3 Easy Make-Ahead Holiday Breakfast Ideas

Hi Bold Bakers, you are about to learn how to make some of your favorite breakfast foods in advance so you do not have to stress the morning of the holidays. I want to say a big thank you to Farmer of Direct Foods who have sponsored this video, and I'll talk more about that later. Right now I'm going to show you how to make my no need cinnamon rolls in advance so you have them hot and ready to go the morning of the holiday. So for our dough in my bowl I've got some Farmer of Direct Foods all purpose flour. Now I love to use this flour because for bakers who like to bake with natural ingredients this is a fantastic flour. It's also milled close to the bran coat so you get superior flavor in this flour which is really nice. It also is low protein and it gives your cinnamon rolls a really soft texture with like less chewy bite which is exactly what you want. Into this I'm going to add in my salt and here I have some instant yeast. Now I love to use instant yeast because just like this it goes straight into your dry ingredients. If you use active yeast I'll put a note on my website of how you can use that. I'm going to pop it over to the side here and here I have a little bit of warm milk, warm water, melted butter and some honey. So this dough doesn't have any sugar in it but you put honey into it so it really elevates the flavor. It adds extra moisture and it just makes these buns really unique. And then we're going to add in some eggs in there. Cinnamon rolls are a lovely rich dough so having the butter, the eggs and the milk in there is exactly what you want. Give that a little whisk in the jug altogether. Just mix it until the honey is dissolved into the liquid. Lovely. Now it is as simple as pouring your wet into your dry. This is a no knead dough so there is no need for a machine, no need for excessive kneading on the table. All we're going to do is just mix this together until it forms a kind of a wet dough. On my website this is one of my most popular cinnamon rolls and for the month of November and December the views just go off the charts. People love it so much because during the holidays people always go to that little bit of extra effort to make something really nice for their family and friends who are coming over so that's why this video is really important so you can make your life that much easier. So just mix it until all the flour has hydrated. There you go, like I said it's a wet saggy dough or shaggy dough. I never know which one of those words is correct. We're going to cover it up with some cling wrap, put a towel over it and let this ferment for at least 8 hours or so. I like to leave it overnight and let it just bubble up and get nice and ready to be rolled. Now is a good time to make your cinnamon roll filling. So into a bowl I'm going to add in some dark brown sugar, a lot of cinnamon, and then melted butter. And then just give those a mix together until it's nice and smooth and there's no lumps of brown sugar. Set this filling over to the side and now is a good time to also make a head or cream cheese frosting. So for my delicious cream cheese frosting, in a bowl we're going to add in some of my softened cream cheese and softened butter. I'm going to give those a little whisk together until there's no lumps. Add in our vanilla extract and powdered sugar. And then just mix this together until it's smooth and there's no lumps of sugar. So I already prepared a dough so we can move on to our next step. When your dough is ready, fly your surface and roll it out into a rectangle. Also you know, no matter which one of my cinnamon rolls you decide to make, my banana upside down one, my pumpkin one, whatever it is, you can get them all ready in advance just like we're doing here. Just follow the same steps. Here I have my filling. Spread that onto your dough, just leaving remember around an inch per emissure so it doesn't kind of like spew out of your rolls when they're done. Once you've spread your filling, we're going to do the usual, roll it up into a nice tight coil. So once you've done your roll, we want to cut with a serrated knife 12 cinnamon buns around 2 inches each. Then once they're cut, start to put them into your prepared tray. We are going to do 4 rows of 3. All our buns are in there. Now we're going to cover it nice and tight with cling wrap. And here's what we do. At this stage, we're going to pop them into the fridge overnight. That's all we have to do today. Tomorrow our life is going to be so much easier. The next morning, take your cinnamon rolls out of the fridge. You will notice that they proved slowly a little bit overnight. Leave them out now at room temperature for around an hour, two and a half. It really takes some time to take the chill off and we want them to proof a little bit more before we put them into the oven. My cinnamon rolls bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit, 190 degrees Celsius for around 45 minutes. When your cinnamon rolls are hot out of the oven, spread over your prepared cream cheese frosting. Don't hang around before you try these. They must be eaten when they're still warm and fresh from the oven. Who doesn't love gooey dough with a cinnamon swirl and cream cheese on top. So another thing you can make in advance for the holidays are pancakes and waffle mixes. I'm going to show you how to make my delicious pumpkin butter milk pancakes in advance. So it's really simple. We're just going to mix together all of our dry ingredients first. Here I have some of my Farmer Direct Foods all-purpose flour. And into this, I'm going to add in some Farmer Direct Foods heirloom wheat flour. Now this is a whole wheat flour and I love to add this into my pancakes because it adds a little bit more nutrients and it also gives you a lovely, nutty flavor. This particular flour is stone ground so it retains all the nutrients and protein. And it's definitely a better, healthier option for bakers. Add in baking soda and baking powder. Add in your dark brown sugar. We're going to add in a little bit of salt. And some pumpkin pie spice. Then with the whisk, just whisk all these ingredients together until they're well combined. So I partnered with Farmer Direct Foods for some very simple reasons. They are better whole grains from the field to your table. They are 100% whole wheat and 100% stone ground to preserve the natural minerals and vitamins that the whole grain provides. Next reason is simple. They're better for you. They are minimally processed which just retains the nutrients and the flavor of the grain. I was also delighted to learn that Farmer Direct Foods pay their farmers a premium and reinvest in American farms which is so fantastic to hear. Lastly this flour is better for the environment. It is regeneratively farmed to reduce carbon emissions, improve soil health and conserve water. Farmer Direct Foods flour can be found across the country in these grocery stores and if you don't see it in your grocery store, simply ask them. Once you've mixed your dry ingredients, add them in to a tub or a bowl somewhere where you can store them. A little tip, just make sure you label what they are. Now for our wet ingredients, same deal. Into a Tupperware tub here or a bowl or a jug or whatever, we're going to add in our buttermilk, our pumpkin puree. If you can't find pumpkin puree tinned in your country, I do have a recipe on my website. Crack in our eggs and our vanilla extract and then just whisk these ingredients together. Get everything ready to go. On with our lid. Again, we're going to label this and I'm going to write a note to add melted butter when you want to go and bake it. This goes into the cupboard, this goes into the fridge. So when you are ready to bake off your waffles and your pancakes, all you have to do is add your dry ingredients to a nice big bowl, add in your wet ingredients, and then a little bit of melted butter, which just helps them get a lovely golden brown. Mix your batter together very gently, taking care not to overbeat it so we end up with lovely thick pancakes. Now it's time to cook your breakfast. When cooking off my pancakes, I measure a third of a cup to get me really nice big pancakes. Cook your pancakes until they're golden brown on the bottom and they start to bubble on top. And it's time to flip them over. You can make ahead any batter you like. My gingerbread waffles or even my best ever buttermilk pancakes. Serve your pumpkin pancakes with a big ol' knob of butter on top and drizzle generously with maple syrup. These pancakes with the brown sugar, the pumpkin pie spice, just make them scream holiday. You can have them for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Now if you like breakfast casseroles or even French toast, this recipe is for you. I'm going to show you how to make ahead French toast casserole. Here I have my bread and I'm going to butter it before I cut it into big cubes. I'm using white bread here but you can use challah, brioche, whatever you fancy. The stale or the bread the better, it soaks up the liquid so much more. Put all your cute bread into your nice big dish and make sure that dish is buttered so you don't have an awful time washing it up later. Now for our custard, here I have some lovely large eggs, whole milk for extra fat and flavor, a nice generous splash of cream. We have vanilla extract, one of my favorite flavorings, some salt always in there, sweet breakfast or whatever it is, a nice bit of salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, this adds a nice bit of warmth to the dish, some sugar and orange zest which just adds a lovely bright flavor and you wouldn't expect orange to be in there so it's kind of like a nice sweet surprise. And then just whisk this custard together. Once you have these two things ready, pour that custard over your bread. Push the bread down just to make sure it's all submerged in that lovely custard that we made. Pour it in cling wrap and you guessed it, into the fridge. The next morning when you get up, head to the fridge, take out your casserole and pop it into a preheated oven. You want to bake it at around 350 degrees Fahrenheit, 180 degrees Celsius, roughly 45 minutes to an hour, it's a big old guy. Serve your casserole dusted with some powdered sugar and some berries on top. I also like to add a little drizzle of maple syrup on each scoop. This is warm, it's comforting, it's so special to have on a holiday morning with your friends and family. Now you know what to do for a stress free holiday morning. Thank you so much to Farmer Direct Foods for sponsoring this video and for more information about them go to biggerbolderbaking.com and check out my comprehensive guide about everything flour. Thank you so much and I'll see you back here again next week.