Breakfast may be our most neglected meal. Often eaten on the run or forgotten all together, we only ever give it our attention on the weekends or when we’re having guests. Having children does necessitate breakfasts during the week, but such dishes as popovers or eggs with Burgundian red wine sauce, might have to await more exalted occasions. Here are few of the easier classics, each with its own twist.
A batch of scones is fairly easy to throw together. It helps to have a pastry blender to cut through the slices of cold butter.
Makes 6 scones
2¼ cups flour
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
¾ cup small or diced dried fruit, such as apricots, cherries, raisins, or currants
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup cold (1½ sticks) butter, sliced
1 cup milk
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, dried fruits, and salt in a mixing bowl. Add the butter and cut into it with a pastry blender or the rounded edge of pastry scraper until the butter is the size of small peas. Add the milk and continue cutting into the mixture with the pastry blender until the butter is the size of peas. Turn the mixture out onto a work surface and knead just long enough to moisten all the flour, no more than a minute or two or you’ll make it tough. If the mixture threatens to get warm (which would cause the butter to melt), put it in the refrigerator.
Flatten the mixture into a disk about 1 inch thick. Cut the disk into six wedges and set the wedges on an ungreased baking sheet, at least a half inch apart.
Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the pale golden brown. Let cool and serve at room temperature.
Essentially pie dough with a little baking soda and buttermilk in it, biscuits make a perfect accompaniment to roast meats. The baking soda, combined with the buttermilk, causes the biscuits to leaven. Despite being rich in themselves, they’re irresistible at breakfast (or at dinner) with a couple of pats of butter slid into the center.
Makes 8 biscuits
1½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold butter, thinly sliced
⅔ cup buttermilk
Preheat the oven to 450°F.
In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the butter and cut it in using a pastry blender or the rounded edge of a pastry blender until the butter is the size of small peas. Add the buttermilk and stir just long enough to moisten the flour.
Turn the dough out onto a work surface and flatten it into a disk about ⅔-inch thick. If it falls apart, knead it slightly to get it to come together. Use a 2½-inch fluted cookie cutter to cut it into biscuits. Gather up the scraps, flatten them out, and cut out more biscuits. Place the rounds on an ungreased baking sheet about ½ inch apart.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve hot.
These little cakes are really half cake, half custard. You’ll need 5- or 6-ounce ramekins.
Makes 6 breakfast servings
1 pint fresh blueberries
1 cup flour
½ cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup milk
½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted
Pinch of salt
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Divide the blueberries evenly among six 5- to 6-ounce ramekins.
Combine the flour, sugar, eggs, and ½ cup of the milk and work it with a whisk to make a smooth paste. Work in the remaining ½ cup of milk, the butter, and the salt. Pour the batter over the berries in the ramekins, dividing it evenly.
Place the ramekins on a baking sheet and bake for about 30 minutes, until puffed. Serve warm with the whipped cream for dolloping on top.
Don’t panic, this cake has nothing to do with the kind of fruitcake that gets passed around during the holidays; it’s just that it’s made with fruit, hence the name. The great thing about this cake is its versatility. You can use virtually any fruit you like, but stone fruits and berries seem to work the best.
Makes 8 breakfast servings
2 peaches or nectarines, cut into wedges; or 4 plums, cut into wedges; or 1 pint berries
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup (1 stick) cold butter, sliced
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan.
Distribute the fruit in an even layer in the bottom of the pan.
In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar on high speed for 2 minutes. Switch to the whisk attachment and beat for 3 minutes more at high speed. Scrape down the sides of the mixer every minute with a rubber spatula. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Add the flour mixture and beat just long enough to eliminate lumps. Spread the batter (it’s thick) over the fruit in the springform pan. Place on a baking sheet.
Bake for about 45 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow to cool to room temperature and sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar. If you’d like to invert this cake by turning it out onto a serving plate, go ahead. In any case, remove the pan before serving.
My sister-in-law, Cindy Peterson, swears by this easy-to-make banana bread. One tip: make sure you thoroughly crush the bananas before mixing in the rest of the ingredients.
Makes 1 loaf, about 10 servings
4 small, very ripe bananas
1½ cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg, lightly beaten
4 tablespoons butter, melted
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour an 8- by 4-inch loaf pan.
In a large bowl, mash the bananas until pureed. Add the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and egg and whisk thoroughly—enough to make sure the baking soda is well distributed—but do not overwork. Gently stir in the butter. Transfer the batter to the buttered loaf pan.
Bake for 30 minutes, or until the loaf bounces back to the touch or a toothpick stuck through the middle comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes and turn out onto a cake rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.
You can make this bread (it’s cake, really) with any dried fruit you like, but apricots work especially well. You can serve this bread as dessert (it’s best with a little ice cream or Flavored Whipped Cream) or nibble on it for breakfast.
Makes 1 loaf, about 10 servings
1 cup dried apricots, cut into ⅓-inch dice
1 cup flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup (1½ sticks) cold butter
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs, beaten
⅓ cup milk
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 1-quart (8- by 4-inch) loaf pan.
Pour boiling water over the apricots to cover. Let sit for 30 minutes, then drain.
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar on high speed for 2 minutes. Switch to the whisk attachment and beat for 3 minutes more. Scrape down the sides of the mixer every minute with a rubber spatula. Use a wooden spoon to stir in the vanilla, eggs, milk, the flour mixture, and the apricots and work just until smooth, but no more than necessary. Transfer the mixture to the prepared loaf pan and put the loaf pan on a baking sheet. It’s almost pro forma, but a baking sheet is always easier to take out of the oven instead of the loaf pan, which is hard to manipulate when it’s hot.
Bake for about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes, then turn out of the loaf pan onto a cake rack. Let cool slightly before slicing.
If you want a popover mold, look for a heavy, preferably cast-iron mold that will retain the heat and deliver it immediately to the batter. If you don’t have a popover mold, use a muffin pan.
Makes 8 large or 12 small popovers
1½ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
3 eggs
2 cups milk
6 tablespoons butter, melted
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
Butter, honey, or jam, to serve
In a bowl, stir together the flour and salt. Add the eggs and 1 cup of the milk and whisk until smooth. Stir in the remaining 1 cup of milk and the melted butter. Let rest for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 500°F. Transfer the batter into a pitcher to make it easier to pour it into the mold.
Slide the popover mold into the oven and give it 5 minutes to get hot. Working quickly, brush the mold with vegetable oil and immediately pour in enough batter to come two-thirds up the sides of each cup in the molds and slide the pan into the oven, keeping the oven door open as little as possible. The batter should immediately begin to rise. Bake for about 15 minutes, until the popovers have risen and turned golden brown, Turn the oven down to 300°F and bake for about 10 minutes more to dry them out in the centers.
Serve immediately with butter, honey, and jam.
Called pain perdu (lost bread) by the French, it’s easy to imagine that the whole idea of French toast was invented as a way to salvage bread that’s become hopelessly stale. Most of us associate French toast with breakfast, but it can also be served as dessert. It’s a real delight served with authentic maple syrup, but it can also be served with fresh fruit and/or whipped cream. One trick that always improves French toast, pancakes, and waffles is to heat the syrup by placing the bottle, with the lid loosened, in a saucepan of boiling water for 5 minutes.
Makes 4 dessert or breakfast servings
8 slices white sandwich bread, preferably slightly stale
3 eggs
1 cup milk
4 tablespoons butter, plus more to serve
Maple syrup (ideally hot, see box on Maple Syrup), Flavored Whipped Cream, and/or sliced strawberries or other fruit, to serve
If you like, cut the crusts off the bread. Beat together the eggs and milk and put the mixture in a baking dish or shallow bowl large enough to hold at least one slice of bread. Gently press a slice or more of bread into the beaten egg mixture until it has absorbed much of the mixture.
Melt half the butter in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add four of the slices in a single layer. Cook until golden brown on the bottom, about 6 minutes. Turn and repeat on the other side. Keep warm while preparing the remaining bread with the remaining butter. Serve on hot plates (heated in the oven or microwave, if they’re microwave safe).
It’s almost universal in breakfast places that serve pancakes, waffles, and French toast that the food is served nice and hot but then, sitting on the table, is a cold container of maple syrup that will guarantee cooling off your food almost immediately. To heat maple syrup, remove the lid, and set the whole bottle in a saucepan surrounded with water (but not so much that the bottle is unstable) and heat gently for 10 minutes or so.
These pancakes are leavened with baking powder. You can also use the waffle batter to make pancakes. The best breakfast pancakes really come into their own when you serve them with real maple syrup. Most “pancake” syrup is imitation and flavored with fenugreek. Try honey as a less expensive alternative to pure maple syrup.
Makes 12 medium pancakes; 4 breakfast servings
1½ cups flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1½ cups milk
3 eggs, beaten
Butter, for the griddle and to serve
Maple syrup or honey, to serve
In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir in just enough of the milk to make a thick, smooth paste. Stir in the rest of the milk and the eggs.
Over medium heat, melt about 1 tablespoon of butter on a griddle or in a 12-inch heavy-bottomed sauté pan, preferably nonstick or cast-iron. Ladle or pour enough of the batter into the pan to form a 5-inch pancake. Repeat with more batter so you have three pancakes in the pan. Cook until bubbles form on the tops of the pancakes and then begin to pop after about 10 minutes. Flip the pancakes and cook for about 2 minutes on the second side. Keep the pancakes warm in a low oven or on the back of the stove while you prepare the others.
Serve hot.
Most waffles are leavened with baking powder, but in this version, the eggs are separated and the beaten whites used as leavening.
Makes 4 large (or 16 small) waffles, enough for 4 servings
5 eggs, separated
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
½ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter, melted, plus more for waffle iron
Pinch of cream of tartar (optional)
Butter and maple syrup, to serve
In a bowl, combine the egg yolks, flour, and ½ cup of the milk. Stir to form a thick paste, then stir in the remaining ½ cup of milk. (Adding the milk in stages keeps lumps from forming.) Add the salt and the melted butter and stir until smooth.
In a large bowl, combine the egg whites with the cream of tartar (if you are not using a copper bowl. Beat the eggs until they form stiff peaks). Whisk one-quarter of the egg whites into the batter. Fold the rest of the whites into the batter.
Preheat the waffle iron over medium heat and brush it with melted butter. Ladle or pour on the batter and close the waffle iron. Cook according to the manufacturer’s directions, or until you notice batter trying to ooze out of the sides and turning brown. Open the iron and flip out or lift out the waffle. Repeat with the remaining batter. Keep the waffles warm in a low oven or on the back of the stove.
Serve hot.
There are two main styles of scrambled eggs, the laborious French method and the American method. The French method requires standing over a bain marie (water bath) or double boiler for 20 minutes, so here I’m giving the American method.
The one danger when making scrambled eggs is that they get too dry and stiff if you leave them too long. To help prevent this, add some heavy cream or milk to the eggs.
Makes 4 breakfast servings
8 eggs
½ cup heavy cream or milk
Salt
Pepper
In a bowl, beat the eggs and cream with a fork. Pour the mixture into a nonstick frying pan or in a seasoned skillet with a tablespoon of melted butter and set the pan over medium heat. Monitor the eggs and as soon as a layer of egg sets along the bottom of the pan, scrape it up with a wooden spoon. Repeat this process until the eggs have the consistency you like. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.
Making an omelet scares many cooks. It’s always a trick to get the eggs to cook through without overcooking the bottom. A rolled omelet is easier than the classic version.
Makes 1 omelet to serve one
2 or 3 eggs, warmed in the shell in a bowl of hot water
¼ cup heavy cream (optional)
2 tablespoons butter
Salt
Pepper
In a bowl, beat the eggs (and cream, if desired, for a more tender omelet) with a fork.
Melt the butter in a 10-inch nonstick pan over high heat and wait until it froths. As soon as the froth begins to diminish, pour in the eggs. Let the eggs set for about 20 seconds and pull the pan rapidly toward you while keeping it flat. This will cause the eggs that have set to flip back against the far end of the pan, clearing an area in the pan where more raw egg can set. Tilt the pan toward you so the egg covers the part of the pan that was uncovered by the jerking movement. Cook for 20 to 30 seconds more and repeat. Continue in this way until all the egg is used up and the omelet rolls up on itself.
Omelets can be filled in three ways. The filling can be rolled up in the omelet; the filling, usually herbs, can be beaten with the eggs; and last, a slit can be made along the finished omelet and the filling placed on top. The latter is especially good for luxurious ingredients, such as caviar or lobster, which would otherwise cook in the omelet.
There are times when nothing suits us better than a poached egg or two. It’s nice to have toasts to set the eggs on, and it makes an especially nice effect to make croutons (rounds of crispy toast) to serve as a base for the eggs. The trick with the croutons is to cook them in butter, which, in essence, waterproofs them so they don’t get soggy with the egg sitting on them.
When buying eggs for poaching, make sure they are fresh. If you hear liquid sloshing around when you shake an egg near your ear, the egg is old because liquid has evaporated and been replaced with air. When you crack an egg onto a plate, the white should hold around the yolk rather than running all over the plate.
Makes 2 breakfast servings
4 slices dense-crumb white bread
4 tablespoons butter, or more to taste
4 large eggs
Use a cookie cutter to cut out a round from each slice of bread (or use a knife and a small saucer as a guide). Make the rounds as large as possible without cutting through to the crust.
Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a frying pan over medium-low heat and gently fry the croutons on one side, until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Turn the croutons over and add the remaining 2 tablespoon of butter. If the butter is completely absorbed, feel free to add more. Continue sautéing until golden brown on the second side, about 2 minutes more, adding more butter as needed. Transfer the croutons to plates, two on each one.
Pour about 2 inches of water into a frying pan and toss in a small handful of salt. (Salt makes the eggs more buoyant and keeps them floating so that they don’t sink to the bottom of the pan where they may stick.) Bring the water to a simmer over high heat, adjust the heat to maintain at a low simmer, and crack in the eggs as close to the water’s surface as possible. If the eggs do sink to the bottom of the pan, don’t try to coax them up, or you’ll risk tearing them from the underside. Cook the eggs at the barest simmer for about 5 minutes, or until the whites have completely set. Use a slotted spoon to scoop out the eggs. While holding the egg in the slotted spoon, use a knife to cut around the eggs and remove the amorphous white that clings around the edges to yield a neatly formed egg. Gently touch the bottom of the spoon on a kitchen towel to absorb water on the egg. Place one egg on each crouton and serve.
Variation: Poached Eggs with Red Wine Sauce
It may sound incongruous to pour red wine sauce over poached eggs, but the somewhat stringent acidity of the sauce is perfectly balanced by the runny egg yolk. These eggs are versatile and can be served for breakfast (or brunch), lunch, or dinner. They would classically be served with red wine. Prepare the eggs as described above and top them with Burgundian Red Wine Sauce.
Boiling eggs is all about timing. There are those who argue that the eggs should go in the water before you start heating it and those who argue the eggs should go in once the water comes to a boil. I’m an adherent of the second method, only because it’s easier to time the eggs consistently. Here I give approximate cooking times, but you’re best off doing your own tests—the temperature of the eggs, the exact heat of the stove, the altitude where you live will all affect how long it takes the eggs to cook. Try serving boiled eggs with homemade croutons.
Bring a saucepan of water to a boil over high heat. Add the eggs and begin timing:
2 minutes: Completely runny, both white and yolk bordering on raw
3 minutes: White starting to set, yolk completely runny
4 minutes: White set, yolk runny (classic soft-boiled egg)
5 minutes: White set, yolk starting to thicken
6 minutes: Yolk completely set, but still shiny and liquid looking
8 minutes: Yolk starting to turn matt and opaque
10 minutes: Hard boiled. Egg-yolk mostly pale yellow and set and white is opaque
This is a versatile method for turning leftovers into a delightful brunch or light lunch dish. Dice leftovers, such as meat (roasts or pot roasts) or seafood (shrimp and crab are especially good), vegetables (such as creamed spinach, tomatoes, or olives), as well as cheese. Sprinkling the tops with Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese is a good topping for any flavor of baked egg except seafood. Serve one to three ramekins per person, but if you are planning to serve three to each, use medium instead of large eggs.
Makes 12 baked eggs
Two to three ½ cup portions of diced leftovers (see headnote)
12 large eggs
1½ cups heavy cream
Salt
Pepper
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter twelve 5-ounce ramekins.
Place about 2 tablespoons of leftovers in each ramekin. Distribute the leftovers so you end up with four ramekins filled with each of three different flavors. Crack an egg into each ramekin and pour 2 tablespoons of cream into each one. Season with salt and pepper.
Place the ramekins in a baking dish and fill the baking dish with hot tap water until it comes halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the whites have set but the yolks are still runny. Serve on plates with a napkin under the ramekins to hold them in place.
There’s not a lot to frying an egg, but there are a few tricks. First off, use a nonstick pan, or at least a well-seasoned cast-iron one. To get the eggs to cook through on the top surface—sometimes called “basting”—most directions suggest literal basting with the surrounding hot fat, but a simpler method to achieve the same effect is simply to cover them for the last minute or two of cooking. If you like your eggs “over easy,” turn them over and cook about 15 seconds more, or to taste.
Makes 4 breakfast servings
2 tablespoons butter
8 eggs
Salt
Pepper
Melt the butter over medium heat in the largest nonstick frying pan you have, preferably one with a lid. (You can also use a lid from another pot or even use a baking sheet.) When the butter begins to froth, tilt the pan around so the butter spreads over the whole bottom surface. Crack in the eggs, season with salt and pepper, and cook, moving the pan around every minute or so, so the eggs cook evenly.
As the whites set, after a couple of minutes, cover the pan for about 2 minutes to steam the surface of the eggs and finish setting the whites. When the whites are completely set, transfer the eggs with a spatula to heated plates, yolks side up for sunny-side up. Or flip them over in the pan and cook for about 15 seconds more for “over easy,” then transfer to heated plates.
