Shirred Eggs( Baked Eggs)
Shirred eggs are nothing but baked eggs upgraded to a more elegant dish by adding a dash of cream and a little cheese. The result is a gooey creamy custard like egg, perfect to scoop with crusty toast. While the classic one is good as such, I have included a few more interesting variations.
I have always been a savory breakfast person. Give me anything with eggs, I am sorted. My post-workout breakfast has been sourdough with scrambled egg and a good drizzle of chili oil on top for years.. This baked egg recipe is anything but simple. You can pull off this fancy-looking breakfast with just three ingredients in less than 5 minutes of prep. Makes for an excellent breakfast or a leisurely Sunday brunch. You can’t resist scooping out the gooey egg with a piece of crusty bread.
Bake in individual ramekins and serve right in them. It is cute and convenient to serve in individual ramekins. The base version is just cream, cheese, and eggs. Pour cream, top it with cheese of your choice (I like to top sharp cheddar or gruyere cheese), and break an egg. Bake it until the egg is just set. It’s that simple? Now I am wondering, should I even right down the recipe for this?
Ingredients in Shirred (Baked) Eggs
- Eggs– Fresh large organic eggs.
- Heavy cream – It adds moisture to the eggs so that egg don’t get overcooked and also gives a custard-like consistency.
- Cheese – I prefer gruyere or parmesan. When there is already egg and cream, cheese will only make these shirred eggs better.
- Salt and pepper
Here are a few variations to make it interesting
Cream, cheese, and egg, that’s all you need to make the classic version. But you can make it interesting by adding different add-ons.
- Crispy Bacon – Who doesn’t love the duo of eggs and Bacon? Just add 1 tablespoon of crispy bacon to the ramekin, followed by the rest of the ingredients.
- Cherry Tomatoes – Blister 4-5 cherry tomatoes in 1 teaspoon olive oil, add minced garlic, and Italian seasoning. Add it to the ramekins, followed by egg cream mixture.
- Roasted veggies – The best way to add any leftover veggies. You can add veggies like onion, peppers, mushrooms, and spinach. Chop the veggies and cook in a teaspoon of oil until it is 3/4th cooked. Add up to 2 tablespoons of roasted veggies to the ramekins.
How long to bake shirred eggs in the oven?
Lightly butter the ramekins. Break an egg into the ramekins. Gently sprinkle cream without much disturbing the egg, and sprinkle cheese. 10 minutes is enough to bake eggs to get a gooey consistency. If you would like to cook it through, it will take 2-3 minutes more to be well done.
Many recipes call for baking the eggs in a water bath. If you are baking a big batch, then it’s good to use a water bath so that everything cooks evenly.
Can you freeze baked eggs in Oven?
This recipe is best to have hot gooey eggs straight out of the oven. If you store it in the refrigerator, you can have it as a cold dish which tastes quite good too. But for that, it is advisable to cook it through and then store it in the refrigerator. We do not want to store under-cooked eggs.
This is a good recipe to pre-cook something over a weekend and have it as a weekday cold savory breakfast. This can be stored for up to 3 days in the refrigerator. You can keep in the ramakins itself.
Other protein-rich breakfast
Baked Eggs
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon Cream
- 2 tablespoon Sharp Cheese
- 1 large egg
- Butter to coat ramekins
- Salt and pepper to taste
Variation-1 (With Bacon)
- 1 tablespoon Chopped Crispy Bacon
Variation-2 ( Roasted Vegetables)
- ½ teaspoon Oil
- 2 button Mushroom
- 2 tablespoon peppers
- ¼ minced garlic
- salt & pepper
Variation-3 Cheery Tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 4-5 cherry tomatoes
- ¼ teaspoon Italian Seasoning
- salt & pepper
Instructions
- If adding any of the fillings, prepare it first.
- For roasted vegetables – To the hot oil, add minced garlic followed by chopped veggies. Cook 4-5 minutes until the veggies are almost cooked and not much liquid in it.
- For Italian Cheery Tomatoes- heat oil. Add Cherry tomatoes, toss it on high heat until you see blisters. Carefully smash the cherry tomatoes with the back of the spoon. Sprinkle Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.
- For Crispy Bacon – Chopp 2 strips of bacon, chop it, and cook until crisp.
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Brush the inside of the ramekin with butter.
- If adding any of the fillings (mentioned above), add to the ramekin first.
- Slowly pour the cream, add shredded cheese.
- Top it with a cracked egg. Sprinkle salt and pepper.
- Place ramekin on a rimmed baking tray. Slowly pour hot water upto 1 inch height.
- Carefully place the baking tray inside the oven. Bake for 10-12 minutes, depending on preferred doneness of egg.
- Sprinkle chopped parsley/chive on top.
These were delicious, but I would agree with the previous comment about baking time…mine took almost 5-6 min. longer to bake! Loved the taste, though, and will certainly make these again! Just wonder if the water and the baking pan is necessary. Have you tried just placing the crocks on the oven racks to bake?
I’ve made these a few times and while they’re delicious I find that I have to bake them 5-10 minutes longer than the recipe calls for. If not then the whites are runny, but then my yolks always end up slightly over done.