Simple Elegance

Driving home from work, I was considering the various leftover options I had for dinner, and none of them really appealed to me. I mentally worked my way around the refrigerator, and noticed the buttermilk. Pancakes! But that's a big load of carbs; for dinner I want something to go with it ... how about eggs? But how ... scrambled? Over easy? Some sort of omelette?

Then it hit me ... let's step it up a bit, go for something a little more elegant than just "eggs and pancakes". So I give you, "Oeufs al'Antoine":

Buttermilk Pancakes
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar

2 cups buttermilk
2 eggs, beaten
1 tbsp butter, melted

Stir the dry ingredients together in one bowl, and the wet in another. Pour the wet onto the dry and stir just enough to bring together. There will be lumps, but that's ok. As Alton always says, "Just walk away." Let the batter rest while your griddle warms up to 350°, then use a 1 oz disher to scoop batter out. Cook the first side until you see bubbles popping on top of the batter, and the edges start to dry. Flip once and cook the other side. Store in a cool oven on a plate or cookie sheet with a towel over the top while you finish cooking the whole batch.

Once the pancakes are all cooked, heat a nonstick skillet with a tight fitting lid over medium to medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, give it a light coating of butter or oil. Depending on the skillet size, crack one or two eggs, doing your best to center the yolks. Sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper on top of the eggs and cover with the lid. In about two minutes or so (depending on the heat) the tops of the eggs should be set. Slide an egg onto each pancake and top with fresh parmesan.

Bon appetit!

Eggsperimentation!

OK, yeah, I know. It's not even original. Sometimes you just go with the classics, though. :)
__________________

Several years ago, we had to work on a Saturday to do a major software upgrade; the installation and testing were going to take most of the day, so the head of IT kept us fed.  For breakfast, in addition to the usual assortment of bagels, he had something the breakfast shop called "Breakfast Pizza".  It turned out to be a buttery biscuit base with scrambled eggs and sausage toppings. Once I had made Alton Brown's biscuit recipe, the buttery taste made me think of that "pizza", so I decided to try to make one of my own.  It wasn't quite what I was after, but it's a step in the right direction.  I'll give you what I did, then below tell how I plan to change it next time out.

Breakfast Pizza, version 1

1 recipe Alton Brown's biscuits

6-8 strips bacon

1 - 1.5c cheddar cheese, shredded

8 eggs

Cook the bacon, cut into pieces, and set aside. Preheat the oven to 450°. (1)

Prepare the biscuit recipe and spread it out in the bottom of a greased 9x13 baking dish(2). Top with 2/3 of the shredded cheddar and the bacon.   Scramble the eggs and pour into the pan, then top with the remaining cheese. Bake for 12-15 minutes until the biscuit is cooked and the egg set.

It turned out quite tasty, but the dough really rises a lot. Also, the egg cooked up more like a quiche than scrambled eggs (which I should have expected, really). Next time I think I'll only use half of the dough recipe in a 9x9 pan, then add the first bit of cheese and start the baking. While it's in the oven, I'll cook the eggs in a pan to get them mostly set as scrambled eggs. At about 8 minutes I'll pull the pan out, add the eggs and bacon (or maybe sausage), and return it to the oven to finish everything off. It'll take a bit of timing to do right, but I think it'll be worth it.  I'll report back when I try it.
_______________

(1)  I cooked the bacon in the oven (laid out on a cooling rack set over a cookie sheet to catch the drippings, oven set at 450°), so that it was already hot enough for the biscuits.

(2) This is easier said than done. The dough is too wet and sticky to roll out, but too thick to spread like a cake batter. Use a silicone spatula and be patient. It won't be smooth, but you can get a pretty even layer if you work at it.