Craving comfort? 5 satisfying breakfast recipes to make any time of day

Breakfast is hailed as the most important meal of the day, but to me it represents pure comfort. My childhood weekday mornings were always rushed as my mother struggled to get my brothers and me — and herself, an elementary school educator — to school on time. The two-minute Cream of Wheat porridge that I’d microwave on my own and doctor with margarine and cinnamon represented a treat.

But on weekends, it wasn’t unusual for us to wake up to the smell of bacon, sausage, pancakes, scrambled eggs, French toast or, if we were lucky, cinnamon rolls. And the fact that we were allowed to eat in front of the TV while watching Saturday morning cartoons made it all the more delicious.

Breakfast hasn’t lost its magic for me. Although I’m not doing daily drop-offs with kids, I still find myself too busy to eat more than fruit or toast on weekday mornings. That makes Saturday and Sunday mornings (and sometimes weekday dinners), when I set aside time to make breakfast tacos or waffles, that much more special.

This week, as I processed the devastation left by wildfires across L.A. County, breakfast was a simple way to give myself a little comfort and care. My mind has been racing around the clock with worry for family, friends and colleagues who were evacuated and whose homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed, and it’s been impossible to disengage from my news feed.

But the attentiveness that many breakfast dishes require has been a forced reprieve from doom scrolling. For a few minutes, I can focus my attention on soft-scrambling a pair of eggs, or waiting for the perfect moment to flip a pancake.

Some of the Black-owned restaurants stepping up to support Pasadena and Altadena evacuees had a similar idea, and many are uplifting spirits by serving staple soul food and breakfast dishes.

This week, Inglewood institution the Serving Spoon provided breakfast service at New Revelation Missionary Baptist Church in Pasadena, offering a scramble with its signature homestyle potatoes, eggs, chicken or pork sausage and biscuits.

“Some of our customers live in this area and the fact that they come all the way from Altadena to Inglewood shows that [the Black community] does have a presence out here,” said the Serving Spoon co-owner Justin Johnson. “This is the type of food that the people of this area are used to having, and in a situation like this, you want to continue life as normal as possible.”

The name of the Little Red Hen Coffee Shop belies their extensive soul food menu. There, generous plates of omelets and pancakes were just as popular as shrimp and grits and salmon croquettes. Sadly, the family-owned restaurant in Altadena was destroyed by the Eaton fire, but a GoFundMe to support rebuilding efforts has already been launched, and owner Barbara Shay said they’re looking into pop-ups and temporary spaces in the meantime.

“It was a family affair,” Shay said. “And everyone loved the food because everything was homemade with love.”

If you’re craving some comfort this weekend or any time, here are five breakfast dishes guaranteed to satisfy:

Eating out this week? Sign up for Tasting Notes to get our restaurant experts’ insights and off-the-cuff takes on where they’re dining right now.

Hot and Fluffy Pancakes

This pancake recipe from former cooking columnist Ben Mims serves two people, but if you’re cooking for a larger group, double or triple the ingredients and store the mix in an airtight container for an easy “instant” pancake mix. If, like me, you prefer crispy-edged pancakes, add 1 teaspoon of unsalted butter to the skillet, let it melt and coat the entire bottom, before adding the batter for each pancake.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 30 minutes. Serves 2.

(Ben Mims / Los Angeles Times)

Bacon-Basted Root Vegetable Hash

Use your favorite seasonal root vegetables in this hash recipe with bacon that’s layered on top of the vegetables so that its fat seeps through. After removing the dish from the oven, you’ll stir in mixed greens and top it with an egg and pickled onions.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 2 hours 30 minutes. Serves 6 to 8.

(Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times)

Christina Tosi’s Cinnamon Buns With Brown Sugar Goo

Like many of us, Christina Tosi, baker-owner of MilkBar and author of the new “Bake Club” cookbook, grew up associating the tantalizing scent of fresh-baked cinnamon rolls with malls and airports. Tosi was determined to figure out how to make the dessert from scratch. She demonstrated the recipe in our Chef That! video series (an exciting day in the L.A. Times kitchen).
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 1 hour 10 minutes, plus rising time. Makes 12 cinnamon buns.

(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

Bacon, Egg and Cheese Tacos

Breakfast tacos are easy to make for just yourself or a group of people, and you can adjust the ingredients depending on what you have on hand. Swap bacon for chorizo or soyrizo, or add potatoes to make the tacos even heartier. In Dawn Perry’s recipe, she adds a zesty salsa that blends rough-chopped herbs with a serrano or jalapeño pepper and douses cabbage in lemon-lime juice for freshness and crunch.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 30 minutes. Serves 4.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Southern Buttermilk Biscuits

Former cooking columnist Ben Mims offers his grandmother’s method in this recipe for Southern buttermilk biscuits that involves making the biscuits by hand — though you can also make them in a stand mixer. While biscuits can be a little tedious to make, Mims suggests making an extra batch to store in the freezer for up to three months, so the next time a craving hits, all you have to do is take them out and bake them.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 40 minutes, plus 2 hours freezing. Serves 4.

(Ben Mims / Los Angeles Times)