Creamy Baked Eggs

An impressive breakfast or brunch dish that’s deceptively filling. Perfectly cooked eggs are encased in a creamy, cheesy sauce, topped with more cheese and baked to golden brown perfection.

Servings

4 Servings

PREP TIME

5 mins

COOK TIME

25 mins

TOTAL TIME

30 mins + 10 mins rest

Difficulty

Easy

Wine pairing

Champagne, Prosecco

Ingredients
 20 g butter
 4 eggs, fridge-cold
 2 garlic cloves, crushed
 150 g mushrooms, sliced
 100 g spinach, roughly chopped
 1.50 tsp plain flour
 ⅔ cup cream, divided
 ⅓ cup grated parmesan
 ⅓ cup grated gruyere
 ½ tsp dried thyme leaves
 2 tbsp chives, chopped
 salt and pepper, to serve
 crusty bread, to serve
Ingredients
 1 tbsp butter
 4 eggs, fridge-cold
 2 garlic cloves, crushed
 5 oz mushrooms, sliced
 3.50 lbs spinach, roughly chopped
 1.50 tsp plain flour
 ⅔ cup cream, divided
 ⅓ cup grated parmesan
 ⅓ cup grated gruyere
 ½ tsp dried thyme leaves
 2 tbsp chives, chopped
 salt and pepper, to serve
 crusty bread, to serve
  • Spinach and mushrooms are optional but give the meal some extra substance.
  • Gruyere adds amazing flavour, but you could use all parmesan (or all gruyere) depending on what you have on hand. 
  • The crusty bread for dunking is necessary! Use a good quality loaf such as ciabatta or sourdough. 

Directions

1

Make the cream and mushroom mixture

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160°C / 320°F fan forced (or 180°C / 350°F conventional) and grease 4 ramekins.

2. Heat the butter in a small pot over low-medium heat. Once melted, add the mushrooms, garlic and thyme. Stir occasionally until the mushrooms have softened and released their juices, about 4 minutes.

3. Sprinkle flour over the mushrooms and stir through. Cook for 1 minute.

4. Add half of the cream and all of the parmesan and spinach. Stir through and cook until the mixture has thickened and the spinach has wilted, about 5 minutes.

2

Bake the eggs

1. Divide the cream mixture between the 4 ramekins, and crack a fridge-cold egg into each, being careful not to break the yolk.

2. Top each ramekin with the remaining cream and then top with the gruyere.

3. Place the ramekins on a baking tray and then into the oven. Bake for:

  • 12 minutes for runny yolks (first image below)
  • 14 minutes for well-cooked eggs with soft yolks (second image below)

Then, grill for up to 5 minutes or until the cheesy top has turned golden brown.

4. Remove the ramekins from the oven and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.

Tip: The creamy eggs will appear very wobbly when you remove them from the oven, but they will continue cooking as they stand. They’re way too hot to eat directly from the oven, so they need to stand for at least 10 minutes.

5. While the eggs are standing, toast or grill the bread and then butter it.

6. Before serving, top eggs with salt flakes and cracked pepper and a sprinkling of chopped chives.

Wine pairing

This dish is incredibly rich, and given that it’s a breakfast/brunch meal, the best pairing would be a Champagne or Blanc de Blanc sparkling wine, which has some body and flavour to hold up against the creaminess of these baked eggs.