18 Epic Breakfast Recipes That'll Make You a Morning Person

On weekday mornings, breakfast typically means something like toast or a bagel that I can eat with one hand in between sips of protein-infused coffee while I work on my laptop, Sadly, working from home doesn't necessarily translate to more time for breakfast (or lunch, for that matter). But on the weekends or on those rare weekday mornings when I actually get up before my alarm, I like to make myself a worthwhile breakfast—by that I mean something I can sit down and savor.

Below, I've rounded up some of my and the Serious Eats teams' breakfast favorites for those days when we want more than just a quick protein smoothie, a bowl of granola, or toast. You'll find plenty of sweet and savory options—from tender, fluffy pancakes and bakeshop-worthy muffins and pastries to a nostalgic Hong Kong–style breakfast sandwich and regional comfort classics like Cincinnati goetta and Southern red-eye gravy. So, whether you're breakfasting solo or entertaining a group of friends, these 18 breakfast recipes guarantee a happy start to your day.

Hong Kong-Style Breakfast Sandwich

There's no denying the appeal of a well-made, simply constructed breakfast sandwich, which is why this Hong Kong tea café staple of scrambled eggs and savory fried Spam sandwiched between slices of toasted, crustless white bread is such a classic. To achieve the signature silky scramble texture, we whisk a slurry of potato or tapioca starch and half-and-half into the eggs to prevent the egg proteins from binding and cooking too quickly.

Banana Bread Pancakes

While I love a fat slice of banana bread to go with my morning coffee, banana bread in pancake form is simply a chef's kiss. For tender, lofty pancakes with a sweet, robust banana flavor, we mash the banana with an egg to convert the fruit’s starches to sugar and add a bit of buttermilk.

Hong Kong-Style French Toast

Another Hong Kong tea café breakfast staple with a special place in my heart is this French toast, shallow-fried until golden and crispy on the outside, oozing with peanut butter on the inside, and generously drizzled with sweetened condensed milk. Dried, enriched milk bread is best for soaking up all the egg batter, ensuring a custardy texture and velvety bite.

Apple Pie Pancakes

For a luxurious breakfast that's perfect for entertaining, these apple pie–inspired pancakes are a guaranteed crowd-pleaser that's also fairly easy to make. We toss grated apples with brown sugar before folding them into the batter, which softens the fruit so it becomes almost custard-like within the pancakes. Pumpkin-pie spice provides a depth of flavor basic apple-pie spice simply lacks.

Goetta (Cincinnati Breakfast Meat Loaf)

Like Pennsylvania scrapple, this Cincinnati breakfast staple is a cross between sausage and meatloaf. Though traditionally made with a blend of meat scraps and offal, our version uses bone-in pork shoulder and steel-cut oats for goetta with a deeper flavor and a rich, gelatinous texture. The finished loaf is sliced and crisped slowly in a skillet so the pork and oats caramelize to a crunchy brown finish.

Breakfast Sopes With Refried Beans, Queso Fundido, Poached Eggs, and Salsa

Looking for a savory, filling, showstopping breakfast to impress your guests? These crispy sopes are loaded with hearty refried beans smothered in a bacon and fresh chile-loaded queso fundido. Each sope has a perfectly poached egg nestled on top, accented with a spoonful of spicy and acidic xnipec to cut through the richness of the cheese and refried beans. It's a dish with a gorgeous array of colors and it tastes just as beautiful.

Buttermilk Vanilla Waffles

This remarkable one-bowl recipe produces what I would call the platonic ideal of waffles—eggshell-crisp exterior and incredibly fluffy interior. On mornings when you roll out of bed with a sudden urge to fire up the waffle iron, this is the one you want to make: no whipped eggs, no wet ingredients here, dry ingredients there, no foaming, no folding, and no sifting. Topped with butter, maple syrup, fruit, or even fried chicken, every bite is pure bliss.

Red-Eye Gravy with Country Ham

Pan-fried country ham and red-eye gravy made from pan drippings and coffee is the kind of rib-sticking "welcome home" breakfast you make for family and friends in the South. Be sure to use bone-in ham slices, which are untrimmed and fattier, so there are enough drippings to make the rich mahogany gravy—and have plenty of fluffy cathead biscuits on hand to soak it all up.

Biscuits and Gravy

All you need are a handful of ingredients and a well-seasoned cast-iron skillet to make this Southern breakfast staple. We cook the sausage in its own fat, adding onion to provide a savory counterpoint to the sweet elements in the sausage, and use a ratio of one tablespoon of all-purpose flour to one cup of milk for a thick, homogenous, silky gravy that's perfect for topping biscuits.

Savory Turmeric Masala Oats

To give an otherwise bland morning oatmeal a bold, savory makeover, we turn to tadka—a traditional South Asian cooking technique of frying spices in oil or ghee to release their fragrant flavors—to infused each bite with the earthy flavors of cumin, black mustard seeds, coriander, red pepper flakes, and turmeric. You can add other vegetables along with the tomato and bell pepper, such as mushrooms, carrots, and peas, to give the oats more color, flavor, and texture.

Eggs in Purgatory

Eggs in purgatory, or "uova in purgatorio," is an easy Southern Italian dish that's perfect for breakfast, brunch, or "breakfast for dinner," served with plenty of crusty bread to sop up the spicy tomato sauce. Add the eggs off the heat so they poach at an even rate and use canned whole tomatoes for a consistent, flavorful sauce year-round.

Homemade Beignets

Louisiana-style beignets, like those from the famed Café du Monde in New Orleans, are best enjoyed hot and fresh out of the fryer, liberally doused with powdered sugar. Unlike other beignet recipes, ours is made with bread flour to produce a lighter crumb and open texture and buttermilk to give it a slight tang. Let the dough proof overnight in the fridge to achieve a puffed and airy interior when you fry up the beignets in the morning.

Morning Glory Muffins

Studded with pecans, dried fruit, carrots, apples, and coconut, these hearty breakfast muffins will certainly make your morning glorious indeed. They’re moist and tender, not cloyingly sweet, with wonderful woodsy, spiced notes of cinnamon and ginger. An orange glaze adds a finishing touch that's next-level.

Bostock

Think of bostock as luxe toast disguised as a French pastry that tastes just like an almond croissant. We slather sliced brioche with fragrant, buttery almond cream, top it with sliced almonds, and bake it until puffy and golden brown. A layer of marmalade between the brioche and almond cream adds a bittersweet citrus flavor.

New Jersey Crumb Buns

Our recipe pays tribute to the hyper-regional New Jersey classic crumb bun, with a tender yeasted dough topped with a soft, cohesive, thick layer of melt-in-your-mouth crumbs. Cut into squares and showered with powdered sugar, these buns will transport you to the Garden State—no Turnpike or Parkway tolls required.

Cheese Danish

I would argue that the only Danish worth having with my morning coffee is a freshly baked one, preferably full of buttery, flaky layers—and our cheese Danish delivers on all counts. We streamlined the lamination process, using the rough puff pastry (or blitz puff pastry) method to achieve ultra-flaky layers. We also chill the dough between folds to allow the gluten to rest and give the butter time to become cold again, to produce a finished product infinitely better than any store-bought version.

Cheesy Sausage Breakfast Casserole

We love a breakfast dish that can be prepped up to 24 hours ahead. Sauté the sausage and vegetables so they're fully cooked before adding them to the casserole to help remove excess moisture. The addition of shredded Gouda cheese, sour cream, and half-in-half to the eggs makes for a rich custard-like filling.

Make-Ahead Bacon and Cheese Egg Bites

Who wouldn't want a great, low-effort, perfectly portioned breakfast option that can be easily made in advance at home? For our version of the popular Starbucks egg bite, we employ a similar sous-vide method to cook them at a temperature significantly lower and more stable than baking to produce a silky, custard-like texture. Loaded with savory bacon and nutty Gruyère cheese and cooked in individual mason jars, these egg bites can be enjoyed right out of the jar or popped out onto a plate for serving.