Baked egg-in-a-hole with homemade multigrain

This recent breakfast was inspired by an email.  It was a New Year's day one from Cooking Light and there was this picture of an egg-in-a-hole in it.  It was the bread, or toast, in the picture that caught my attention because it was multigrain toast and I'd only just made my first loaf of multigrain bread. What perfect timing! So I took some of my multigrain bread and decided to get cracking (literally).

I'm sure you've seen egg-in-a-hole (or toad-in-a-hole, etc...) a million times.  Maybe like me, you've seen it but never actually made them?  Or is it just me?  Every Father's Day, I get the notion to make egg-in-a-hole as a fun little "special" breakfast but I never have.  I somehow figured I'd never be able to flip the egg and toast in the skillet and get it looking right (these are crazy things I "worry" about). And that brings me to another reason why this recipe appealed to me - it's baked egg-in-a-hole.  In other words, no flipping in the skillet!

Baking egg-in-a hole sounded like such a great idea to me.  It's a little lighter than sizzling them in an oil or butter-laden skillet.  It also means no flipping so you get a nice bright yolk front and center, and you can make quite a few all at the same time with minimal work.

It sounded so simple, and it was.  I lightly toasted my multigrain bread (luckily, I'd frozen about a third of my homemade loaf), then cut a 2 1/2 inch round from the center of each.  Lightly grease a baking sheet (I used olive oil) and set the bread on top.  Drop an egg in each and bake at 400 degrees for 5-8 minutes, until the egg whites are set but the yolk is still soft.  What you've essentially got is a sunny side up egg with toast for breakfast but in a fun little way.

I cooked some bacon alongside.  That makes my son very happy!  You could get a little fancier and dress your egg-in-a-hole up with some grated cheese and fresh herbs, and crumble crispy bacon or prosciutto over the top.  You can take it for any kind of spin you can think of but it's the general baked factor of this that I really like.  

Egg-in-a-hole is somehow simple yet special. You can use any kind of bread you like but I have to say multigrain toast goes so well here. You can really enjoy the nuttiness and flavor of the toast with the soft egg, without a lot of interference.  The multigrain is so flavorful, you don't really need or miss the butter (or maybe that's just me).  

I just love a good breakfast!

I love multigrain bread

Happy New Year!  My goodness - it's really 2014 already!  While it may take me a while to remember to write '14 from now on, I'm ready to throw confetti onto the New Year and hope it's the start of a happy and healthy one that's filled with causes for celebration for us all.  

For my first post of 2014, I thought I'd go with bread - that most basic, nourishing, nurturing food that most of us would find hard to live without.

Multigrain bread made with 7-grain hot cereal and pumpkin seeds

I love bread in general, and you might recall my love of english muffins (I straight-up just love carbs), but multigrain bread is one of my very favorite types.  I adore the flavor from the grains and seeds embedded inside.  The nuttiness and texture you get from a loaf of good multigrain bread is so addicting and satisfying.  I love it so much that I tend to talk a lot about places, restaurants, where I can get a good slice or roll of it.  Here's an example...my husband and I used to go to a little restaurant in New York City called King's Carriage House.  It's a cozy place and their food - as in the actual dishes - was terrific (whether for lunch, brunch, tea, or dinner) but what I always think about is a great multigrain roll they served there.  Am I a little odd for putting so much emphasis on the bread?

So for me, good multigrain bread just makes me smile and brightens up my day a little.  It's the little things in life!  And when it's good, I feel it hardly needs anything more than a light toasting because the bread itself is so full of flavor all on its own.  I love to savor it and appreciate all its nuances.

That said...a little salted butter or some jam (as my husband likes to have it) - not to mention ham and eggs on the side for breakfast - never hurts either.  But honestly, I think it's really delicious all by itself.

So given my passion for it, you can imagine I wanted to try this recipe from America's Test Kitchen when I first saw it.  It was bookmarked for a long time, I made a couple of other bread recipes first to get a little experience under my belt, and now I've done it.  And I'm so happy to report that this bread - this monster of a loaf - turned out completely delicious!  It certainly hits the mark in flavor and texture.  It has nuttiness and chewiness in spades. 

The "secret" or shortcut to attaining the multigrains in the bread is hot 7-grain cereal.  Why is it when you want to buy 7-grain cereal at the supermarket, all you can find is 9-grain!  Not wanting to mess up the recipe in any way, I ordered a four-pack case of 7-grain cereal via amazon.  And I'm glad I did.  Not only have I been enjoying bowls of the stuff for breakfast occasionally, this bread is worth searching out the cereal for.

I felt such a sense of accomplishment taking this bread out of my oven and onto our table.  If I can do it, you can bet it was fairly simple.  I have very little experience in bread-making, having only worked with yeast a handful of times and in the last few months only.  What I've learned is that it's a fluid, live process - one you have to flow with and adjust around.  It's honestly exciting and a bit scary at the same time.  Just when I'm feeling confident everything is going according to plan (or the recipe), I'm thrown a curve ball.  In this case, the bread was rising faster - and more - than I expected.  I had to switch the bread pan I intended to use to accommodate the size of the loaf! And what a big, lofty, fluffy (not tough or overly dense) loaf it turned out to be!  It worked.  It really worked.

Bread-making is clearly a skill honed with time and practice, and while I'll never be any expert, it is definitely rewarding.  The other week (before this experiment), I found myself out of bread and with bad weather making it inconvenient to go out and buy some.  So I made my own!  That is a very cool feeling, to make your own bread and provide your family with a basic that is at the same time very special.  I feel empowered as I'd never envisioned being able to make multigrain bread myself, at home, by following a recipe.  Thank you, America's Test Kitchen!

Aside from trying to make good eats to share and linger over with my family at the table, this whole thing of puttering in the kitchen, playing with flour, and what have you, is also about learning and discovery in an area I'm passionate about - food!  I hope to learn more and make a few more discoveries this year...