Are you planning a brunch for Easter, Mother’s Day, or just to make connections with the people in your life on a random Sunday? Here’s my blueprint for how to host an easy brunch that will give you connection without stressing you out!
It’s January, so you might be wondering why I’m posting about hosting an easy brunch. Well, if you’ve been around for a while, you’ll know that I’m a big proponent of hosting a January get-together. My favorite way to get people together in January is to host an easy brunch. I love a January brunch because an at-home brunch is super casual, can be pulled off with easy, low-maintenance food, and is the most affordable meal to host a crowd. And after the hustle and expenses of December, we can all get behind something that’s easy and affordable!
If hosting an easy brunch sounds up your alley, I’m sharing my hosting tips, a simple recipe for narrowing your options for the food you serve, and a sample menu. This is your one-stop easy brunch stop!
Host an Easy Brunch
Tips
Before we dive into the food you’re going to serve, let’s first cover some general tips to make hosting an easy brunch truly easy.
Low stress
For me, the most important part of hosting an easy brunch is keeping it relatively stress-free. Having people over should be fun for the host too! So, how can you actually have people over and keep it low stress? I have two main tips.
Store bought
Don’t feel like you have to make everything from scratch. This is true for any type of get-together, but especially when you’re hosting an easy brunch. Some of my favorite brunch items are things that definitely aren’t worth making from scratch, like bagels and croissants. If you’re making bagels or croissants from scratch, you’re officially not hosting an easy brunch.
Make ahead
For the brunch items you do make from scratch, choose items that you can make ahead. I love overnight casseroles when I’m hosting an easy brunch because I just throw them together the night before and pop them in the oven about an hour before my brunch guests are set to arrive. I’ll share a few great options in the next section, don’t worry.
Drinks
I’m not sure drinks are ever more important at a get-together than they are at brunch. You need to tick so many boxes with your beverage offerings: caffeine (hot and/or cold), juice, and optionally booze. And you probably want variety in all of these categories. It’s a lot to think about. I try to get the most bang from my drinks buck by offering cold brew concentrate (can be turned into hot or cold coffee), a few juice varieties (orange, apple), and champagne.
Variety
One of the things I like most about hosting brunch is that it’s easy to add variety to your menu. So, don’t squander this opportunity! Offer salty options, sweet options, and options that can be completely customized. Gluten free, nut free, dairy free – you can have it all when you host an easy brunch!
Portions
Another tip that’s easy to forget but pays off in a big way is to offer as much in individual portions as possible. If you’re offering a variety of items like I suggest, your guests will probably want smaller, pre-cut, easy to grab portions. Cut up a casserole into squares rather than having your guests dish themselves a serving out of the baking dish. If you’re serving bagels, cut them across and then in half so your guests can grab what they want without feeling guilty about splitting up a whole bagel.
This tip adds a little bit of extra work for you, the host, but it will be worth it in guest satisfaction. Any leftovers will be easier to pack up and reheat too!
Help
OK, I admit that I struggle with this one. I’m the person who never goes anywhere empty-handed, but I never ask people to bring things when I host a get-together. What is wrong with me? If you suffer from the same affliction, take this as your nudge to let your guests contribute to your brunch. If you feel guilty asking them to make something to share, ask them to pick up a box of coffee from Dunkin’ or some of those store-bought pastries everyone loves. Know your guests super well? Ask them to make their famous biscuits or a fruit salad that you know will be a hit with the smallest guests.
Narrowing the food universe
So, now that I’ve set the stage with my basic tips for hosting an easy brunch, it’s time to talk about what you should serve. And I know, it’s daunting. There are so many delicious brunch food options, but you can’t make them all. But, how do you figure out how exactly to narrow the food universe? Here’s the minimum of what you need.
Beverages
As I said in my tips section, beverages are key when you host an easy brunch. At a minimum, you need a caffeine source, a juice, and maybe a booze. If you really want to wow your guests, offer multiples of each to tick off that variety box.
Fruit
No brunch is complete without fruit. The world is your oyster when it comes to which fruit you decide to offer, but if you want to keep it easy (you are hosting an easy brunch, after all), I highly recommend fruit that requires minimal processing. You can cut all the fruit you want, but setting out bananas and clementines and berries, all of which need very limited work on your part, saves you big in the prep time but still tastes delicious!
Savory entrée
There are savory brunch people and sweet brunch people, and you should have an entrée to please both palates. Let’s start with the savory entrée simply because this is my preference. The savory entrée category includes your egg dishes, breakfast meats, etc. Basically, whatever you don’t typically add syrup to. I highly recommend choosing a savory entrée that you can make ahead and serve at room temperature. This will save you so many timing headaches the morning of your brunch.
Sweet entrée
The sweet brunch people need something they’ll love too, so you should also offer a sweet entrée at your casual brunch. Sweet brunch items include pancakes, waffles, French toast, etc. You know what sweet brunch entrees are. Although all of these options are delicious, some are decidedly hard to pull off when you’re hosting brunch. Trust me, you don’t want to be stuck at the stove flipping pancakes the entire time your guests are at your gathering. I really like make ahead French toast casseroles and sheet pan pancakes for my sweet entrée when I host brunch. They are easy to whip together, they serve a bunch of people in one fell swoop, and they don’t have to be piping hot when you serve them. These are great options for an easy brunch.
Pastry/bread
Most people want to carbo load at brunch, so give the people what they want! Bagels, croissants, muffins, whatever tickles your toes. Buy these pre-made. They’re usually not worth the extra effort of making from scratch.
Meat
Unless you are serving a horde of vegetarians, you probably want to offer a breakfast meat on your brunch spread. Bacon, sausage, and ham are all good options. Offer one, two, or all three!
Sample menu
If you’re still stumped about what to serve when you host your next easy brunch, here is a sample menu of items that I served at a brunch I hosted recently for my neighbor friends. This spread worked for a total of 18 people (8 adults and 10 kids), so feel free to increase or decrease amounts based on the number of people you’re planning to feed.
Beverages
I held this brunch at 11:00 am on a Sunday in January, so I leaned into hot beverages more than I would in the summer.
Hot coffee
A selection of hot teas (caffeinated and caffeine-free)
A selection of juices (orange, apple, juice boxes for the kids)
Champagne (for mimosas, of course)
Fruit
I took my own advice and kept the fruit selection very simple. I cut up a pineapple and then just offered a selection of berries (blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries) that just needed to be washed.
Yogurt bar
I bought two large tubs of yogurt – one vanilla and one strawberry. Next to the flavored yogurts, I placed granola and berries and a pot of honey for a make your own parfait situation.
Savory entrée
I made good use of my leftover New Year’s day ham by making a ham and cheese quiche. I used a refrigerated pie crust, baked it early in the day before my guests arrived, and sliced it into individual portions. My gluten free sister-in-law didn’t join this gathering, but if she had, this would have easily been made gluten free by just skipping the crust!
Sweet entrée
My son chose the sweet entrée this time and he chose what he calls casserole, which is a cream cheese French toast casserole. I made it the night before, baked it in the morning before my guests arrived, and cut it into individual portions that were easily scooped onto plates.
Pastry/bread
For my bread offering, I chose to lay out a few flavors of bagels with a few flavors of cream cheese. It was the easiest path to choose, but who doesn’t love a bagel!?
Meat
Because I had ham in my savory entrée, I offered bacon and sausage and standalone meat options on my easy brunch spread. I fired up sausage links in a skillet at the last minute and cooked the bacon in the oven for a totally hands-off experience.
Other posts
Looking for more tips to make entertaining easier? I’ve got some blog posts for you:
I hope I’ve helped you see that you can pull off an easy brunch that will please your crowd without making yourself crazy. Hosting brunch is fun! Now I have to know, what is your favorite brunch dish? Please share down below or over on Instagram @sarainseason!