Baked Brunch Baguette

This is a fabulous breakfast or brunch recipe, easily increased for larger numbers or appetites. Featuring the ever useful egg – it’s a kind of Jumbo Breakfast Roll if breakfast rolls were glamorous. Remember to whip up your egg mixture in a jug, as it makes it really easy to fill your hollowed out bread rolls. Be careful not to overcook these, you want crusty on the outside with a soft eggy, cheesy yumminess oozing from the inside, overcooking will give you a dry and too firmly set inside, sad times.

For those of you not familiar with this classic Irish meal solution, the breakfast roll is typically white bread slathered in ‘spread’ and filled with a traditional fry, designed to be eaten on the way to school or building site, single-handed. Rashers, sausages and eggs usually feature heavily, maybe some white and black pudding, often mushrooms and hash browns, sometimes even beans and all smothered in ketchup or brown sauce.

Since the breakfast roll is now in a catastrophic decline, in line with the fall of the construction industry, it’s time for a radical make-over. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you… The Baked Brunch Baguette

Makes 2 filled baguettes

Ingredients:
2 demi baguettes, wholemeal or seeded
2 whole eggs + 1 egg yolk
25ml cream or creme fraiche
2 thin slices parma ham
1 ounce hard cheese, grated (I used gouda)
2 spring onions, finely sliced
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. You will need a hot oven – about 200C.

2. Cut out a long oval section from the tops of the baguettes and scoop out the soft bread from the inside being careful not to pierce the crust.

3. Crack the eggs into a jug and beat together with the cream, onion and seasoning. Mix in most of the grated cheese.

4. Pour half the mixture into each baguette and place each onto a slice of ham on a baking sheet. Fold the ham up over the middle of the bread roll and scatter the rest of the cheese on top.

5. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown, the egg mixture is puffed up but sill runny in the centre and the parma ham is crispy.

6. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes and serve.