Truffle-Baked Eggs

Sunday mornings are by far my favorite time of the week. I sleep in past 7 a.m., I have no lessons to rush kids to, and most significantly, I have TIME. While I love a huge bacony breakfast as much as the next gal, sometimes a fruit smoothie and something small, but rich and delicious is just the ticket. (While I dream of the day I can plop some clunky, freshly-shaved truffles onto my eggs, until then I am pretty satisfied with the truffle oil/truffle salt combo.) Eggs Benedict or Cheese Blintzes would also fit the I-really-really-need-a-decadent-breakfast bill perfectly, but going back to another reason I love Sunday mornings, I get to be lazy if I so choose. Baked eggs are fast, (perfect for feeding a group), and allow one enough time in the rest of their morning to catch up on a little magazine reading, some knitting and maybe even a quick hike. That said, I'm out of here...

Truffle-Baked Eggs

Ingredients
3 fresh eggs
3 tsp truffle oil
1 T extra virgin olive oil 
1 T butter
3 T heavy cream
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 C morel mushrooms, sliced (no morels? substitute minced white mushrooms)
1/2 shallot, minced
3 T bread crumbs (I prefer fresh, but you can make it easy on yourself and use store-bought)
1/2 tsp truffle salt

(makes 3 servings)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place 1 tsp of truffle oil in each ramekin, coating bottom and sides. Heat a medium, non-stick saute pan over medium heat. Add 1 T olive oil until warm. Add shallots and cook until golden-brown, about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms. Season with truffle salt and thyme. 

Saute for another 5 minutes. Add butter. When melted, add bread crumbs, stirring well. Cook for another 5 minutes, or until the bread crumbs are golden brown. Remove from heat and set aside.

Bring a tea kettle to a boil. Place oiled ramekins into a baking dish. Pour boiling water into the baking dish, making sure that the water is about one inch high on the ramekins.

Pour 1 tablespoon of cream into the bottom of each ramekin. Follow with one egg in each ramekin, taking care not to break the yoke. Sprinkle the mushroom-shallot-breadcrumb mixture over the top of each ramekin. Bake for 12 minutes.