10 recipes
Breakfast
A Belgian waffle is thick and crisp outside, light and almost custardy inside, with deep pockets that hold butter and syrup. The lift comes from egg whites whipped on their own and folded in, so this is the recipe that teaches you to whip and fold, two skills you'll use again in cakes, soufflés and mousse.
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Breads
A good blueberry muffin is tall, tender and crackly on top, with berries all the way through. This one teaches restraint: a lumpy batter, a few quick folds and a hot oven do more for you than any special ingredient.
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Breakfast
Buttermilk and blueberries belong together: the tang sharpens the fruit, and the acid gives the batter an extra lift. This recipe teaches the one move that keeps blueberry pancakes from turning gray-purple and lopsided: the berries go onto the batter in the pan, not into the bowl.
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Breakfast
A breakfast burrito is three small jobs, crisp potatoes, browned sausage and soft eggs, timed to land in a warm tortilla together. It teaches you to run two pans at once and to roll a burrito that holds, and it freezes well, so one batch can cover the week.
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Breads
Tall, flaky biscuits come down to three habits: cold butter, a light hand and a hot oven. Once those are yours, you can have a pan of biscuits on the table any morning from flour, butter and buttermilk.
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Breakfast
French toast turns bread that's a day past its prime into breakfast. It teaches two things you'll use far beyond this dish: making a simple custard, and cooking something egg-rich gently enough that the center sets before the outside burns.
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Breakfast
Homemade granola lets you decide the sweetness, the salt and the size of the clusters. The secret to big, crunchy clumps is simple: press the mix flat, bake it low, and leave it alone while it cools.
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Breakfast
Fried eggs on warm corn tortillas, with creamy beans underneath and a cooked tomato and chile sauce spooned around them. Everything here is simple on its own; the dish comes together because each part is seasoned and hot at the same moment. It teaches charring vegetables for a salsa, frying the salsa to deepen it, and cooking eggs under a lid.
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Breakfast
Stir this together at night and breakfast is waiting when you open the refrigerator. The oats never see heat: cold milk and yogurt soften them slowly while you sleep. Your whole job is the ratio and the seasoning, so the jars come out creamy and spoonable, neither pasty nor soupy.
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Breakfast
A pot of oatmeal is a few minutes of easy stirring, and it teaches three moves you'll use far beyond breakfast: toasting a grain in fat, cooking starch to a creamy set, and salting the liquid early. Made this way, it tastes like toasted oats and warm milk, not paste.
View recipe · 4 servings