What are your family’s special holiday meal traditions? Do you stay up late baking Christmas cookies together; or do you plan an elaborate three-course dinner that you enjoy with your entire extended family?
Every family has its treasured traditions…but perhaps there’s room for one more!
This year, consider preparing a Holiday Brunch Board—a sweet or savory assortment of snackable breakfast and lunch items, great for small and large families alike. Similar to a charcuterie board, brunch boards are essentially deconstructed meals that allow your guests to customize their plate to their liking. Everyone from your littlest snacker to your seasoned chef will have a fun time building their own custom brunch creations!
For our brunch boards, we created both a sweet and a savory option but you can feel free to mix and match flavor profiles to suit your preference. Our Sweet Brunch Board includes French toast with all the fixings (e.g., butter, syrup, fresh fruit, jams, etc.) and takes on a holiday cookie vibe. Our Savory Brunch Board includes glazed dinner rolls and toast, with a selection of various breakfast meats, cheeses, fruits and veggies, and other prepared foods.
Bonus: For a larger scale holiday snacking option, check out our Holiday Grazing Tables.
How to Build a Holiday Brunch Board
Here are some tips for crafting your own custom breakfast or brunch board:
- Start by placing the large items first, e.g., bread and rolls, whole fruit, big hunks of meat or cheese, and large bowls or platters. Distribute these evenly across the board.
- Scatter smaller items in rows or piles in between the larger items. This includes your sliced fruits and veggies, small bowls with jams and spreads, decorative toppings, and garnishes.
- Remember: less is more. The board can get crowded very quickly. Try to slice fruits and veggies, meats, and cheeses fairly small so you can fit in an assortment of items. It is better to include small quantities of a wide variety of items and replenish them as needed, than to have only a few elements on your board.
- Be sure to include various utensils such as tongs, mini forks, spoons, and knives for serving.
- Have fun! Customize your board as necessary to fit your tastes and the theme of your party.
Keep reading to view our sample sweet and savory holiday brunch boards!
Sweet Brunch Board: Christmas Cookie French Toast
For our sweets board, we decided on a French toast theme with a seasonal twist. After all, who doesn’t love French toast? There are so many ways to customize it and make it your own!
We started off with a Christmas Cookie French Toast recipe—classic French toast made with Martin’s Butter Bread, plus a secret ingredient of frosted sugar cookie-flavored coffee creamer. This simple recipe only uses three ingredients and is a great starter option to customize your French toast creations!
Try the recipe!
French Toast
Sugar Cookie French Toast
Tip: You can substitute your favorite flavored coffee creamer to mix things up or test out several options for a fun mix-and-match concept.
What to Include:
To build your Sweet Brunch Board, you’ll want to select a variety of elements like the ones below. Arrange your chosen ingredients onto a large wooden cutting board or serving tray, then have everyone design their own Christmas cookie-inspired French toast recipe.
- Sugar Cookie French Toast, cut into halves or quarters
- Butter
- Maple Syrup
- Whipped Cream
- Fresh Fruit – Strawberries, Blueberries, Raspberries, Banana (sliced), Orange Slices
- Holiday Sprinkles
- Candy Canes or Peppermints (crushed)
- Honey
- Coconut Flakes
- Assorted Fruit Jams
- Yogurt or Cream Cheese
- Chocolate-Hazelnut Spread, Chocolate Syrup, Peanut Butter
- Chocolate Chips or Chocolate Shavings (milk, dark, and/or white)
- Powdered Sugar or Cinnamon-Sugar
- Vanilla Icing
- Whole Cranberries, Orange Peel, Mint Leaves, or Candy Canes, for garnish
Watch the full brunch board assembly in the video below!
More Christmas Cookie-Inspired French Toast Ideas
The Sugar Cookie French Toast recipe used above is a great base option to be able to build other combinations off of. However, you may also enjoy experimenting with some of these other French toast recipes for your Holiday Brunch Board:
- Gingerbread French Toast: Add vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves to your French toast mix to replicate this beloved winter flavor.
- Eggnog French Toast Sticks: Use prepared eggnog in place of milk (or creamer) and add some seasonal spices like cinnamon and nutmeg for a Christmas beverage-inspired recipe.
- Sugar Plum French Toast Casserole: Mix things up with a festive casserole option made with fresh blueberries, a sweet cream cheese filling, and cinnamon honey drizzle.
- Cappuccino French Toast Sticks: Stir some instant espresso powder into your French toast batter for another classic brunch companion.
- Cinnamon Sugar Swirl French Toast: Try a snickerdoodle cookie-inspired option by adding in some cinnamon and sugar into your French toast mix. (Or keep things really simple and just use Martin’s Cinnamon-Sugar Swirl Potato Bread).
- Pumpkin Spice French Toast: Another fall and winter favorite. Mix in some pumpkin pie spice and canned pumpkin puree to make this yummy combo.
- Peppermint Mocha: Mix some cocoa powder and peppermint extract into your base French toast (or use chocolate-peppermint flavored coffee creamer) to make this holiday classic. Finish off your creation by topping with crushed peppermints and chocolate syrup or whipped cream!
Savory Brunch Board: Béarnaise Glazed Dinner Rolls
Our savory brunch board includes classic breakfast meats, cheeses, fresh herbs & veggies, tangy sauces, and various spicy elements alongside herb glazed dinner rolls and assorted toasts.
The highlight of this board are the rolls glazed with béarnaise sauce, a classic French sauce derived from Hollandaise. To make, prepare an emulsification of egg yolks, melted butter, and white wine vinegar, then mix in dried thyme, parsley, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. Brush glaze over Martin’s Party Potato Rolls and warm in the oven for 5 minutes or until glossy.
Try the recipe!
Mixes & Toppings, Other
Béarnaise-Glazed Mini Dinner Rolls
What to Include:
Arrange the glazed dinner rolls and other desired breakfast items around a large cutting board or serving tray and allow guests to prepare personal small plates to graze on throughout the festivities.
Here are some ingredient ideas:
- Béarnaise Glazed Mini Dinner Rolls
- Assorted Martin’s Bread, toasted
- Breakfast Meats: Bacon, Sausage, Ham (cubed)
- Butter
- Salt and Pepper
- Hard Boiled Eggs, peeled
- Assorted Cheese: Cheddar, American, Pepper Jack
- Avocado, sliced
- Hot sauce: Tabasco and/or Sriracha
- Cherry Tomatoes, halved
- Red and Green Bell Pepper, sliced
- Green Onions, chopped
- Fresh Herbs: Basil, Parsley
- Chipped Beef or Sausage Gravy, warm, in skillet
- Shredded Hash Browns
- Hollandaise Sauce or Breakfast Aioli
- Stone Ground Mustard
- Herb Mayonnaise
- Savory Jellies: Bacon Pepper Jam or Hot Pepper Relish
- Whole Cranberries and Leafy Greens, for garnish
More Savory Brunch Board Ideas
In addition to the béarnaise-glazed rolls recipe above, try pairing these savory French toast options with your holiday brunch board for a unique twist!
- Savory French Toast with Hollandaise Sauce: French toast seasoned with parmesan cheese, garlic, scallions, parsley, salt and pepper, topped with a homemade hollandaise sauce and garnished with fresh herbs.
- Everything Bagel French Toast: Start with your basic French toast recipe and add in your favorite seasonings like poppy seeds, sesame seeds, dried minced garlic, dried onion flakes, and coarse sea salt.
Share your creations with us on social media by tagging #VeryMerryMartins or @potatorolls!
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