Ooof! I've learned another wonderful way to cook oeufs! Oeufs en Cocotte (Eggs Baked in Ramekins) are amazing!! Poached eggs have always been my favorite but these are definitely a close second. I recently received a box from Amazon and, of course, you just never know what kind of treasure might be hidden inside an Amazon box. It turns out that one of my favorite sister-in-laws decided to support my cooking habit and sent me a set of ramekins! Of course, there are some people who think that "ramekin" sounds like the name of a character in the latest Star Wars film but I can assure you, it isn't! Nice little souffle dishes that I'm finding are used several different ways in addition to souffles. The first way I tried using them was this breakfast dish and it was a great way to break them in!
I'm afraid I won't have much to write about this time because it was so easy and quick. Don't blink or you'll miss it! I started off by preheating the oven to 375 degrees (and remembering this time to not turn it off in the middle of cooking). While the oven was heating, I added enough water to a cast iron skillet to fill it about 3/4" deep and put it on the stove to bring the water to a boil and then reduced the heat to hold the temperature at a simmer. The water in the pan is important because it better distributes the heat on the ramekins while baking and prevents the egg's outer layer from getting tough.
The ramekins were buttered inside and then placed in the pan of simmering water. A tablespoon of cream was added to the bottom of each ramekin and allowed to heat. As soon as the cream was hot, an egg was added into each ramekin and another tablespoon of cream was added on top of the egg. A small dot of butter was added on top of that and it was ready to bake. There you have it, that was the hard part!
To bake the eggs, the pan with the water and ramekins was placed into the preheated oven and then left for seven to ten minutes. Julia said the eggs are done "when they are just set but still trembling slightly in the ramekins." ***PAUSE** I absolutely love it (said sarcastically) when Julia gives me qualitative doneness tests like this. How much trembling is the right amount of trembling to consider something done? In my vast experience (of this one time), everything looked pretty trembly to me but once the timer was past 12 minutes I knew the eggs should be finishing up. Here's today's tip: the top layer of cream in the ramekin will keep jiggling even after the egg are cooked. Once I had that realization it was time to take the eggs from the oven because they were indeed done (despite the jiggly layer of cream on top) and I could have/should have taken them out earlier.
I could have baked them for a couple of minutes less (I'm thinking about 8-9 minutes would have been perfect for how I like eggs) but these ended up being done to the point where the yolk was still gooey but not runny. Not bad for the first attempt. I served these eggs with a slice of leftover ham and a toasted English muffin. It was a wonderful surprise. I'll admit, I was a bit leery of taking the first bite because the cream had me thinking that the top was still pretty much raw egg white. How wrong I was! The cream mixed with each bite and was amazing. It reminded me of creamed eggs I had when I was a kid (chopped up hard boiled eggs mixed into a white sauce) so it actually brought back some neat memories along with the great taste.
This will be a future breakfast I'll be making frequently -- only takes about 15 minutes and I could do six at a time (that's all the ramekins I have). That means I can have everyone's breakfast ready simultaneously. Even though no light sabers or Jedi knights were involved, I can't wait to make these again...maybe tomorrow?
Bon Appetit!
He has his own little ramekins thanks to his best in-laws.