How To Make Egg Pie
Do you know how to make egg pie? Have you ever had egg pie? No, not quiche. Egg Pie – eggs baked in pastry – is sort of the not refined cousin of quiche but still regarded higher than the other cousin scrambled egg pie. Egg pie is the cousin that quiche vaguely knows about and thinks about once in awhile, but never really sees at brunch for reasons that aren’t really known. It just is and it is a shame because egg pie is easy to make and delicious.
You should be aware that there is a classic egg pie and one that is not so classic. Both delicious, but one has likely never been seen before until this blog post (let us know if you’ve seen a recipe like this before!). The first, classic egg pie, consists of eggs and other tasty ingredients baked in a case of puff pastry. YUM! The not so classic is more of a hand pie or hot pocket meets hard boiled eggs and cheese sauce. What is nice about this not so ordinary egg pie is that it is something you can do with hard boiled eggs other than make egg salad. Most of my hard boiled eggs get made into egg salad or eaten right out of the shell after being boiled. There is nothing wrong with this, but it is nice to change it up.
For both versions you need pastry. The first uses puff pastry which can be made at home, but is easier just to buy. The all butter is best. One day, we will get up the gumption to have a blog post about making puff pastry. The other egg pie uses pie crust, but could use puff pastry if push came to shove. Pie crust can also be purchased at the store, but it is a lot simpler to make at home so why not.
The sauce for the not so classic version is a gruyere béchamel sauce that is easy to make and tasty. Cheddar or your favorite cheese would be fine, too.
Both egg pies can include all variety of filings, not just eggs. Bacon is an obvious choice, but cooked sausage would be great, as would some smoked chicken. Both make a great accompaniment to a salad and make for a nice week day meal. They each can be pre-made and baked as needed.
Here is how I make both versions of egg pie…
- 4 individual tart pans with removable bottom
- 1-3 sheets of purchased puff pastry (depending on how big your individual tart pans are)
- 1/2 lb of bulk Italian sausage
- 1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
- 8 eggs
- 4-5 fresh basil leaves
- 1-2 medium tomatoes ( about 1/4 lb)
- dried Italian herbs
- salt and pepper
- cream
- Unroll the pastry and cut 8 circles of dough that are slightly larger than the diameter of the tart pan. The dough should overhang the pan a little so it can be crimped.
- Spray the pans with non-stick spray. Place 1 circle of dough in the bottom of each pan.
- In a medium pan, cook the sausage breaking it up as you cook so it is in small pieces. Let cool.
- Chop the tomatoes into small dice.
- Sprinkle in enough mozzarella cheese to cover the bottom of the crust with a thin layer.
- Crack 2 eggs and add them over the cheese. Do not worry if the yolk breaks. You can break it if you wish.
- Add a few pieces of cooked sausage.
- Tear 1 or 2 leaves of basil and sprinkle over the sausage.
- Add 1-2 tbsp of chopped tomato.
- Sprinkle in a pinch of Italian herbs.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- On one side of the remaining pastry circles, brush some cream around the edges. Place the piece of pasty cream side down over the filling and crimp the edges all the way around the pie making sure to seal the dough well.
- Brush the top with cream.
- Cut 3-4 steam holes on top of the pie.
- Bake at 350F for 45 - 60 minutes until the pastry is puffed and golden brown.
- Practically any filling can be used.
- Choose all butter puff pastry if available.
- 6 eggs
- 5 slices of ham
- 1 tbsp of butter
- 1 tbsp of flour
- 1 cup of milk
- 1 cup of shredded cheddar or gruyere cheese
- salt and pepper
- 2 cup of flour
- 1 cup of cold butter
- 1/4 tsp of salt
- cold water
- cream
- Place the eggs in a medium pot. Cover with cold water by one inch. Place the pot on the stove and turn the heat on high. Bring the water to boil. When the water comes to boil, boil for one minute. Turn off the heat and place a lid on the pot. After 8 minutes, cool the eggs under cold running water.
- Peel the eggs. Cut the eggs in eighths.
- In a medium pot melt the butter over medium heat.
- Add the flour and whisk the flour into the butter until it is fully incorporated. Cook for 30 seconds to a minute to remove the floury taste.
- Slowly whisk in the milk. Bring the mixture to a boil. The mixture should thicken enough to coat the back of a spoon.
- Turn off the heat. Whisk in the shredded cheese a little bit at a time.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Cube the cold butter.
- In a bowl mix the flour and salt. With a fork, pastry cutter, or your fingers cut the butter into the flour until the mixture looks like coarse sand. A food processor can be used for this, too. Pulse the butter, flour and salt together until the mixture looks like sand.
- Add water to the mixture 1 tbsp at a time mixing or pulsing until the dough, when pushed together between your fingers, comes together and sticks together and can form a ball. You probably will need 4-6 tbsp.
- Pour the mixture onto a clean work surface and push the mixture into a thick disk. Wrap the disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- After refrigeration, remove the dough from the plastic wrap and place it on a floured work surface.
- Roll out the dough until it is about 1/8 inch thick.
- Using a 5 or 6 inch biscuit cutter, cut 6 rounds of dough. If necessary, collect the scraps, roll together and cut more circles of dough.
- In a medium bowl, add the sliced eggs. Slowly fold in the cheese sauce until enough is added to moisten the eggs. They should be covered with enough sauce to be creamy but not drowning.
- Slice the ham in ribbons.
- Layout a circle of pie dough on a clean work surface.
- Spoon in a few tablespoons of the egg mixture on one half of the pie dough circle leaving a border so the dough can be crimped. Resist the urge to overfill! Better to make more small pies then to overfill!
- Top the egg mixture with a few ham ribbons.
- Brush some cream or water around the border and fold the pastry over to close the pies.
- With a fork, crimp the pie closed making sure to push out as much air as possible. Crimp well.
- Place the pies on an baking sheet that has been sprayed with non-stick spray.
- Bake the pies at 350 for 45-50 minutes until the crust is cooked and golden brown.
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