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Friday, March 25, 2016

The recipe for a low-hassle brunch feast

There is a rule when hosting brunch: avoid cooking on the day. Prep these recipes for eggs baked in spinach, salted caramel bread pudding and yoghurt panna cotta in advance, and your Easter weekend will be off to a winning start ... For someone who has no belief-based obligation to host an Easter brunch this weekend, I sure have a lot of strong opinions on how to best cook one, and that’s mostly because brunch parties are much more fun than dinner parties. From late morning to midday, we are all bright-eyed and better-rested, our homes are filled with sunlight, the coffee is free-flowing and no matter how long it goes on, even if everyone overstays, you’re still going to have an empty home by dinnertime. My essential rule for hosting brunches is to sleep in, and barely to cook at all on the day. By focusing on recipes that can either be prepped the day before or become better after some time to rest, hosting a brunch becomes almost as luxurious as attending one. My favourite breakfast casserole bakes a dozen eggs in nests of creamed spinach, mushrooms and parmesan that looks, coincidentally, a lot like an Easter basket. It’s also gluten-, grain- and meat-free, so it accommodates all sorts of diets, and I get everything done the night before so all I have to do is crack in some eggs and turn on the oven in the morning. A panna cotta made with Greek yoghurt and finished with walnuts and honey is just a little sweet, but still decadent. You can serve it in wedges or individual cups and you can make it even two days in advance. Finally, the icing on the cake (or, forgive me, the sauce on the pudding) is a stunning upside-down salted caramel bread pudding that’s basically like the lovechild of french toast and a tarte tatin., which you will have no choice but to make for every brunch you ever host after this, because your friends and family will insist. Please, consider yourself warned. Continue reading...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theguardian.com