Brunch Board
Brunch Board- Taking all the favorite sweet and savory brunch items and beautifully displaying them on a grazing board for a crowd.
December 7, 2021 by Nicole Collins
Welcome to Day 7 in our 12 Days of Grazing Boards series!
For me, today’s board was the easiest to go overboard on while filling, because we all know your girl loves her brekkie. But the beauty of this board, and all of the boards we’re making throughout this series, is that you can make them as big or as little as you need to in order to match your crowd. And if you’re like me and just can’t help yourself by putting one of everything on here, then I’m certainly not going to judge you.
So today, we’re making a Brunch Board!
Of all the boards I made for this series, this one is certainly the most jam packed. But, we’re using an even mix of home cooked, store bought, warm, and cold items to fill up this board. So even though it’s plentiful, don’t worry. It’s not stressful at all!
So let’s take a quick inventory of what we’re putting on this board. We have pastries. We have protein. We have fruit. And, we have spreads and schmears. It’s the perfect equation for an epic meal if you ask me!
For the pastry section of our board, I went the store bought route for all of them. Sure, there’s nothing that beats a homemade croissant, but ain’t nobody got time for that when you have hungry mouths to feed. We want to make sure to provide sweet and savory options in order to satisfy both sides of the breakfast lover spectrum. So, we’re loading up our board with mini croissants, mini donuts, mini bagels, mini cinnamon rolls, mini muffins, and slices of danish. Getting pastries in mini size helps them fit on most sized boards and it helps to make sure everyone gets a bite of everything without filling up on one full sized pastry.
For the protein section of our board, we’re going to do a little simple cooking. The standard breakfast proteins include eggs, bacon, and sausage. So, of course, that’s what’s going on our board. Here’s my hot tip for the meats: cook them in the oven. You can bake both bacon and sausage links in the oven, and it doesn’t require any babysitting at all like it would if you were cooking them on the stovetop. This leaves you with extra time to prep the other things on your board, so I highly recommend it. As far as the eggs, cook them how you like them. If you prefer a jammy egg as opposed to a hard boiled one, go for it. If you like a scramble, do it. Mini frittatas or quiches would be perfect for this board too, and you can often times find store bought versions of those in the freezer section of the grocery store, as well.
For our spreads, I opted for 2 flavors of cream cheese and a homemade chia jam. As far as the cream cheese, I recommend going with a sweet and savory option, just like we’ve done for everything else on our board. If you want to add a truly homemade element to this board, my berry cherry chia jam is a super fast quick jam that’s a totally impressive addition. But if you don’t have the energy to do any extra cooking, a store bought jam in a fancy jar on the side is a perfectly acceptable option.
To finish, we’ll fill in spots on the board with fresh fruit. When I think of brunch, my mind goes straight to berries. Grapes are a popular brunch item for me too. I know there are many orange lovers out there, so those would be a nice addition here also. Just keep color in mind when you’re choosing your fruits, because the fruit is really the only opportunity we have to add some brightness to this board.
And then, we eat. Because we’re allowing ourselves some shortcuts on this board, we’ll have plenty of opportunity to kick back and enjoy this graze with our loved ones. Create a station for your favorite warm beverage on the side of this board, and you basically have the perfect morning.
Alright, everyone. We’re taking a turn for the sweet tomorrow. So, stay tuned!
Enjoy! And, let’s eat!
Brunch Board
Serves: unlimited Print
Ingredients:
For the Berry Cherry Chia Jam:
½ cup frozen strawberries
½ cup frozen dark cherries
1 tbsp water
½ tsp ginger paste
½ – 1 tbsp agave syrup
1 tbsp chia seeds
For the Brunch Board:
mini bagels
mini croissants
mini chocolate croissants
mini donuts
danish (I used strawberry cheese)
mini muffins (I used blueberry)
hard boiled or jammy eggs
bacon
maple sausage links
savory cream cheese (I used chive)
sweet cream cheese (I used salted caramel)
assorted fruit (I used, strawberries, blueberries, and grapes)
Berry Cherry Chia Jam
Directions:
Make the Berry Cherry Chia Jam: Add strawberries, cherries, ginger paste, and water to a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium high heat. Once the fruit starts to simmer, use the back of a spoon or potato masher to mash it to your desired texture. Simmer the fruit for 8-10 minutes until slightly thickened, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Stir in agave syrup and chia seeds. Allow the jam to sit for at least 5 minutes to thicken. Transfer to a storage container, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.
Arrange all items on a serving board. Enjoy!
Plan to serve about 1-2 pieces of each pastry, 3-4 pieces of bacon and sausage combined, 2 eggs, and ¼- ½ cup fruit per person.
Recipe notes:
*The jam will continue to thicken as it chills in the refrigerator.
*To save time, you can cook bacon and sausage links in the oven while you're preparing the rest of the board instead of slaving over the stovetop. Cook bacon on a foil lined baking sheet at 400 degrees for 13-18 minutes until the bacon reaches your desired crispness. Cook sausage links on a foil lined baking sheet at 350 degrees for 14-16 minutes, flipping half way through.
*You could swap out eggs on the board for mini quiches or frittatas (either store bought from the freezer section or homemade).
