Eggs Baked with Breadcrumbs, Scallions & Cream

These are technically shirred eggs, which are eggs baked whole out of the shell. But since I don’t like the word shirred, I’m just calling these baked eggs. This recipe is based on another beauty from Marion Cunningham’s The Breakfast Book (I’ve said before that it’s a lovely book; I still mean it). I riffed on the original and added the toasted breadcrumbs and scallions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the easiest eggs this side of pie – oh wait, I already used that one. Well then, they’re as easy as a slap (that’s Czech, I looked it up online, it’s my new favorite “easy as” phrase, so expect to see it again). As Marion says, “Shirred eggs are a convenient dish to serve when you have invited a number of people over for breakfast; you might try cooking a number this way using buttered muffin tins instead of ramekins.” Fabulous advice, especially since they’re so pretty.

And creamy and good, so you will definitely want two for each person (the four pictured were gone in four minutes; I’ve clearly recovered from last night’s over-indulgence and in fact found these rather restorative). You could serve them with hot, buttered toast, but I think they don’t need it, given the buttered breadcrumbs at the bottom of the dish. Up to you, of course. John wished for crispy bacon as a side and that did make sense to me. Next time. (Tomorrow).

Eggs Baked with Breadcrumbs, Cream & Scallions
Adapted from a basic recipe by Marion Cunningham from The Breakfast Book
Makes 4 eggs (honestly, serves 2)

1 Tbsp. butter
1 c. fresh breadcrumbs (from approximately 2 slices of bread)
2 scallions, minced
salt and pepper
4 medium eggs
8 tsp. whipping cream (2 tsp. for each egg)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Melt butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Add breadcrumbs and a sprinkle of salt and stir around until nicely toasted and browned, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the minced scallions.

Put four small ramekins on a baking sheet. Divide the breadcrumb/scallion mixture among the ramekins. Crack one egg into each ramekin, then drizzle 2 tsp. of cream over each egg. Sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper. Put the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 12 minutes (or up to 15 minutes, which is how long it took for our eggs to no longer have any clear whites, yet still-runny yolks; but start peeking at 12 minutes – once they’re over-cooked, there’s obviously no going back…).

If you’re making toast and/or bacon, do it while the eggs bake, because you’ll want to eat them immediately (they continue to cook in the hot ramekin).