Category Archives: Breakfast

BLT sandwich with egg-in-the-hole toast…

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Breakfast sandwich with heart shaped egg gifNothing says “I love you” more than a hot sandwich piled high with crispy bacon, creamy avocado slices, juicy tomatoes and topped with egg-in-a-hole toast (hit refresh to see the sandwich being built in the above gif). Am I right? If someone made me this sandwich I’d be a happy bunny indeed! And if my Mom happened to be visiting from the UK, I would totally be making her one of these for Mother’s Day.

This variation on the always delicious BLT sandwich adds avocado, cheese AND a runny-yolk egg to the mix. This would be a good cooking project for dads and kids to make for a Mother’s day breakfast. Kids can make the sandwich while dad deals with the cooking of the egg in the toast. Just don’t forget to clean up the kitchen…
BLT with avocado and runny yolk egg-in-the-hole toast - so deliciousCook the bacon until it’s your kind of crispy, in the meantime toast a piece of bread, butter it, add mayo, layer with lettuce, tomato slices, cheese and avocado. Using a sharp knife, cut a heart shape out of a second piece of bread and toast it using the bagel setting on your toaster (you only want to toast one side, the other will cook in the pan with the egg). Set aside the bacon and wipe out the pan. Add a little butter and/or vegetable oil to the pan. Cook the egg in the heart-shaped hole of the toast (cover the pan to set the top of the egg or broil for 20 seconds at the end) and enjoy!

heart shaped egg-in-the-hole BLT sandwich

  • Servings: 1 sandwich
  • Difficulty: fairly easy
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Ingredients:

2 slices of bread for toasting
A little butter and/or mayonnaise
A couple of lettuce leaves
A few slices of tomato
A slice of your favorite cheese
1/4 avocado
4 slices of bacon (or more or less depending on your love of bacon)
1 tbsp butter or oil for frying the egg/bread

Directions:

  1. Cook the bacon (in a pan or under the broiler)
  2. Meanwhile, toast 1 slice of bread. Spread with butter and/or mayo
  3. Layer toast with lettuce, tomato, cheese, sliced avocado
  4. Using a very sharp knife, cut a heart shape out of the 2nd piece of bread. If you have a cookie cutter that’s the right size you can use that instead. You want to press very firmly with the knife to avoid ripping the bread
  5. Use the bagel setting to toast one side of the bread
  6. Crack an egg onto a saucer (you want to make sure you are using an egg with an unbroken yolk)
  7. Set aside the cooked bacon to drain on some paper towels and wipe out the pan. Add the butter/oil to the pan, once it’s melted (low-medium heat), gently place the bread in with the toasted side up/non-toasted side down.
  8. Gently pour the egg into the heart shaped hole. Cook until the egg is your preferred level of done. It can help to put a lid on the pan to cook the top of the egg (or hold the pan under the broiler for 10-20 seconds right at the end).
  9. Using a fish slice, slice the egg/toast out of the pan and top your sandwich with it!

You can also mix a little sriracha into the mayo or add a few red pepper flakes if you like things spicy. This is definitely a knife and fork and extra napkins kind of sandwich!
Piled-high BLT with avocado, cheese and runny yolk egg-in-the-hole

Eggs En Cocotte

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What does your perfect Sunday morning look like? Mine involves sleeping late, a delicious breakfast involving eggs, a pot of coffee for Paul, maybe a mimosa for me and the newspapers.

Eggs en cocotte, eggs nestled in a creamy spinach and ham casserole

Eggs en cocotte or Oeufs en cocotte (to be more correct) is a decadent little egg breakfast dish that’s just right for such a morning. Fresh eggs with runny yellow yolks cozily nestled in a bed of bubbling hot sautéed spinach and flavorful ham bound together by a creamy sauce with just a hint of garlic and cheese. I like to scoop up the spinach and ham, slather it on toast points and then dip into the egg yolk.

Don’t let the name make you think it’s some super complicated recipe.
Ouefs = Eggs
En Cocotte = In a casserole
So it’s basically just baked eggs, but bonus points if you call everyone to the table by announcing “Oeufs en cocotte sont prêt!” with your best French pronunciation 😉 You can use any small oven-proof dish, a ramekin works well or you could be more literal and use one of those cute baby Le Creuset or Staub Dutch ovens.

How to make eggs en cocotte with ham and spinach

Think of this recipe as more of a suggestion or starting point for your egg baking addiction because I’m guessing you won’t only make this once! I like to pair a really tasty baked ham (Niman Ranch Jambon Royale for example) with nutritious spinach but you can swap the ham for crispy cooked bacon or skip it for extra veggies if you’re not a meat eater. If you’re not a fan of spinach, consider sautéed mushrooms, wilted kale, baked zucchini slices, a tangle of caramelized onions, ripe tomatoes – so many possibilities!

If you’re feeling particularly lazy you can skip making the rich creamy sauce and just drizzle in a little heavy cream but I promise it’s worth the extra 5 minutes. 

I’m rating this recipe medium difficulty because there’s a slightly tricky part in deciding when the eggs are done baking. You can’t stick a thermometer in the egg (unless you want to burst the yolk) and even though I’ve included cooking times it’s going to vary according to the depth of your ramekins, the exact size of your eggs and the accuracy of your oven), you’ll have to jiggle the dishes to judge the level of done. I’ve found that sometimes by the time the egg whites have cooked then yolk is also cooked through but swapping the last few minutes of baking for broiling stops this happening.

eggs en cocotte or baked eggs

  • Servings: 2 people
  • Difficulty: medium
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Ingredients:

Small piece of butter
~4 oz spinach (use more than you think, it wilts down to nothing!)
4 slices of good ham
1 cup heavy cream
1 garlic clove
~1 tbsp grated cheese – parmesan or gruyere
2 eggs

You’ll need small dishes/ramekins/baby Dutch ovens to cook the eggs in, plus a baking tray or dish large enough to hold the ramekins in their hot water bath.

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and put kettle/pan of water on to boil.
  2. Melt small knob of butter in pan, quickly cook spinach until just wilted.
  3. While spinach cooks, butter ramekins (so ham and spinach doesn’t stick) and layer ham on the bottom (taste the ham and if it’s salty you can reduce your seasoning as you cook).
  4. Add cooked spinach on top of ham leaving a hollow in the middle for the eggs.
  5. Wipe out pan (or else you’ll have green sauce). Gently crush a peeled garlic clove with the side of a knife (you want to just break the clove open to add just a hint of garlic).
  6. Add cream and garlic to pan over a high heat, add a pinch of salt (less if your ham is salty) and fresh ground black pepper and bring to the boil. Watch carefully as cream has a tendency to boil over, just lift pan from heat if this happens. Bubble furiously, stirring constantly and scraping down edges for ~5 minutes until cream has thickened. If you scrape your spoon across the pan you should see a trail in the cream. Remove from heat. Remove the garlic and add a little grated cheese (parmesan or gruyere) and stir to combine.
  7. Divide cream between the dishes and add a fresh egg to each one. If you’re a nervous egg cracker, crack egg onto small saucer first to check you haven’t broken the yolk and then slide into hollow.
  8. Put the egg dishes into the larger baking dish and pour in boiling water around the dishes so the water level is about halfway up the side (the water helps to cook the eggs more gently). Pop in 350 degree oven for ~10 minutes until the spinach is bubbling hot and the egg whites are just starting to turn opaque. Turn on the broiler (keep a constant watch!) and broil for 1-3 minutes so the eggs are just cooked with the yolk still runny (of course you can cook them for longer if you prefer a fully cooked yolk). The dishes will be super hot so be careful getting them out of the water bath.

Serve with hot buttered toast soldiers (strips of toast perfect for dipping).

Hot buttered toast points dipped in the egg yolk of eggs en cocotte with ham and spinach

Breakfast “pizza”

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Good morning! I don’t know about you but it’s most definitely a snow day here in Maine. Yup, it’s the second day of spring and the ground is blanketed with a thick layer of fluffy snow. I work from home and most days I can be found sat at the computer in my PJs. The best part about snow days? It’s totally acceptable to stay in your PJs and eat a late breakfast to fuel the shoveling.
Naan flatbread with gruyere cheese, spinach, bacon and fried eggs

I’m a bad New Englander and we’re all out of bread (although we do have milk) but luckily I always have a couple of packages of these Stonefire naan breads in the freezer for emergency breakfast pizza situations. Bacon, egg and cheese seem like prerequisites for breakfast and then I added spinach because adding spinach makes everything healthy and low-calorie right?

This is a super easy and tasty breakfast, perfect for two people. You simply cook up bacon, wilt spinach, fry eggs, and layer it all on your flatbread which is made toasty warm in the oven with a generous layer of melty-cheese.
How to make breakfast pizza - crispy bacon, wilted spinach and fried eggs
How to make breakfast pizza, layer gruyere cheese, wilted spinach, crispy bacon and top with fried eggs

Breakfast Pizza

  • Servings: 1 very greedy person or 2 people
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:
1 pizza base or naan or flatbread
~2oz cheese – gruyere or cheddar work well
6-8oz smoked bacon ~half a package
1.5 tbsp butter
~3oz of baby spinach
2 eggs

Directions:
1. Grate cheese. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Saute bacon over a low-medium heat in a non-stick frying pan, turning regularly until golden brown and crispy. Remove bacon and set aside to drain on a paper-towel lined plate. Carefully wipe out pan to remove the majority of the hot bacon fat.
3. Add 1/2 tbsp of butter to frying pan and cook baby spinach until wilted. Drain any excess liquid and set aside. Wipe out pan (do this well unless you want green eggs).
4. Add remaining 1 tbsp butter and fry eggs to personal preference (sunny side up for me! You could also poach them, I was being lazy and doing everything in one pan to minimize washing up)
5. While eggs cook, scatter grated cheese over flatbread, add spinach and bacon and pop in oven (on baking tray/cookie sheet) for 5 minutes. You can leave two little hollows for your eggs if you like.
6. Take flatbread out of oven and add eggs. Enjoy!

Quick and easy breakfast pizza with stonefire naan, bacon, spinach, cheese and sunny side up eggs