Oeufs en Cocotte with Fresh Herbs + Goat Cheese

This weekend we made oeufs en cocotte, or baked eggs, for breakfast: an easy (and pretty) thing to make on the fly as you roll out of bed on a Saturday morning.  The ingredients are fresh and simple: eggs, milk (or cream!), goat cheese, and herbs cut from the garden. You’ll notice salt isn’t on the list of ingredients, and that’s intentional. These fresh, whole ingredients don’t need the extra boost!

The yolks in this traditional french dish are typically runny, but we prefer to cook them a few minutes longer until just past the runny stage. Either way, this delicious and easy petit déjeuner will help you start the weekend off right!

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoon cream
• tiny pinch of cayenne
• dash of freshly ground pepper
• goat cheese
• chopped fresh herbs (any combination of chives, rosemary, thyme, parsley)
• butter

Special Equipment:

• 2 ramekins
• 9″ x 9″ baking dish

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. And heat a few cups of water in a teapot or saucepan (for the oven water bath) and bring to a simmer.

Butter the insides of the ramekins, crack an egg into each and use a fork to break up the yolk a bit.  Add cream and season with cayenne and freshly cracked pepper.

Create a Water Bath: Place ramekins in the empty baking dish. Open the oven, pull out the top rack and place the baking dish on the rack. Pour simmering water from your teapot into the baking dish, filling in around and 1/2 way up the sides of the ramekin dishes. Don’t pour water into ramekins!

Close the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes depending on how you like your yolks. Pull from the oven, remove ramekins from the water bath, and top with a dollop of goat cheese and fresh herbs. Happy brunching!

Makes two servings. This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled if you’re serving a group.