For many years now, I’ve been sharing favorite recipes on a regular basis in my weekly Links I Love posts. Maybe it will be surprising to hear, but when I’m trying to figure out the source of a recipe I’ve previously cooked and loved, I often find the answer by searching my own blog archives!
Today’s post is a follow-up to the weeknight dinner recipes post we previously did along these lines. Once again, because I thought it might be helpful to you and to me, I’m gathering the best-of-the-best recipes I’ve shared over the years in one place. I don’t typically share the same recipe in Links I Love more than once, but many of those recipes I shared that one time subsequently went on to become personal or Bogel family favorites.
As I reviewed the assortment of breakfast and brunch recipes I’ve shared through the years, something I noticed was that for many of our breakfast and brunch staples, I don’t cook from recipes. I love a good breakfast casserole, but my kids rarely do, which means we make endless frittatas, with all kinds of fillings—depending on the season, our cravings, and what happens to be in the fridge. We do a whole lot of scrambled eggs. Precooked bacon and chicken sausage links are common sides. Sometimes we pick up bagels and spreads and Costco smoked salmon.
But when it comes to the baked goods, I love a good, reliable, proven favorite recipe. And that’s what you’ll find in today’s post. Many Bogel family favorites are included below, though this collection is far from exhaustive and limited by availability: in Links I Love, I can’t share recipes from cookbooks, and I don’t share recipes that are only available through paid subscriptions. What I do love to share are recipes that are freely available on my favorite online cooking sites, and from paid online cooking sites that allow me to share gift links with you so that you can access those recipes for free. (That’s why it may seem like NYT Cooking is overrepresented in Links I Love—it’s because I can easily share those recipes for free!)
I hope you enjoy perusing my favorites. I’d love to hear what your favorite breakfast and brunch recipes are in the comments section.
1. Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Sheet Pan Pancakes | Skinnytaste
I’m not sure I would have tried this unconventional technique had a friend not strongly recommended this recipe, but I cannot overstate what an enormous hit these were with my whole family. Funny thing: we have never once made these for breakfast, but these pancakes are in regular rotation as a breakfast-for-dinner centerpiece.
2. Cranberry-Orange Muffins | NYT Cooking
These Cranberry-Orange Muffins (gift link provided above) from were easy and delicious; they can also be baked up as a cake or loaf. We did the optional glaze because I cannot resist a citrusy flourish. This recipe (gift link provided above) is from Yossy Arefi, author of our family favorite cookbook Snacking Cakes.
3. Black and Blueberry Ricotta Cake | Food52
Speaking of Snacking Cakes: Will aspires to bake his way 100% through Yossy Arefi’s delightful little cookbook but his progress continues to stall as we keep asking him to make this Black and Blueberry Ricotta Cake again and again. Luckily, I found a standalone link to the recipe online. It’s so good!
4. Baked Apple Cider Doughnut Recipe | NYT Cooking
We’ve been baking these for years at this point; they were an instant family tradition from the first time we tried them because they’re that good. I made them as muffins for years until a friend gifted us silicone donut molds for baking, enabling me to bake this favorite recipe as actual donuts. No matter how you bake them up—muffins, doughnuts, snacking cake—they are delicious every time.
5. Ina Garten’s Lemon Cake | Food Network
From the Barefoot Contessa herself, because we rely on Ina Garten’s baked goods at my house. My whole family LOVES this lemon cake.
6. Poppy Seed Cake | NYT Cooking
I am a lifetime lover of poppy seed baked goods of all kinds, particularly when citrus is involved. This cake is delicious as is, but check out the notes on that recipe (gift link above) for tips on adding a citrusy zing to the batter.
7. Ina Garten’s Cheddar-Dill Scones | Food Network
I’ve been baking these savory scones since the year 2000, when I bought the original Barefoot Contessa Cookbook the year after it was published. In all that time, this recipe never fails and is always delicious.
8. Meyer Lemon and Fresh Cranberry Scones | Smitten Kitchen
Because we love a sweet scone, too: this is a delicious staple from Deb Perelman. I’ve used fresh, frozen, and dried cranberries, and lemon and orange zest, but never once have I made it with actual meyer lemons. When we don’t need the whole batch right away, I follow Deb’s directions to freeze the dough so we can enjoy fresh-baked scones on a future date.
9. Buttermilk Diner-Style Pancakes | Epicurious
I was skeptical about this recipe for Buttermilk Diner-Style Pancakes—I mean, seltzer, really?—but they’re delicious.
10. Huevos Rancheros | NYT Cooking
Huevos rancheros doesn’t really need a recipe, but I keep this one in my recipe box to remind myself how much I enjoy it as a weekend breakfast option.
What are your go-to winning breakfast and brunch recipes? Please share in the comments.
P.S. 20 easy and delicious go-to weeknight dinner recipes that count among our family’s greatest hits and 10 delightful cookbooks for reading, cooking, and gifting.
