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Homefries with Jalapeños

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Kick breakfast up a notch with this delicious take on a classic morning dish.

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Chunky Granola

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This crispy, lightly sweet, brittle-like granola is made with high-fiber oats and protein-rich seeds, including flaxseeds, which are also high in heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids.

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Potato-Quinoa Cakes with Smoked Salmon and Beets

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Quinoa gives these crisp fried cakes a great chewiness; the cornichon dressing is creamy and piquant.

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Broccoli-Rabe and Ricotta Frittata

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Though frittatas are often served cooled as a first course, they make an equally good main dish, either warm or at room temperature. Here ricotta mellows the bite of broccoli rabe.

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Brioche French Toast Stuffed with Apple, Raisins and Pecans

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The home version of Bluestem’s French toast has just pecans, applesauce and raisins in the filling.

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Café Cubano

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No Cuban meal is complete without a café cubano (Cuban coffee). A well-made café cubano has a thick layer of sweet crema (cream) floating over strong espresso. To get the crema right, whisk about 1 tablespoon of the espresso with sugar until it turns foamy, then pour the pot of espresso over it. Lourdes Castro says you can’t overbeat a crema, so stir it energetically.

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Apple Muesli with Goji Berries

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“You can make this with any grain or fruit that goes with yogurt,” says Malin Elmlid. For her version of this cold cereal, she uses plain rolled grains, like oats or spelt, moistened with apples, coconut water and yogurt. When a friend brought her a goji-berry tree to barter for bread, she added a few berries right from the branch.

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Orange-Scented Buttermilk Cake Loaves

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The solution to baking for a crowd is to stick with easy recipes like this moist buttermilk cake, which can be made a day in advance.

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Two-Bite Parmesan Biscuits

Caitlin Bensel
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These biscuits are baked on a bed of grated Parmesan cheese, resulting in a crispy, cheesy crust around the bottom of each biscuit. Perfect on their own, try them drizzled with a bit of honey, or improvise by tossing a few handfuls of fresh thyme or chives into the dough to take them over the top.

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English Muffins

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Billy Allin serves his airy, chewy homemade English muffins all day long. In the morning, he offers them with butter and jams, such as house-made peach preserves; later in the day, he might use them for BLTs and other sandwiches.

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Corned Beef Hash with Fried Eggs

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Home cooks can buy corned beef from the deli counter and cut it into thick pieces for this hash.

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Potato Rösti with Pastrami

Victor Protasio
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Once the rösti is finished, you can blanket it in smoked salmon and crème fraiche, or layer it with pastrami and whole grain mustard. Or even simpler: enjoy it under a gently fried egg for breakfast.

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Apple Crumb Coffee Cakes

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“I add everything from fresh blueberries to chocolate chips,” says Spike Gjerde of the delicious crumb coffee cake he will serve all day at his Baltimore spot, Artifact Coffee. “Of course the cakes are great with just diced apple, too.”

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Rocking Orange

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This terrific brunch mocktail combines multiple forms of citrus fruit: orange, lemon and mandarin orange juices, plus orange syrup and orange peel.

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Flax-Coconut Pancakes

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Elisabeth Prueitt always mixes ground flax into her pancake batter. “I’ve never felt great about the low nutritional value of pancakes—it’s like eating cake for breakfast—but the flax adds fiber, omega-3s and minerals,” she says.

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Smoked-Salmon Scramble with Dill Griddle Biscuits

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Dill griddle biscuits—a cross between hot cakes, crumpets and scones—make great breakfast sandwiches with a smoked-salmon-and-egg scramble.

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Vanilla Raised Doughnuts

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According to writer and recipe developer Jess Thomson, who helped Top Pot’s owners translate their recipes for the home cook, it’s best to weigh flour on a kitchen scale instead of using measuring cups. “When we tested the recipes for the book, that seemed to make a big difference,” she says.

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Rye and Crème Fraîche Strata with Smoked Salmon

John Kernick
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In this playful riff on a bagel with cream cheese and lox, Food & Wine’s Justin Chapple makes a custardy rye bread pudding with capers, then tops it with smoked salmon and red onion. It’s warm, comforting and a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.

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Cardamom-Spiced Crumb Cake

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This moist cake, topped by a generous layer of cardamom-spiced, pecan-dotted crumbs, is a fabulous gift. Kate Heddings brought one to a holiday dinner party for her hosts to serve to overnight guests at breakfast the next day—“even though I wouldn’t be there to eat it!” she says. Along with the cake, she gave the Calphalon pan she baked it in, fresh-ground coffee beans and a glass container of heavy cream.

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Christmas Morning Biscotti