Christmas morning breakfast - finger food

[clr2014]

We usually have smoked salmon on wheaten / soda bread which we pass round with Bucks Fizz while stockings are being opened in the living room. Time is tight as we head out about 10:30, so no time for a sit down affair. I wondered if anyone had any better ideas?

Have thought about those 'christmas morning muffins' .... but i think when i last made them they didn't live up to the hype.

Anyone else got inspiration for finger food brekkie?

TIA

That sounds lovely katienana & leaves plenty of room for Xmas dinner

Usually have crispy bacon/sausage and egg floury barms with lashings of tea. Leaning towards cinammon French toast or American pancakes with fruit this year.

What about taking a mega size box of cornflakes and sugar puffs, with 2 six pinters, down the local homeless shelter, there is one near you...that's for sure.

Pandoro made into a star / xmas tree with champagne and strong Italian coffee, can't wait!

Cinnamon rolls here too. Yes to making them the night before and baking in the morning. Do put them in the fridge though, fermented cinnamon rolls are not a pleasant surprise on christmas morning if you leave them covered overnight like me

it sounds really poncey, but bacon on fried rosemary and sea salt focaccia.... had this at a local leisure centre and it has been a celebration stalwart ever since.... makes my mouth water just to think of it...

Always have croissants and champagne for breakfast.

Then canapes when people arrive late morning - last year I did homemade brie and cranberry parcels, prawns in filo pastry and different mini quiches. With more champagne - I chilled the glasses and put a strawberry on the side.

Totally worth the effort as my hard to please mother annoyed my siblings by banging on about how the hospitality at mine was five star for ages.

I'm doing the Asda crumpets this year! We are at PILs and MIL always does croissants and pain au chocolat for breakfast but me and DD prefer something a little more savory so will be bringing crumpets.

Does eating chocolate out of your stocking count as breakfast ?????

Personally I think savoury is much nicer with Buck's Fizz so your smoked salmon sounds perfect. And healthy! And smoked salmon for breakfast is more of a treat than pain choc. IMO. Maybe have blinis and sour cream with your salmon if you fancy a change?

Mmm, but bacon on rosemary focaccia sounds fantastic!

It's my family tradition to have pork pie, cheese and crackers, pickles and mince pies out on Christmas morning for breakfast.

I'm not sure, but I think it's a Midlands thing.

It also helps to soak up all the alcohol drunk and it is utterly delicious.

Slushy scrambled eggs made with cream and butter, then sprig of something on top (parsley I think) with smoked salmon. May help cure hangover too.

Of course, it's the second week of Xmas that is the killer regarding weight gain, as the blood sugar levels are shot by then and you just keep on eating irrespective of enjoyment.

if you have a breadmaker, this makes a lovely Xmas loaf - bliss with unsalted butter (thick), scrambled eggs (runny) and smoked salmon (thinly sliced): boards.fool.co.uk/spicy-christmas-bread-for-breadmaker-11372378.aspx?sort=whole#11372440

And last year a new 'tradition' was added to the long list - teenagers (and erstwhile teens) get a nanoblock lego in their stocking which they have to build over breakfast: www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dtoys&field-keywords=nanoblock&sprefix=nanob%2Ctoys&rh=i%3Atoys%2Ck%3Ananoblock

(can you tell I love Xmas?)
(I never make any money from links in my posts)

Usually smoked salmon and scrambled eggs but this year I'm going to eat my bodyweight in really good brioche.

Bucks Fizz to drink with salmon and scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast. Start the day sloshed and pretty much stay that way all day !

Here's a recipe for cinnamon rolls
www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/recipe-for-cinnamon-rolls/

Croissants, fruit, and a make-ahead quiche that can go in the oven whilst pressies are being opened. The frozen Waitrose pain au chocolat and butter croissants are really tasty.

What's that? Oh, I couldn't possibly. Hmmm? You insist? No, really, I couldn't. You can't live without it, you say? Oh, well, alright then...

Here it is. Fresh from a Chat thread in October.

Hearts' Famous Breakfast Lasagne

(not finger food OP, sorry, but simple and easy to serve / eat)

It's basically just a cross betwen baked French toast and a quiche although it is absolutely delicious

I don't have an exact recipe explains a lot about the kind of cook I am but here you go:

-Butter a lasagne pan
-Tear a baguette or other crusty loaf into pieces, enough to cover the bottom of the pan in a couple of layers
-Beat a whole bunch of eggs (I find I usually need a dozen or more) with milk and pour over the bread chunks. Make sure all the chunks are at least moistened by the egg. The egg mixture should come about halfway up the side of the pan.
-Add your extra ingredients (see below), dotted around and amongst and on top of the bread chunks
-Bake at 350-ish for 60 to 90 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the egg is baked - should be moist but not mushy in the centre.

My favourite combo for extra ingredients is crumbled bacon, dollops of Philadelphia and a sprinkle of cinnamon, served with maple syrup.

However I've also done it with smoked salmon & asparagus, or broccoli and Stilton, or chorizo, hard cheese and roasted peppers. You can use your imagination and your favourite ingredients.

You can also prepare it the day before and bake it in the morning. I pop it in the oven as soon as I wake up and then it's pretty much ready by the time we've finished with the presents.

Loving all your ideas!

I make Christmas Wreath Bread in advance and freeze it. Kinda like this, but with some cherries arranged on top for festive wotnot. You just defrost it overnight and warm it for 20 mins or so on the morning itself, then artfully drizzle a bit of water icing over it. It looks poncetastic, gathers gasps of wonder from the amassed family and actually isn't too much faff. If you can do cinnamon rolls you can do this!

I also make a Christmas morning smoothie, with frozen raspberries, blackcurrants and raspberries from the allotment and a slosh of orange juice. Brrrrr in the magimix, that's all. That adds a bit of healthy virtue to a day entirely devoid of antioxidants...

Disclaimer to all this marvelousness is that unless I get my finger out none of it will happen and it will be chocolate pennies and cups of tea all round, which I wouldn't mind all that much at all!

Last Christmas we had homemade pancakes with crispy bacon & maple syrup, coffee, juice and prosecco (lot of!), fruit salad.

Other years we have had a full cooked berakfast. May go for the pancakes again this year.

One year I made a sort of savoury bread and butter pudding (think it was called a strata or something like that) was a Nigella recipe and made it for veggie sis as the rest of us had cooked breakfast but we all tried it and it was delicious and best of all HAD to be prepared the night before so very handy to shove in the oven.

For those of you who wanted it, here is my cinnamon roll recipe:

Proper American Cinnamon Rolls

1 ½ c. warm milk
½ c. sugar
3 teas. dry yeast
¾ c. butter, melted
3 eggs
5-7 c. flour
¼ teas. salt

Filling:
2 c. sugar
3-4 Tbs. cinnamon
5 Tbs. butter melted

In a large bowl, combine milk and sugar and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add yeast and let dissolve until slightly frothy, about 10 min. Add butter, eggs and 2 cups of flour, stirring to combine. Add salt. Gradually add more flour, stirring after each addition. Continue adding flour until dough comes together and is no longer sticky. Turn dough out onto a floured board and knead for 2 minutes. Return dough to bowl and cover. Allow dough to rise until doubled in volume. Punch dough down and knead again, approx. 2 minutes. Divide dough in half.

Roll out one portion of dough to approx. 10x14 (inches). Brush with ½ of melted butter and sprinkle liberally with sugar and cinnamon. Starting on short side, roll dough into a tight cylinder. Slice cylinder into 6 rolls and place into a buttered 9x13 (inches) pan. Repeat with second portion of dough. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Remove rolls from refrigerator. Set in a warm place to rise until slightly puffy, about 30 min. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. When oven is ready, place in oven and bake 30 mins.

Frosting:
2 ½ oz. cream cheese
3 Tbs. milk
1 ½ c. powdered sugar

Mix together cream cheese and milk, until smooth. Add powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Spread over rolls and serve.

Hope you like them!

Cinnamon roll recipe that I use (first recipe of many on this page). It's actually a kuchen recipe. I make the whole thing the night before and put the rolls in the fridge.

Left over oranges in mandarin napoleon liqueur with double cream - bad habit from the days when my parents used to have a party on christmas eve. Orange segments in liqueur were always one of the puddings and totally delicious. Even more so the next morning

These days my mum still makes me a big bowl of them to see me through Christmas - supposedly for boxing day when we have lots of family to visit and they are still her traditional pudding to bring (does anybody else find themselves stuck in the 70s when it comes to traditional foods for things like this?!?) but I might have to do more than a little quality control on them beforehand!

She also makes me a large chocolate log from a chocolate fridge cake known as brandy cake (think rocky road but remove the marshmallows and raisins, add copious amounts of brandy), which is also a favourite of mine and goes particularly well with the oranges in liqueur especially on christmas morning too.

The irony is this makes me sound like a complete alcoholic but most of the time I rarely drink any booze - the odd glass here and there but it can be weeks between. Just make up for it at xmas with lots of it in my food instead!

oops! Forgot to say, that oven temp. on the cinnamon rolls is 350 fahrenheit , converts to 176 celsius.