Prep Ahead

There are a number of things you can entirely prepare ahead—one more step toward a calm breakfast. Cakes and muffins like the Chocolate Chunk Muffins, the Chocolate Almond Muffins, the Old-Fashioned Coffee Cake, and the Pear Whole-Wheat Crumb Cake you can make, pan up, then refrigerate overnight and just pop right into the oven. A few cakes and muffins hold up so well overnight that you can mix and bake them off the day before you want to serve them, such as the Pear Ginger Muffins, Zucchini Muffins, and Banana Poppy Seed Muffins. Cobblers can be put together the night before and placed in the fridge ready to be baked in the morning. Things that are frozen, like biscuits, scones, galettes, crostatas, and turnovers can be made days, even weeks, ahead. Just transfer to your refrigerator the night before to defrost and bake from that very-cold-but-no-longer-frozen state. With savory dishes and sandwiches, you can cook a lot of the elements the night before. Then in the morning it’s simple to throw something wonderful together in much less time. Use these tricks, and you can easily throw together an insane spread without having to wake up at 3 A.M.