From sweet berry and chocolate bakes to elegant savory options, these Valentine's Day breakfast recipes will start your day on a special note.
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No baking or frying is needed to create these beautifully colored, bite-sized treats because we use store-bought doughnut holes. The glaze is made with thawed frozen juice concentrate and confectioners’ sugar, creating a vibrant fruity coating that needs only a few minutes to set.
Homemade beignets are a special treat. Show your valentine how much you care by frying up a batch of these sweet pastries for them. Better yet—make the pastries together as a fun morning activity.
These Valentine’s Day-themed cinnamon rolls start with red velvet cake mix, which takes most of the work out of making the semi-homemade dough. The rolls are topped with a simple butter and confectioners’ sugar icing, but you could use cream cheese frosting instead if that’s your favorite part of red velvet.
Muffins are always welcome at the breakfast table, but choosing festive muffin recipes makes holidays extra-special. A generous amount of fresh strawberries gives these buttery muffins a beautiful berry taste and a pop of red, perfect for Valentine’s Day.
Nothing is more iconic on Valentine’s Day than a heart-shaped gift, so why not make a heart-shaped breakfast? The buttery, yeasted coffee cake is filled with walnuts and cinnamon before it’s rolled, folded, cut and twisted to form the adorable shape.
This baked egg breakfast is reminiscent of quiche Lorraine but comes together much more quickly. The eggs are layered on top of sliced Canadian bacon and laced with creamy dollops of sour cream. Baked in individual dishes, the perfectly cooked eggs are so tasty you’ll want to serve them with toast to sop up every bit of the soft yolks.
Although this spiced bread pudding uses everyday breakfast staples like eggs, milk and bagels, it’s elevated enough to enjoy as a special breakfast with your loved ones. The custardy egg and milk base soaks into the bagel pieces, giving them a soft texture and rich flavor. You need to let the bagels soak for only about 15 minutes, but allowing them to sit longer will make the bread pudding even more pillowy.
Who wants to be stuck in the kitchen flipping pancake after pancake when you could be enjoying a Valentine’s Day breakfast? This recipe offers a winning solution by making just enough batter for two so you can sit down and enjoy pancakes with your loved one before your food gets cold.
This recipe calls for canned biscuit dough—a convenient shortcut for making easy homemade doughnuts. We fill the doughnuts with strawberry jam to create a fruity red filling, but any jam will work. You could even go all in for a Valentine’s Day indulgence and fill them with chocolate hazelnut spread.
There was a time when I ate eggs Benedict only at a restaurant—until I realized that this impressive breakfast is surprisingly easy to make at home. To keep it stress-free, make the hollandaise sauce first and keep it warm while poaching the eggs. Add a pinch of cayenne to the rich sauce for a subtle, warming hit of spice.
Level up your French toast game with this cinnamon-spiked recipe. It has the perfect balance of butter, rich bread and sweet cinnamon flavor, but you can adjust the ingredients to suit your tastes. Feel free to swap in brioche for white bread, or make the French toast batter with half-and-half cream for added decadence.
Rhubarb has a delightful sweet-tart flavor and a gorgeous pinkish red hue, making it a fantastic choice for Valentine’s Day recipes. These sticky buns are assembled in muffin cups with the rhubarb on the bottom and the dough on top, similar to upside-down cakes. That means they don’t need a lot of shaping and will bake quickly.
A Dutch baby is one of the most dramatic breakfasts you can make! As the thin, crepe-like batter bakes in a buttered skillet, the edges rise to impressive heights, creating a cup-shaped giant pancake-esque breakfast. Appropriate for Valentine’s Day, this recipe adds chocolate chips to the batter, which become melty and gooey in the oven.
Homemade crepes aren’t difficult to make, as the batter is similar to a thin pancake batter. However, ladling and flipping the thin crepes to delicate perfection takes some practice and attention, so try making them once or twice before Valentine’s morning. These crepes have a tangy strawberry filling made with cream cheese, sugar and whipped cream, but any berry works if you don’t have strawberries on hand.
Canned cinnamon rolls are convenient and easy to prepare, but you can do more with them than just make a standard roll. In this recipe, the uncooked rolls are diced, soaked in a maple syrup-infused milk and baked with a pecan streusel topping until golden.
These beautiful twisted buns have a tender, soft dough thanks to the eggs, milk and butter that enrich it. But what really makes the buns unique is the Nutella, pistachio halva and chocolate chip filling. Make sure to factor in enough time for the dough to rise so the buns are fluffy and soft, not dense and tough.
Upgrade plain buttered toast with this hearty, savory avocado toast recipe. Poaching the eggs in the microwave is a timesaver. We top the toast with cheese and bacon, but it would taste just as fantastic topped with smoked salmon instead.
This large-format pancake has more eggs than a traditional pancake recipe and bakes in the oven. As it cooks, the sides rise while the center stays custardy and tender. We serve the pancake with a buttermilk syrup, which can be prepared while the pancake bakes so that everything is ready to enjoy as soon as it comes out of the oven.
Scones have the flaky tenderness of a biscuit but a softer, slightly cakier texture. They’re ideal for holding chunks of fresh strawberries that bake into bright red pockets of sweet, slightly jammy fruit. Double-down on the berry flavor and pinky red color theme of Valentine’s Day by serving them with homemade strawberry butter.
These individual French toast cups are filled with cubed bread, raspberries and cream cheese. Their smaller size means they bake in a fraction of the time of a large casserole, so you can whip them up on a busy morning (because even Valentine’s Day can be hectic). Instead of serving them with maple syrup, this recipe features a bright, lightly sweetened raspberry sauce that adds even more festive red color to the breakfast table.
Blueberry and lemon is a classic flavor combination that doesn’t have to be reserved for summertime. These muffins taste fantastic in the winter with frozen blueberries. A quick glaze made of confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice makes the muffins look bakery-worthy. They’re perfect for a special breakfast.
These decadent cinnamon rolls are made with Nutella, espresso powder and hazelnut syrup, creating a sophisticated twist on a breakfast classic. The shaped rolls rise overnight in the refrigerator, so all you have to do in the morning is bake and ice them.
These bite-sized treats are flavored with mashed banana and then rolled in cinnamon sugar hot out of the fryer. The secret to their light and fluffy texture is cake flour. If you need help figuring out what to do with the rest of the package, try making other cake flour recipes so nothing is wasted.
These fluffy, yeasted doughnuts are doubly sweet: They’re filled with creamy vanilla pudding and rolled in sugar. To make them even more special for Valentine’s Day, fill them with chocolate pudding or use food coloring to tint the vanilla filling pink or red.
I like to bake this blueberry-studded coffee cake in a Bundt pan. It creates a decorative design, so the cake looks elegant with nothing more than a light dusting of confectioners’ sugar. Fresh or frozen blueberries work in this recipe and complement the ribbon of spiced brown sugar that weaves through the cake.
If you like a pastry that’s sweet but not too sweet, try these cream cheese-filled danishes for Valentine’s Day breakfast. The homemade dough is soft and fluffy from the inclusion of butter, milk and egg yolks, and it becomes even more flavorful if you have time to make it the day before. For stronger Valentine’s Day vibes, add a few raspberries before baking.
Ripe bananas and two kinds of chocolate come together in these soft, sweet muffins. They taste decadent but are surprisingly light. Use festive muffin liners for a decorative touch.
Few things are more impressive than taking an everyday breakfast staple like a waffle and giving it a surprising flavor makeover. This recipe does just that, pushing typical accompaniments like butter and maple syrup to the side and topping the cheesy asparagus-and-onion-studded waffle with a fried egg and even more cheese.
Sure, you can buy Pop-Tarts at the store, but making them from scratch is much more delicious—and fun! The from-scratch buttery pastry is flaky yet sturdy enough to hold the fruit filling inside the crimped edges. Use a red jam and Valentine’s Day-themed sprinkles to make them extra-festive.
These make-ahead French toast sticks are perfect for popping into the air fryer on Valentine’s Day morning. Thick Texas toast strips are soaked in custard and coated with cornflakes for a crunchy alternative to regular French toast. Serve them with warm maple syrup for dipping, or even chocolate sauce for more decadence.
These strawberry doughnuts are baked instead of fried and absolutely loaded with fresh berries, both in the doughnut batter and the glaze. The doughnuts will rise as they bake, so make sure you don’t overfill the doughnut pan. If it’s more than halfway full, the doughnuts could lose their center holes as they rise.
Give your breakfast-in-bed ideas a romantic spin by including special garnishes and Valentine’s Day colors, such as edible flowers on the plate, a fresh fruit bowl with red and pink berries, or a spread of pink strawberry cream cheese on a toasted bagel. For a festive beverage option, mix cranberry, cherry or pomegranate juice with seltzer (or champagne) in a fluted glass rimmed with sparkling sugar. Drop in a few pomegranate seeds or a raspberry to give it the perfect finishing touch.
To make a heart-shaped breakfast for two, start by picking a few heart-shaped recipes, such as pastries or pancakes, then use a cookie cutter to punch out more hearts from slices of fruit, cheese or toast to add to the spread. Using a heart cookie cutter set with different sizes means you can make various dishes, from a large heart-shaped egg in a hole to bite-sized hearts cut from small slices of melon or apple. You can also make a more rustic heart-shaped breakfast by arranging sliced fruits, nuts and seeds into a heart atop an oatmeal, yogurt or smoothie bowl.
To make a breakfast board for Valentine’s Day, combine a mixture of sweet and savory breakfast classics, like crispy bacon, waffles, fruit, yogurt, syrups and jam, making sure at least some of these items are red or pink in the spirit of the day. You can pick a theme (like a pancake or bagel board) or just combine all your sweetheart’s or family’s favorites. If there are hot items, keep some in a warm oven and replenish the board periodically.
If you need some easy or quick Valentine’s Day breakfast recipes, consider a small-batch pancake recipe that makes just enough for two or a no-cook yet festive option like fruit-glazed doughnut holes that start with store-bought doughnuts. You can shortcut a homemade muffin recipe by starting with a mix, or pick up prepared crepes to stuff with strawberries and homemade whipped cream. If the mornings are super hectic, try a breakfast casserole recipe that you can assemble the day before and just pop in the oven when you get up.
