There are many opportunities/excuses to throw an incredible brunch – for your family during a family reunion trip, an easy way to get together with your friends on a leisurely weekend morning where people can drop in/out based on their schedule, or a wedding shower or baby shower.  In the spring, I was fortunate enough to be invited to a Whole Foods Blogger Brunch Boot with Jackie Kai Ellis of Beaucoup Bakery.  The intent was to get Brunch Better Tips from Jackie Ellis, and now I’m passing on the learnings I gleaned from her to you.

I’m a big fan of Jackie because she has an impeccable sense of style (before studying French baking she ran a design firm), clearly loves food,  and also adores travel (she does the kind of travel I wish I could do – a combination of food travel but also absorbing the uniqueness of each travel destination).

Climbing in and out of cave dwellings at Bandelier National monument. You can see remnants of drawings and soot from fires in the little network of caves dug out from the cliff sides.

A photo posted by Jackie Kai Ellis (@jackiekaiellis) on Mar 19, 2016 at 9:44pm PDT

She is also is wonderfully evocative and articulate but also so down to earth and personable as she shares her love of food and the destinations she visits around the world on her blog Jackie Kai Ellis. I enjoy her travel posts mosts, but she also writes about cooking and sharing elegant recipes and tips on entertaining. So how I jumped at the chance to hear about this firsthand from her, and totally sat in the front row only a couple feet from her and tried not to fangirl too much how much I wish I could be like her.

Anyway, let’s go on to the wonderful information about how you and I and everyone can brunch better! She gave us three main areas, decoration, beverages, and food.

Flower Arranging Tips

Jackie admits that flowers are a luxury, but they can bring a lot of joy to a home with their infusion of beauty and life, even if only temporarily. I know I personally make special trips all during peony season to buy flowers – but keep it at $5 and 3 stems at a time from the Portland Farmers Market. You can decorate your brunch very simply just by having a fresh bouquet of flowers.

I agree with her that I’m not a fan of greens unless they are done with a lot of interesting types of leaves and not just the normal generic leaves, so I don’t buy bouquets that have this filler. She recommends making your arrangement based on color themes, and just doing it in your hand, one stem at a time.

Then, she cuts all the stems so the flowers are just above the top of the vase. You can see I followed her advice here:

Finally, she reminds everyone to change their water often as that is how she thinks flowers stay fresh the longest.

As an alternative to a flower bouquet, she also likes bowls of citrus!

Confit Orange

This is what Jackie calls a “cheaters orange confit” because it is not as time consuming as a traditional orange confit which takes days of reducing at low heat in order to replace everything in the orange (including the orange skin!) with sugar so it is candied and delicious and yes, all completely edible. It’s very simple, and then she showed us two ways to use the confit orange – in a beverage called the Mimosa 75, and then in a sweet French dessert dish called Pain Perdu with Confit Orange. Another way to enjoy the orange confit is with chocolate – Jackie for instance topped a chocolate tart with the orange confit.

Ingredients:

• 4 navel oranges
• Juice of 2 lemons
• 2.5 pounds of granulated sugar
• 1 vanilla bean husk

Directions:

1. Boil water in a large pot. Blanch the whole oranges in for about a minute. Remove the oranges, and drain the water. Repeat again, with a fresh pot of water being brought to a boil and another round of blanching for 1 minute. Remove again and pour out the water. The intent here is remove the bitterness of the skin and drain it from the water, which is why you need to do a fresh pot.
2. Quarter the oranges along the stem, and place in a large empty pot (probably the same pot as before…). Add the juice of 2 lemons, and the 2.5 pounds of granulated sugar, and if you have one, a vanilla bean husk (the insides of the vanilla bean are used for the Pain Perdue recipe below). Might as well not waste it that husk!
3. Add enough water into the pot until the oranges are covered. Slowly bring the pot to a very low simmer, and continue to simmer, uncovered, until the skins begin to become translucent looking and the oranges are tender but still hold together. You may need to add more water during this simmering process, which could take 6-8 hours. So, start this in the morning and then do the rest of your chores like cleaning or other cooking as needed. If you can’t keep it simmering the whole 6-8 hours, turn off the burner, cover the pot, and then resume the low simmer when you can until you get to this same point.

To store, you can place the orange segments and syrup into a jar. You can process it to fully can it, or just keep it in the refrigerator for use for a few weeks.

Mimosa 75

This is a mashup between a mimosa and a French 75. Jackie’s tip on making this drink is to use high quality ice, and when shaking listen for the change in sound to show you are ready.

Ingredients:

• 1 ounce of gin
• 1/2 ounce of orange confit syrup
• 1/2 ounce of fresh lemon juice
• 1 1/2 ounce of fresh orange juice
• Dry sparkling wine to top
• Good ice

Directions:

1. Combine the 1 ounce of gin, 1/2 ounce of orange confit syrup, 1/2 ounce of fresh lemon juice, and 1 1/2 ounce of fresh orange juice in a cocktail shaker with your good ice. Shake until well chilled and strain into a glass. Jackie recommends considering whether you want to serve it in a traditional champagne glass, or you can also use juice glasses for smaller portions like for mom and grandma.
2. Top your drink with sparkling wine. If you’d like, garnish with a slice of orange confit, or just get right down to drinking…

Pain Perdu with Confit Orange

Pain Perdu translates to “lost bread”, and this recipe does use stale bread that would otherwise be lost, but thankfully can be repurposed and enjoyed in this traditional French dessert dish. Jackie recommends using thick slices of dry brioche to soak up as much egg as possible and give the dish a custard like texture. This version uses confit orange, but you can also consider her Lavender Cherry version of Pain Perdu, perhaps along with her recipe for Ice Cream with Lavender Black Kettle Corn and Ripe Plums. This recipe serves 4.

Ingredients:

• 4 large eggs
• 1 vanilla bean, scraped of its seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon of fine sea salt
• 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup whipping cream (plus more for topping, optionally)
• 4 thick slices of brioche or Challah
• 4 tablespoons of butter
• 2 oranges, segmented
• Confit Orange

Directions:

1. In a shallow baking dish, mix together the 4 eggs eggs, vanilla seeds, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons sugar and 1/3 cup of whipping cream.
2. Add the brioche in one layer to soak up the egg, this will take about 5 minutes on each side depending on the dryness of the bread, the drier the bread, the longer it will need to soak.
3. In a nonstick pan on medium-high heat, melt 1 tablespoon of butter per slice and place in the dipped brioche. Fry on both sides until golden and remove from the pan onto a sheet tray or plate.
4. You can choose to remove the crusts for a more elegant look or leave them for a rustic appearance. Plate the pain perdu warm, top with a slice of confit orange, fresh orange segments, and the whipped cream to serve. For this version, we also used a little sprinkle of edible flower petals for an additional layer of prettiness.

Although I enjoyed the bread pudding since it’s beautiful, I preferred the strong sweetness of the orange confit with a super chocolatey chocolate cake myself. Maybe it doesn’t go completely with the brunch theme, but I did mention sometimes you may want to throw a brunchy wedding shower or baby shower, and that involves cake – this is an easy way to serve cake without having to deal with frosting. And you can just use your favorite chocolate cake recipe!

What is your favorite brunch dish to make?

Disclosure: I attended a complimentary Whole Foods Bloggers Brunch Bootcamp where I was able to get a demonstration of the tips and recipes by Jackie Kai Ellis as a Whole Foods Market Culinary Council Member. I was not required to write this post, and I was not otherwise compensated. I will always provide my honest opinion and assessment of all products and experiences I may be given. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own.