Eggs Benedict (Well, Kind of…)

It sounded interesting
Saturday, I had a hair appointment and while I was there, I started leafing through this magazine. In it, there was an article on easy brunches and a recipe for Eggs Benedict. Although, this was a cheater’s Eggs Benedict, as you made everything in a silicone Muffin tray. I was just so intrigued by the concept that I knew I had to try it! Besides, yay! for cheating…

In addition, the recipe called for a faux hollandaise sauce, made with low-fat mayonnaise, lemon juice and Dijon mustard. Now, I love hollandaise as much as the next person and I could probably suck it down with a straw but the time for holiday excess is over. It’s January now. No carrying on like it’s still December. So, I decided to throw caution to the wind and try the not-hollandaise sauce too.

What follows, is what I did for two servings. Obviously, making three servings in a 6-cup muffin tray would be ideal but two worked just fine for jwa and I.

Experimental Eggs Benedict w/ a Silicone Tray:
4 eggs
4 slices black forest ham
2 English muffins
2 asparagus stalks, chopped into 1-inch pieces and steamed for 2-3 minutes
Non-stick cooking spray
Salt & pepper
Special equipment: silicone muffin tray

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray the silicone muffin pan with cooking spray. Crack an egg into each muffin cup and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Since I was only using four of the cups, I filled the middle two ones with pie beads. I think I read once that having something in unused muffin cups helps the heat distribute more evenly through the cups that do have batter or what-have-you, in them. That may be wrong though — I don’t know. I need my own personal Alton Brown for situations such as these. I had pie beads — I used them.

Next, place a couple of asparagus pieces and then a slice of ham over each cracked egg.

Butter two, split English muffins, placing the buttered sides down over the ham, asparagus and egg. Bake for about 13-15 minutes. The less baking time will produce runnier yolks, the whole 15 minutes will produce solid yolks. I left mine in for 15 minutes and my yolks were indeed cooked all the way. Next time, I will pull them out a couple of minutes earlier, as I appreciate a little runniness in my tasty Eggs Benedict-type dishes.

To get the eggs out of the tray, I put an upside down baking sheet on top of the muffin tray and then flipped, so that the muffin tray was upside down. If you do use pie beads or dried beans, just scoop those out (not with your fingers!) before you flip.

Then I gently pushed the eggs and muffins out and topped with my sneaky, fake hollandaise sauce.

Citrus Not-Hollandaise Sauce:
1/3 cup low-fat mayonnaise
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp orange juice (yes, I used a blood orange as I had some in the house –hence the pink colored sauce in the pictures)
1 tsp orange zest
1 tsp lemon juice

Whisk mayonnaise, mustard, orange juice, grated orange peel, and fresh lemon juice in small bowl to blend.

Stir sauce in a heat-safe glass bowl over a pot of simmering water until just heated through, about 2 minutes. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper.

Top each Eggs Benedict with about a tablespoon or so of sauce and there you go. You’re all set.

The Verdict:
Okay, so real hollandaise sauce is better — there’s no question about tthat. But this wasn’t bad and I felt less guilty eating it than I would a whole plate sopping with the real thing. (mmmmm!)

As for the muffin tray trick, again, pretty good. I feel the need to play with the timing a bit to get the right yolk runniness for my palate but I’d definitely give it another try. All in all, a pretty tasty experimental breakfast was had at Je Mange la Ville that day.