6 Friendsgiving Brunch Recipes for a Sweet and Savory Spread

Friendsgiving can happen at brunch. A pan of pumpkin French toast, a savory egg dish and a bowl of fall fruit make a table that feels like autumn without trying to serve Thanksgiving dinner before noon.

Use these six recipes as choices, not a list of dishes everyone must make. Pick a savory center and a sweet or fresh companion. Each linked creator gives the complete ingredients and method for the dish you choose.

Marzia at Little Spice Jar coats diced bread in pumpkin, egg, milk and cream custard. A brown-sugar streusel with butter, flour, pecans and spice turns the top crumbly while the bread below stays soft.

This is the shared sweet dish to choose when a single baking pan suits the brunch table. Marzia allows French bread, brioche or challah; choose the bread you prefer and follow her complete recipe for soaking and baking.

Holly Erickson at The Modern Proper combines sweet-potato cubes with red and green peppers and onion. This version uses the recipe’s cooked crumbled sausage option and finishes each serving with a fried egg.

The orange sweet potatoes and pepper pieces keep the pan colorful beside the golden French toast. Holly lists avocado and cilantro as optional finishes. Use her recipe for cooking and egg directions.

Holly Erickson and Natalie Mortimer’s strata layers crusty bread cubes with cremini mushrooms, spinach and Swiss cheese. Eggs, milk and cream set the mixture into a bake that can be cut into portions.

The browned bread top and green spinach make a different kind of savory centerpiece from the hash. The exact recipe includes onion, thyme, Dijon mustard and nutmeg; follow its method for preparing and baking the custard.

French Kiss Cook makes a cornmeal-and-flour batter with milk, eggs, oil and a little sugar, then cooks it in a waffle iron. The finished waffles have defined wells and a lightly coarse cornmeal crumb.

The source suggests savory uses, but this brunch placement is our menu idea. Serve the waffles plain beside the hash or strata if that suits your table. Let the creator’s complete recipe guide the batter and waffle iron.

Heather at The Toasty Kitchen combines apples, red grapes, blackberries and pecans. Orange juice and zest, maple syrup and cinnamon make a light dressing rather than a creamy coating.

The loose fruit and nuts bring a cool, colorful side to either savory center. Follow Heather’s recipe for the exact chopping, dressing and storage details.

John Kanell at Preppy Kitchen reduces apple cider for a spiced cake-style dough. He fries the doughnuts, then coats the finished rings and optional holes in cinnamon sugar.

These are a project to choose deliberately: the complete recipe includes reducing cider, chilling dough and frying. Choose them when you want a cinnamon-sugar finish, and read John’s recipe for every temperature and handling step.