There’s nothing better than a brunch with your girlfriends, but rarely do the Bitches get the opportunity to cook and entertain—though we’re working on it.
Last weekend, I took the time to collaborate with my friend Brittney of Hosting & Toasting to host a fall brunch for some of our friends. While Brittney and I love to host, neither of us are very good cooks, so we turned to various local businesses for assistance.
We called upon Jennifer, founder of DC Taste, to develop an autumnal menu for eight. Everything she created ended up being bite-sized, which made it absolutely adorable.
The menu featured:
- Scrambled Eggs with Spinach, Manchego & Brie
- Mini Pumpkin Pancakes with Nutella filling & Maple Syrup
- Apricot + Sage Glazed Sausage Links
- Fresh Chopped Fruit Salad
- Mini Fried Chicken + Sweet Potato Waffles
- Maple-Glazed Bacon
- Gingersnap Granola Yogurt Parfaits
Because beverages are the best thing about brunch, I picked up fresh-brewed coffee from Compass Coffee, a new coffee shop and roastery in Shaw. Compass Coffee is rare in that, unlike most coffee shops, they roast all their coffee in-house, serving up nine custom blends and several single origins. The coffee is delicious yet understandable—there’s something for coffee snobs and neophytes alike. I love to work at the bright, beautiful space and enjoy a vanilla latte made with almond milk. The espresso is absolute perfection: not at all bitter, perfectly smooth. But, in this instance, I selected an enormous carafe of Compass’ Cardinal blend to serve to the ladies at brunch—and it was a huge hit!
Because you only need one cup of coffee before it’s time for mimosas, we had sparkling cocktails a plenty. Feeling falltastic, we served a dry, hard sparkling apple cider from Eve’s Cider in champagne flutes rimmed with cinnamon sugar. The cider was absolutely perfect, as it was a dry cider and not very sweet. It was perfect when sipped with the sugar-rim.
We also gave the girls the option of having mimosas—with fresh orange juice and Zardetto prosecco—instead. And, because a girl’s gotta have options, we also had plenty of Pellegrino and orange juice on the table.
Now, for the tablescape, one of my favorite parts. We decorated the table with pumpkins, fresh orange roses from Urbanstems and spider mums. Each place setting had a different Moon & Lola mug, a champagne candle from Rewined, with a name card tied to the candle as a party favor. Brittney went above-and-beyond, giving our guests a framed October print from Dani from Drafts & Crafts. Appropriately, it said “I’m glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” And we are.
Our guests departed with mugs full of home-made apple cider from DC Taste and the most charming sugar cookies in the shape of fall leaves, made by our friend Brie of Monumental Sweets.
Those are the details, tips and tricks for our Washington fall brunch, which would be perfect to recreate for a post-Thanksgiving brunch. Here’s the recipe for the pumpkin Nutella pancakes, courtesy of DC Taste, to get you started.
Pumpkin Pancakes with Nutella Swirl
Ingredients:
- 1 ½ C Milk
- 1 C Pumpkin Puree
- 1 egg
- 2 T Vegetable Oil
- 2 T Vinegar
- 2 C all purpose flour
- 3 T brown sugar
- 2 t baking powder
- 1 t baking soda
- 1 t ground allspice
- 1 t ground cinnamon
- ½ t ground ginger
- ½ t ground nutmeg
- ½ t salt
- Nutella
Instructions:
- Mix together milk, pumpkin, egg, oil and vinegar.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, ginger, salt and nutmeg. Then stir into the pumpkin mixture.
- Heat a lightly oiled griddle or pan over medium high heat.
- Scoop the batter thinly onto the griddle. Spoon or using a piping bag to pipe Nutella in a swirl on top of the batter. Scoop a little more batter on top just to cover the Nutella.
- When the first side is brown, flip pancake and brown the other side.
- Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with warm maple syrup.
Article from: http://bitcheswhobrunch.com/how-to-host-a-fall-brunch-nutella-pumpkin-pancakes/