25 Foolproof Brunches Fancy Enough for Mother’s Day

February 22, 2017
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Credit: Photo: Nina Choi
Show mom some love on her special day with a spread of tasty breakfast and brunch recipes. Satisfy her morning sweet tooth with our orange-walnut coffee cake. Or, go savory with a vegetable and goat cheese frittata. Don't forget a golden beet bloody mary and some flowers to round out the celebration!
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Rosé-Poached Berries

Credit: Victor Protasio
View recipe: Rosé-Poached Berries

Serve this condiment at breakfast on top of yogurt (as shown here) or oatmeal, or try it for dessert over ice cream. You can also make the recipe with raspberries or blackberries.

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Golden Beet Bloody Mary

Credit: Jennifer Causey
View recipe: Golden Beet Bloody Mary

Brighten your brunch-time beverage with a Bloody that delivers on all fronts: brisk and bold with the perfect dose of briny tang. Not to mention its nutritional boost: Tomatoes and beets are excellent sources of potassium, which helps regulate the body's fluid balance and keep blood pressure in check. Roasting beets amplifies their sweet, earthy flavor, adding extra depth to our homemade mix (and saving you 200mg sodium over most bottled mixes). We'll cheers to that!

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Orange-Walnut Coffee Cake

Credit: Victor Protasio
View Recipe: Orange-Walnut Coffee Cake

To build a better breakfast cake that won’t send you into midmorning nap mode, we start by building a whole-grain base bolstered with warm spices and brightened up with citrus juice and zest. The savory notes of olive oil lend complexity, while the oil’s characteristic fruitiness is accentuated by the citrus zest. The finished product: a bakery-quality coffee cake with a fraction of the sat fat and only 333 calories.

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Vegetable and Goat Cheese Frittata

Credit: Caitlin Bensel
View recipe: Vegetable and Goat Cheese Frittata

A veggie-loaded frittata is a great way to use up produce odds and ends. Broccoli is an excellent addition here: The florets poke through the egg mixture and become delightfully frizzled in the oven. Look for refrigerated pico de gallo in the prepared produce section of the supermarket. You can also fold the pico into the egg mixture before cooking; simply drain off the excess liquid first. Serve with a simple salad made with the remaining arugula you bought.

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Corn Pancakes with Smoked Salmon and Lemon-Chive Cream

Credit: Photo: Greg Dupree
View Recipe: Corn Pancakes with Smoked Salmon and Lemon-Chive Cream

These savory pancakes are dressed perfectly with fresh lemon-chive cream and smoked salmon. Breakfast time, or anytime, these are a must try.

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Sour Cream Scones

Credit: Photo: Greg Dupree
View Recipe: Sour Cream Scones

Whole-wheat flour adds nutty flavor to a basic scone recipe. Split one in half, and fill with your choice of curd.

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Feta, Green Onion, and Asparagus Frittata

Credit: Photo: Greg Dupree
View Recipe: Feta, Green Onion, and Asparagus Frittata

Fresh, tender asparagus stars in this light and fluffy breakfast frittata.

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Strawberry-Topped Pavlovas with Honey-Balsamic Sauce

Credit: Photo: Greg Dupree
View Recipe: Strawberry-Topped Pavlovas with Honey-Balsamic Sauce

The components of this dessert can be prepared in stages and assembled shortly before serving. Store meringues in an airtight container at room temperature up to one week; refrigerate strawberries and sauce for up to two days. Garnish with mint.

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Toffee Dip with Apples

Credit: Photo: Greg Dupree
View Recipe: Toffee Dip with Apples

Crunchy toffee bits stirred into a creamy dip make this impossible to stop eating. It’s kid and adult friendly. Coating the apples with pineapple juice prevent them from browning.

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Carrot-Citrus Crush

Credit: Scott Rounds
View Recipe: Carrot-Citrus Crush

Brighten up winter happy hour or Sunday brunch with this citrusy cocktail. Leafy carrot tops lend an herby backbone similar to parsley, and blood oranges infuse a berrylike sweetness. Plus, this drink boasts half your daily vitamin A and more than a third of your daily vitamin C goal.

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Two Potato and Beet Hash with Poached Eggs and Greens

Credit: Photo: Greg Dupree
View Recipe: Two Potato and Beet Hash with Poached Eggs and Greens

Sautéed yukon gold potatoes, sweet potatoes, and beets are topped with poached eggs for a meatless meal fit for brunch or dinner. To save time, you can purchase precooked, vacuum-packed beets at many markets in the produce section.

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Pistachio-Chai Muffins

Credit: Photo: Greg Dupree
View Recipe: Pistachio-Chai Muffins

A simple sugar glaze anchors crunchy pistachios, while aromatic spices and black tea speckle the dough.

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Prosciutto and Melon Salad with Cantaloupe Vinaigrette

Credit: Photo: Greg Dupree
View Recipe: Prosciutto and Melon Salad with Cantaloupe Vinaigrette

Rice vinegar and cantaloupe in the dressing completely reset this ham-and-melon classic. Peppery arugula adds bite.

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Dutch Baby With Strawberries and Pistachios

Credit: Photo: Hector Manuel Sanchez
View Recipe: Dutch Baby With Strawberries and Pistachios

The key to the dish's dramatic puff comes from oven spring—the jolt of steam and heat the batter gets when it's poured into the sizzling-hot pan and then goes straight into a cranked-up oven. Make the strawberry mixture first so the fruit has time to macerate and get even juicier.

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Smoked Turkey and Swiss Crepes

Credit: Photo: Jennifer Causey
View Recipe: Smoked Turkey and Swiss Crepes

Separate the turkey into eight piles on a plate, and top evenly with cheese so you can quickly top each crepe as it cooks in the pan. Black Forest turkey has a subtle smoked flavor. You can also use oven-roasted turkey.

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Fresh Strawberry Shortcakes With Yogurt Cream

Credit: Photo: Randy Mayor
View Recipe: Fresh Strawberry Shortcakes With Yogurt Cream

If you have a minute to spare, swap the vanilla extract for a vanilla bean. Split the bean lengthwise, scrape half of the seeds into the shortcake recipe, and whip the remaining half into the yogurt cream. It will add an extra level of flavor-packed intensity to the recipe.

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Blood Orange Mimosas

Credit: Photo: Jennifer Causey
View Recipe: Blood Orange Mimosas

We love the color blood oranges give this classic brunch cocktail. A dash of bitters adds depth. Look for orange bitters—such as Fee Brothers or Stirrings—at liquor stores or specialty grocers. The sugar cube dissolves as you sip, balancing the bitters and giving off bubbles for a festive touch. Juice the oranges and keep chilled up to a day ahead.

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Bordeaux-Style Strawberries

Credit: Photo: Erin Kunkel
View Recipe: Bordeaux-Style Strawberries

In Bordeaux, where châteaus and vineyards abound, a typical dessert is fresh strawberries sliced into a red wine glass and then topped with a great Bordeaux. Here, that regional tradition is adapted to make it more dessert-like. If you're pressed for time, do as the Bordelais do—quick and easy.

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Blueberry-Sour Cream Muffins

Credit: Photo: Iain Bagwell
View Recipe: Blueberry-Sour Cream Muffins

When our crumbly-crisp topping meets the light, fluffy belly of this muffin, you'll swoon.

Our whole-grain muffins cuts 30 calories, 3.5g sat fat, and 6g added sugars from a traditional blueberry muffin. Bonus: An extra 2g fiber.

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Bananas Foster Breakfast Strata

Credit: Photo: Johnny Miller
View Recipe: Bananas Foster Breakfast Strata

Take care when adding the rum to the hot pan—it flames up immediately. You can also add the rum off the heat, and then carefully light it with a long match.

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Blueberry Coffeecake with Almond Streusel

Credit: Photo: Jennifer Causey
View Recipe: Blueberry Coffeecake with Almond Streuse

One bite and you will add this moist cake to your favorites list—it shows off the fruit to perfection. If you go blueberry picking this summer, freeze some for the winter; you can prepare this cake with frozen (unthawed) berries—bake a few minutes longer as needed.

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Champagne Gelée with Strawberries

Credit: Photo: Paige Green
View Recipe: Champagne Gelée with Strawberries

This year for Mother's Day, make mom what she really wants—a beautiful, seasonal dessert that's basically Champagne in a bowl. Unlike some classic gelatin desserts, this one—relying on a high-quality sparkler—is quite elegant. You can cut the set gelée into a crosshatch pattern for small cubes that "look like sparkly diamonds in the bowl," says Elisabeth Prueitt, co-founder of Tartine Bakery & Cafe and Tartine Manufactory in San Francisco and co-author of Tartine.

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Artichoke and Goat Cheese Strata

Credit: Photo: John Autry
View Recipe: Artichoke and Goat Cheese Strata

To make ahead, prepare through step 2, cover, and chill. Before baking, let bread mixture stand at room temperature 10 minutes while the oven preheats. Then assemble and bake. The cook time will increase by about 10 minutes. Garnish with parsley.

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Egg Baskets

Credit: Photo: Randy Mayor
View Recipe: Egg Baskets

Our individual baked eggs nestled in crispy hash brown cups are pickup food at its best. It’s a great way to serve a crowd; just cook up what you need in muffin pans. Good news: We got the best results with refrigerated shredded hash browns, which were far preferable to shredded fresh potatoes and save time and effort.

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Pear and Gruyère Strata

Credit: Photo: Nina Choi
View Recipe: Pear and Gruyère Strata

Think of this as stuffed French toast in a casserole. Here, sweet cinnamon bread meets juicy pears and the savory bite of Gruyère cheese. You want a pear variety that will hold its shape and won't exude too much moisture as the strata bakes—we liked Anjou and Concorde.

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