In my ideal world I make breakfast everyday. In my ideal world, I have already reached 80 breakfasts many times over. I wake up at dawn and putter around the kitchen, preparing delicious breakfasts in the sunrise’s golden glow.
But, as you are undoubtedly aware, neither you nor I live in an ideal world. Well, ok, perhaps you do, in which case, lucky you :) Over here though, breakfast plans are often pushed back in favor of a few more moments of sleep, late nights of work (or play), or simply not enough intersecting morning time between C’s schedule and mine. And although I truly do love early mornings in my heart, my body does not seem to love them as much. So most mornings, it’s out the door with C, and me settling to work with coffee and some sort of cereal or yogurt.
There are times, however, through fate, luck, or pure determination, I find myself in that ideal world. The sun is rising, coaxing me out of bed. Miraculously I get up at first bidding. It seems that the morning is just full of empty hours to fill. I have time to water the plants. The fridge is full of eggs and bacon. All those breakfast dishes and recipes I have tucked away seem to be right at the top of my mind, ready to spill out at the slightest provocation. When this happens I make sure to take full advantage!
I liked this dish at first sight – a savory tart (something I love but don’t get to eat often) that seemed to be created for a breakfast-lover (and a bacon and eggs lover!) just like me. Around the same time, I had also found ready-made puff pastry here (no, we didn’t always have ready-made puff pastry on our shelves). So it was practically begging to be made.
Bacon and Egg Pies
(adapted from Donna Hay’s Modern Classics I, page 158)
- 1 sheet ready-made puff pastry (mine is 9.5 x 9.5 inches, you will have some scraps left over…use them for this!)
- 6 strips of bacon (Donna rationed 2 rashers per person, but I felt we deserved 3 each)
- 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese (Donna used cheddar)
- 1 – 1 1/2 teaspoons wholegrain mustard
- 4 eggs
- Preheat the oven to 200C (400F).
- Place bacon on a baking sheet and place in the pre-heated oven for about 8-10 minutes. You just want to get the edges a bit crisp. Remember you are going to be baking it again with the tart! When done, drain on paper towels.
- Thaw pastry (in my kitchen this takes two seconds so I make sure everything is ready before taking it out of the freezer) and cut to fit two 1-cup capacity pie dishes (I just used whatever I thought would fit).
- Spread mustard on the pastry bases and sprinkle with the cheese.
- Top this with three pieces of bacon for each pie. I like to curve them around so they will cradle the eggs.
- Break two eggs over each pie.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes or until the pastry is golden and the eggs have set to your liking. Serve immediately.
- Serves two.
I have scaled down the original recipe to serve 2 instead of 4 and made substitutions based on what was available (I’ve indicated most of them above).
What surprised me the most was how much C liked this. He hardly has breakfast, but when he does, he is more of the Pinoy Breakfast school – i.e. with rice. But he mmm’d and aah’d more than I expected and then, the final compliment, declared that it was “just like the picture!”. Since this was a Donna Hay recipe (with a corresponding Donna Hay picture), being “just like the picture” was a pretty nice pat on the back for me :)
Keep an eye on the eggs so if you like them runny you can be sure to pull them out before they set too much. The flavors of the mustard and cheese go so well with the eggs and bacon. The pastry makes it a perfect breakfast package. And the best part? It is extremely simple and quick to make (so you don’t actually have to have all that extra time in the morning)! A little reminder that even if you don’t live in an ideal world, you can still have an ideal breakfast :)