Egg in a Biscuit

Welcome to another Recipe Swap!

As a kid, did you ever swing so high on the playground swings that you felt you might fly out of your seat or come jolting down from the thrill of it all? Wasn't that the point of swinging? All cylinders of my life kicked in last month, and I am making decisions about whether to sleep or return emails. That's native territory for me, but the kitchen is usually my refuge. It is my place where time slows down, where methods and thoughts become deliberate. Not so, this month. Our swap this month was an amusing recipe called Ham Snails. I loved the idea of rolling up what is essentially biscuit dough with a layer of filling. My play on it was to cut out a hole in the middle of a biscuit, and drop an egg in, and bake. The idea was lovely. It was a tasty, herby, hammy breakfast. But, it was not the breakfast I hoped for this morning.

Egg in a biscuit.

Let me explain.

After eating hotel food for the past three weeks and living out of a suitcase (work), sometimes even the blog *gasp* takes a back seat to life. This, my first breakfast back in my own kitchen, happens to be documented, but it isn't food-blog perfect; set, staged and photographed for the social media masses' delight. It was my breakfast, probably like a lot of other people's breakfasts this morning.

I started with biscuit dough.

Do not molest your dough.

Then, I made biscuits with a hole cut out in the middle and tucked a layer of prosciutto in the hole, and cracked in an egg. I baked, I photographed from my iPhone, I ate, I caught up on emails. It was a great morning, mostly because it was at home in my own kitchen.

Not shown: prosciutto. It's hiding under the eggs.

The recipe? Use any standard buttermilk biscuit dough recipe that makes about 12 3" biscuits and add a couple of extra tablespoons of buttermilk to it, making this a very wet dough. (You'll need to compensate for how long the egg needs to bake.) I have my favorite and wouldn't dare try to improve upon a traditional buttermilk biscuit. To it, add 2 Tbsp of chopped chives. Pat them out on a well-floured board, and cut into rounds using a 4" cookie cutter. Then, using a 2" round cutter, cut the middle out. You'll get about six large biscuits and the middles from this process. Transfer the doughnut-looking biscuits to an oiled sheet pan and reshape. Add a half a slice of prosciutto into the middle hole, sprinkle a pinch of chopped shallots in, crack an egg on top, and bake at 400F for 16 minutes or until the egg is set. Serve immediately.

So, this isn't a recipe post, per se, as much as it is a slice of life. Sometimes, it's busy, and the leisurely task of blogging doesn't fit very well between laundry, shower, gym, sleep, work, shower, repeat. But that's okay, there's always a new day, and a new opportunity to hit the "publish" button.

Please check out everyone's takes on the same vintage recipe below!