Baked Breakfast Eggs

Here's another winner from Good Mood Food: Simple Healthy Homecooking, the fabulous new cookbook from the author of The Good Mood Food Blog, Donal Skehan.

I'm always on the lookout for new recipes to serve for breakfast, or more importantly, brunch. (yes, we will have another brunch on the ranch! I promise!) This one looks great, and I happened to have all the ingredients on hand. I also want to test this recipe for it's Make Ahead-ability, but I'll report back on that one later.

Right now, I'm hungry! I only made one egg, and it was easy. I almost threw another egg into my ramekin, because it looked a little sparse, but I wanted to see how it cooked up. I think another egg in the ramekin would be okay, but it would have definitely required more cooking time.

These eggs are delicious, and seem decadent--they taste like they took time to make. When my egg came out of the oven and I took the first bite (on artisan bread toast with butter, of course), H-Bomb must have smelled it. He came over for a look, saw the spinach (which he loves, thank you Popeye!), and went to grab his own spoon. He said it was yummy!

With the technique of baking eggs, the possibilities are limitless! The recipe reminded me of a couple other baked egg recipes we've got here, Baked Eggs and Mushrooms in Ham Crisps and Ina's Herb-Baked Eggs. The Ham Crisp recipe is definitely the most impressive, but all three of these recipes are delicious and company-worthy.

I don't think making this for a crowd would be too difficult, if you could at least partially assemble the ramekins ahead of time...I will let you know.

not the best picture, I'll try harder next time!

Baked Breakfast Eggs
Makes 4 portions

4 free-range eggs
3 1/2 ounces goat cheese
2 large handfuls fresh spinach
4 slices cooked ham, diced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
Pinch of sea salt and freshly ground pepper

In a hot frying pan saute garlic for about 30 seconds in olive oil. Add the spinach and keep moving around the pan until it has wilted and become soft.

Remove from the heat and separate into four medium-sized ramekins. (I used a 7-ounce ramekin, which may be a bit big? but it worked)

Top with a sprinkling of diced ham and a slice of good quality goat cheese. (I crumbled mine)

Break an egg into each ramekin and season with sprinkle of salt and pepper.

Bake in the oven at 400 degrees F for 10-12 minutes or until the white of the egg is no longer transparent.

Serve with some crisp bread to dip into the rich, runny yolk.