Egg-n-Bread

I love a good cast iron skillet. This was not always the case. For a long time, I felt they were fussy, since you can’t actually use soap to clean them, have to make sure they are dried properly, and have to heat them with oil to season them from time to time. I eventually broke down and tried using cast iron, and I have to say I liked it more than I thought I would. The skillet would heat up nice and even, the food got a good crisp on it and it was sort of cool using cookware folks a long time ago may have used. I was still not a huge fan of the cleanup process, but like with most things in life, I find that if you just do it without complaint it is done and over with. And honestly, if the worst thing that happens in my day is that I have to hand wash cast iron, I would say that is a pretty darn good day, right?

So what does this have to do with Egg-n-Bread? Well you can make the fun and magic of this recipe in any skillet you have that can fit a slice of bread, but there is something about how the butter sizzles on the cast iron and how nice and golden the bread gets that doesn’t happen in quite the same way on a non-cast iron skillet. For this recipe I highly recommend using cast iron if you have it.

We have been making this tasty egg dish for years and called it “Toads in a Hole”. Somewhere along the line we were informed that what we were making is commonly called “Eggs in a Basket”. I decided to make it simple and just called this what it was, egg and bread. I will say no matter what you call it or what skillet you use, the end result is always the same. Simple, good food that fills your belly and is easy to make. This one also happens to be fun to eat too!

Egg-n-Bread

Prep Time: 5 minutes | Total Time: 10 minutes | Makes: 1 Egg-in-Bread

Ingredients

• 1 slice sandwich bread (any type is fine)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tablespoon of cold, unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon shredded cheese (more or less to taste)
• salt, to taste
• pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Using a round cookie cutter or a knife, cut a circle in the center of the piece of bread, ensuring the circle is large enough to crack an egg in and reserving the cut out circle
2. Heat a cast iron skillet over medium low heat until a drop of water tossed into the skillet sizzles
3. Add the butter and melt, swirling the butter to coat the skillet
4. Place the piece of bread with the circle cut out into the skillet
5. Gently crack the egg and slowly place the egg into the cut out center of the bread
6. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until egg has set and does not run
7. Gently flip the bread and egg over, ensuring the egg does not run from the center
8. Sprinkle cheese over bread and egg and cook for 1-3 minutes more, or until cheese just begins to melt and egg is full cooked
9. Remove bread and egg from skillet and if you would like bread for dipping the yoke in, place the cut out circle in the skillet, allowing it to brown for 1-2 minutes per side
10. Season egg with salt and pepper and serve with browned circle for dipping.

Tips

• The recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of shredded cheese or to taste, but I will say that if you add too much cheese, it will not melt much in the time it takes the egg to finish cooking. If you allow it remain on the skillet to melt all the cheese, you may burn your bread and overcook the egg. While I am usually a huge fan of too much cheese, in this case, don’t go crazy!
• If you have a larger skillet and can keep an eye on two things at once, you may add the circle of bread to the skillet when you flip the bread and egg to toast it while you finishing up cooking the egg. For me, this took some practice as I would focus on the bread and forget to add the cheese, overcook the egg or burn the circle of bread when I was removing the egg and bread from the pan so do what works best for you!