Now you take a piece of bread like this, and you look through it like this
Then you wink, and you drop it in a little hole, like that.
What? No, I just thought you liked your eggs with the bread with the hole in the middle, à la me. [Laugh Track]
[Man humming and eggs sizzling with soft track as background]
I made you Eggs In a Nest.
Ah yes.
The Crane family specialty: Fried eggs swimming in fat,
served in a delightfully hollowed-out piece of white bread.
I can almost hear my left ventricle slamming shut as I speak.
[Laugh Track]
Hey, what's up guys? Welcome back to Binging with Babish. For this week, we're exploring
what might be one of the most frequently occurring foodstuffs in all of film: "Eggs in a Nest",
which starts with the humble egg,
but first we gotta bake bread. My escape here in Vermont has largely been
dedicated to the baking of bread, and this was no exception. It took me five tries
to get a halfway decent sandwich loaf going,
and I attribute this entirely to not measuring my ingredients by weight,
but instead by volume; resulting in loaf after useless loaf.
So, let me take this opportunity- Ow, ow!
-to come out loudly and proudly in favor of using a kitchen scale in the pursuit of great bread
so you don't end up with this crap. We're starting off our good loaf with 400 milliliters of water at
110 degrees Fahrenheit, 100 milliliters of which we're going to combine with a packet of instant yeast, and half of our
650 grams of all-purpose flour, along with 50 grams of sugar, 5 grams of salt, and 45 grams of unsalted butter, at room temperature.
Stir to combine before adding the remaining 300 milliliters of water; stirring again to form a
"pancake-batter-like" paste, adding the remainder of the flour, and stirring one last time with our dough whisk, until a shaggy dough forms; that
we will turn out onto a counter top, and knead for seven to nine minutes until a smooth, supple dough forms.
Generously oil a large bowl, plop our dough inside, and roll it around a little bit to make sure that it's evenly coated in oil so,
we don't have sticking issues down the line. Cover with plastic wrap, and let sit at room temperature for 45 minutes to 1 hour,
or until the dough has doubled in size.
Turn out onto a lightly floured countertop, and punch down until it's back to its original size, and then start forming it into a
loaf. We want to sort of... tuck it under itself to make a nice round top. Shove it into a loaf pan
that's been prepared with butter and parchment paper, cover loosely with plastic wrap (we want to give this thing plenty of room to expand for...).
Another hour, or until redoubled in size.
Brush this beautiful blimp down with a bit of butter, and place in a 400 degree Fahrenheit oven for 25 to 35 minutes, being extra
polite to Siri. "Set a timer for 35 minutes, please."
It's good luck to be polite to Siri. That, or it's good luck to measure by weight, because we have here, a perfectly shaped and
risen loaf, that measures 200 degrees Fahrenheit
internally, that we're going to brush down once again with melted butter; and set aside until the morning, for breakfast.
Give it a little kiss goodnight before we go to bed. Get a good night's sleep, get in your comfiest jammies and wake up to
a perfect metaphor of just how good and just how bad life can be when you're baking with volume versus
weight. Learn the difference. We had a nice crumb going here.
Give it a little touch, and hack off a nice thick slice for our nest, of the Eggs in a Nest. Now you could just stamp
out the center using a glass or a mason jar,
but I like to cut it out, because I want to preserve that centerpiece for some auxiliary yolk mopping.
That was the hardest sentence I've ever said. Melt a tablespoon and a half of butter, or
45 grams of butter, in a stainless steel skillet, and coat both sides of the bread thoroughly with the butter, before plopping down and letting
sit for at least half of one of your favorite songs. Observe:
This all translates to about 2 minutes, on
medium low heat, and then for a little flavor bonus round:
I'm going to put a little dollop of bacon fat in the center of the bread, before cracking the egg inside,
cranking the heat up to medium-high, and jamming out for about 1 minute, or 84 snaps in the case of this song, and giving our
guy a flip while we add our auxiliary yolk mopper in for a little toast.
Continue to cook for no more than 10 or 15 seconds on this side, while seasoning some kosher salt and
preferably freshly ground, but in this case some plain old black pepper. Now
let's grab a fork and knife, and see if we did our job right. Oh yeah, a runny egg,
freshly baked bread, and a soupçon of bacon fat?
Even with the four dud loaves, this was, in the end worth the effort, and you can tell because it's the recipient of the coveted
2018 Binging with Babish clean plate prize. Both this, and the second one I made after the camera stopped.
[Outro music]
[Snapping with music in background]
[Sound of spatula scrapping against the pan]
Oops, too much.