I’ve been getting bored with my usual egg recipes, so I decided to turn to Ina Garten for some breakfast inspiration.
I spotted the Barefoot Contessa’s smashed eggs on toast in her “Modern Comfort Food” cookbook. Garten says the recipe is a fresh twist on a traditional plate of poached eggs on toast.
“It’s easier than poaching eggs,” she wrote in her book. “And so much more delicious!”
Ina Garten’s smashed eggs on toast recipe requires just four main ingredients.
To make this brunch dish, you’ll need:
- Extra-large eggs
- Whole-grain mustard
- Fresh dill
- Bread (Garten recommends white bread or Pullman loaf, which is a type of sandwich-bread loaf typically baked in a pan)
Before I started cooking the eggs, I got my quick prep out of the way.
Garten’s recipe has very exact timing, so I decided to do my prep first so that I wouldn’t get distracted.
All I had to do was mince the dill, which was ready in a flash.
Then I filled a large saucepan with water and brought it to a full rolling boil.
It took a long time to get my water boiling, but my dad — who was patiently waiting for breakfast to be served — gave me some good tips. He recommended starting with hot water in the pan and noted that I had filled mine too much.
He also advised throwing in a bit of salt to speed up the process, which I did after dumping some of the water out.
I had to get the eggs into the pan, which turned out to be a little nerve-racking.
Garten recommends using a slotted spoon to carefully lower the eggs into the water, one at a time.
“Don’t allow them to fall into the pot,” she warns. “Or the shells will crack!”
Thankfully, every egg was safe — but not for long.
I lowered the heat and set a timer for my eggs to cook.
Garten is very specific in this part of her recipe: The eggs must cook for exactly six-and-a-half minutes — “not six minutes and not seven minutes,” she adds.
The “Barefoot Contessa” star said it’s also essential to maintain a low simmer as the eggs cook, or they’ll knock against each other and crack in the pan.
I was paranoid about cracking my eggs during the cooking process, so I turned the heat down quite low. This turned into an issue a few minutes later.
As my eggs were cooking, I toasted the bread.
I used a toaster, but Garten also has tips if you want to toast your bread in the oven.
She recommends placing your bread slices on sheet pans and baking them at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 12 to 15 minutes, turning once, until they’re golden brown.
After the six and a half minutes were up, I transferred my eggs into an ice bath.
I once again used my trusty slotted spoon to get the eggs safely into the bowl, then set a timer for exactly two minutes — just as Garten instructed.
While my eggs were chilling (literally), I started prepping the toast.
After the slices were done toasting, I spread butter and mustard on each one.
And I have to be honest with you, reader, I read the recipe incorrectly. I thought Garten recommended spreading half the slice with butter and half with mustard, which made for a cool picture, but that was definitely not the case.
What she actually wants you to do is spread each slice with ½ tablespoon of butter and ½ teaspoon of mustard.
Thankfully, I really like mustard, so the extra flavor didn’t put me off. Next time, though, I’ll wait to read the recipe until after I’ve had a cup of coffee.
Also, a quick pro tip: Be sure to take your butter out of the fridge before you begin cooking your eggs. That way, it’ll reach room temperature by the time you’re ready to prep your toast, making it far easier to spread across the bread.
Then it was time to peel the eggs, which turned out to be far trickier than I expected.
Garten included a special trick for peeling eggs, and I wanted to follow her recipe to a T. So, per her instructions, I tapped the ends of my first egg on a cutting board to crack the shell.
Then I rolled the middle of the egg on the board with the heel of my hand, which Garten said would “crackle the shell.” It quickly became apparent that my egg was a little too soft-boiled, because it immediately went SPLAT.
I ran into this problem with a couple of the eggs and realized I must have turned the heat down too low. I had accidentally taken the “smashed” in Garten’s smashed eggs on toast a little too literally.
Thankfully, I was able to salvage a few eggs and pull off the dish, which looked special without a lot of extra time and effort.
I placed one egg on each slice of toast and roughly chopped them without cutting into the bread so that it could absorb the runny yolks. Then I generously sprinkled dill on top of everything, along with some salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Despite all my hiccups, Garten’s smashed eggs on toast looked worthy of a weekend brunch and proved to be a delicious dish.
I loved how the runny eggs paired with the crunchiness of the toasted bread, and the whole-grain mustard added a nice kick. The addition of dill made everything pop, elevating and brightening the flavors.
Even with a couple of mistakes along the way, this dish was just another example of how the Barefoot Contessa’s recipes are nearly foolproof.
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