Baked Eggs

You've had fried eggs, boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, maybe even poached eggs, but have you tried baked eggs?

I love eggs.  They are a regular in my diet because they are extremely cheap, nutritious, and versatile.  I'm always looking for new ways of cooking them.

I first got the idea to bake eggs from Jamie Oliver (his recipe here).  Then last week I watched Ina Garten do it the other day (her recipe here) so I thought I would give it a try.

Also, it gave me the perfect excuse to use these cute little au gratin dishes that I bought from Crate & Barrel awhile ago and haven't really used aside from making individual chicken pot pies once.

As usual, I looked up a bunch of different recipes and made my own based on what I had at the moment.  In the end, I think it tasted good, but I left it in the oven a little too long as the egg was pretty solid by the time I dug into it with my toast.  I haven't quite perfected this technique yet but I plan to keep experimenting with it.  The trick is to make sure the whites are fully cooked but not too solid and that the yolk is thick but still slightly runny.

Here is what I did:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Rub the bottom of your dish with olive oil or butter (you can use a mug or a muffin pan if you don't have an au gratin dish).  Crack 2 eggs into the dish.  Sprinkle with any seasonings you want.  I used some salt, pepper, parsley, and paprika.  I also put some flakes of parmesan cheese on top.  Pop in the oven and cook for 5-10 minutes until the eggs are set to your liking.  I also recommend sticking a piece of bread in the oven at the same time so it gets toasty and warm.  I used Trader Joe's tuscan bread.

Some variations to try:
-Ina Garten preheated the dish in the oven with butter and cream so when she cracked the eggs in, they immediately started to cook.  Then she placed them under the broiler with some garlic and cheese on top.  -Jamie Oliver added spinach and cream to his.  I think that's probably the secret to a perfectly cooked egg and something I will consider when experimenting:  low and slow.

oo,