Take your next breakfast or weekend brunch to the next level and serve this fun, delicious, and beautiful breakfast grazing board with sweet and savory eats.
Charcuterie boards are easy crowd-pleasers for holiday gatherings and casual get togethers, so why not a breakfast grazing board? Putting together this board with a variety of sweet and savory eats is an easy way to satisfy everyone with little effort and cleanup. Also, no matter what you’re serving, it always looks more inviting and impressive when beautifully arranged on a board or a large platter.
This breakfast board is made for sharing and snacking, which is perfect for casual entertaining or special occasion brunches such as on Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Easter, Christmas or Thanksgiving breakfast, baby showers, birthdays, you name it.
You can also make it as small and simple, or as fancy and elaborate as you like. Breakfast charcuterie board, brunch board, breakfast grazing platter, whatever you call it – it’s really versatile and easy to customize any way you like, even if you have different dietary needs.
What items do you need to make a breakfast grazing board?
You can use a large wooden serving platter, or wooden cutting board. You don’t need anything fancy though. A large baking sheet, baking tray, or pizza pan lined with a piece of parchment paper also work in a pinch. I also recommend having some small bowls and ramekins to hold the spreads and loose items.
How to build a breakfast grazing board?
1. Prepare the cold ingredients such as jams, butter, and yogurt cups. Wash and prep fruits.
2. Cook hot food items, and keep warm until ready to assemble and serve.
3. Assemble everything on the board or platter. To make it look pretty, I like to place the large items down first, followed by the smaller bowls and dishes, and then fill in the empty spaces with smaller food items and fruits.
How many people does a breakfast grazing board serve?
It depends. You can adjust the board size to the number of people you’ll be serving, whether it is for 2 or 10.
What are some tips for styling a food board?
The key to styling a food board is to organize the items in a way so that guests can get into the mix and know what to do to serve themselves without much direction. Sometimes less is more, because oftentimes, these boards can be a little too cluttered and overwhelming. Try to start with a handful of main ingredients, and add on if necessary.
How to prepare a breakfast grazing board ahead:
The best part about this breakfast board is that most of the ingredients can be prepared ahead, and can be assembled last minute. Here are some tips:
- Hot dishes such as eggs, sausage, and bacon can be cooked ahead and kept warm in the slow cooker.
Hard boiled eggs can be made the night before and kept in a bowl of water in the fridge until you’re ready to serve. - Pancakes, waffles, and french toast are best wrapped in foil and kept warm in the oven at 170F until they are ready to be served.
- Use whole fruits such as berries, which stay fresh longer than cut fruits such as banana slices and orange wedges.
Here are some ideas on what to put on your board:
Bread and pastries
Hearty bread such as whole grain and sourdough
Croissants
Muffins (mini or full size)
Doughnuts
Adding a stack of pancakes (whether made from scratch or frozen) is also a good idea
For our choice of bread, I used the Plain Sourdough Loaf and the Cranberry Pecan Loaf from our Wild Grain February Mixed Bread Box. Wildgrain is a monthly subscription service for artisan bread, pastries, and pastas that you can cook at home, and each item can be baked in less than 25 minutes. We love the convenience of being able to pull out a loaf of bread from the freezer to go directly in the oven whenever I need one. All the artisan bread and pastries taste like they’re fresh from the bakery.
If you’d like to give the subscription a try, you can use my code “thetastybite”, for $10 off your first order. Right now, if you sign up for the subscription, you get 4 free croissants in every box…for LIFE!
Protein
Eggs (hardboiled, scrambled, sunny side up, or poached)
Bacon
Sausage patties
Smoked salmon
Yogurt
I like to add little containers of Greek yogurt with granola.
Spread
Fruit preserves or jam
Nut butter
Butter
Cream cheese
Maple syrup
Honey
Fruit
Berries (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries – I usually leave them whole)
Bananas slices
Orange segments
Cantaloupe slices
Pineapple slices
Grapes
Apple slices (soak in water with a splash of lemon juice, drain and blot dry so they don’t turn brown)
Don’t forget the beverages! Serve your breakfast grazing board with a selection of drinks, such as tea, coffee, hot chocolate, water, juices, or mimosas.
You can also make a themed breakfast grazing board. Here are a few fun ideas:
- Bagel board: plain and flavored bagels, cream cheese (plain and flavored ones), smoked salmon, bacon slices, tomatoes, onions, capers, cucumbers, fresh dill, Nutella, nut butter, jam
- Classic breakfast board: eggs, bacon, sausage, roasted potatoes, hash browns, croissants
- Oatmeal board: brown sugar, cinnamon sugar, granola, nuts/seeds, chocolate chips, dried fruits (raisins, dried cranberries), fresh fruit (banana, berries), chia seeds, coconut flakes.
