Last Easter I went to my first egg-painting party. We sat around a table, blew the yolks and whites from thir shells until the eggs were satisfying little hollows, and we carefully painted them. I went for a Faberge creation in bright pastels; others were the faces of heavy-metal icons and cartoon characters. We hung them on some blossom branches and felt quite pleased with ourselves. The symbolism of it all struck me.
Eggs are an ancient symbol of new life, of promise and of hope and – whether you celebrate Easter or not – we all need a little of that just now. As a child, I waited and waited for this time of year, for the flowers to come out, to play outside. There is an optimism around that is worthy of celebration.
These recipes make a hero of the egg; they show it off in all its sunny-yolked glory. First, a tart that will sit at the middle of my Easter table. As tarts go, this is quick to make. It unashamedly uses good shop-bought puff pastry, though a homemade flaky pastry would certainly elevate it to another level if you had the time. It is a wash of green and yellow, using the first baby vegetables and broad beans (there are good Spanish ones in the shops now). I make this tart all through spring and summer, varying the vegetables as different things come into season – peas and leeks one time, asparagus and broad beans the next.
Then there are the muffins. If there is a recipe that makes more of an egg, then I am yet to find it. These are based on a muffin I ate at a brilliant bakery called Craftsman and Wolves in the Mission district of San Francisco. A whole egg hidden inside, the yolk still runny, it’s the perfect breakfast muffin: a little bite from polenta, a hit of chilli, some brightness from the dill. They also travel well to a picnic. But be sure to eat them hot straight from the oven if you want a runny yolk, as the yolk will set a little as they sit.
As eggs are the main event in both of these recipes, I’d encourage you to buy the very best ones you can get your hands on. For me, that means good organic eggs with paint-pot yellow yolks.
Sunny egg muffins
This is a recipe you will need to follow closely if you are after a runny egg. You will need to use a large, deep, nonstick large muffin or yorkshire pudding tin – normal muffin tins are too small. I used this one.
Makes 6 large muffins
6 medium eggs, at room temperature, for boiling
100g fine polenta
180g white spelt flour
1 tsp flaky salt (smoked works well)
1 tbsp baking powder
50g mature cheddar cheese, coarsely grated
4 spring onions, finely sliced
A small bunch of dill, finely chopped
¼ tsp dried chilli flakes
240ml buttermilk
90ml olive oil, plus a little extra for greasing
2 eggs
1 First, boil your eggs. Bring a large pan of water to a rapid boil, and lower in the eggs. Boil for exactly 4 minutes – not a second more. Remove from the pan and immerse into ice-cold water, then chill in the fridge for at least half an hour.
2 Meanwhile, get your muffin mix ready. In one bowl, mix together the polenta, spelt flour, salt, baking powder, grated cheese, spring onions, dill and chilli flakes.
3 In a jug, mix together the buttermilk, olive oil and eggs.
4 When you’re ready to bake the muffins, preheat your oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5. Grease the moulds with a little oil. Get your eggs out of the fridge and peel them really, really carefully, putting them on a couple of sheets of kitchen roll to stop them rolling away.
5 Tip your buttermilk mix into your flour bowl and stir gently, not worrying too much about any lumps. Put a couple of tablespoons of the muffin batter into each mould, then very gently add an egg on top. Carefully add the rest of the batter so that you don’t squash the eggs, and immediately bake for 20 minutes – again, not a second longer.
6 Remove the muffins from the oven and take each one carefully out of its mould and transfer them to a cooling rack. Using a sharp knife, cut right through the middle of the muffin and pat yourself on the back for achieving a perfect soft yolk.
Easter egg and spring veg tart (main picture)
I used ready-rolled all-butter puff pastry here, but if you buy a block or make your own, then roll it out to just bigger than an A4 piece of paper, to about 2-3mm thick. This tart is best eaten straight out of the oven. The eggs are best cracked over at the last minute, too, so if you want to get ahead, do so with everything but the eggs until you’re ready to cook it. I like to double pod my broad beans, but if you buy baby ones they will be sweet and you might not need to. I serve this with a simple lemon-dressed green salad and some buttered new potatoes.
Serves 4
5 eggs, fridge-cold
320g puff pastry (I used a sheet of ready-rolled all-butter)
6 spring onions, trimmed and cleaned
6 baby courgettes, quartered lengthways
Olive oil
100g baby broad beans
150g creme fraiche
1 heaped tbsp dijon mustard
Zest of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper
To finish: herbs, hazelnuts, seeds of your choice
1 Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Crack one of the eggs into a cup with a big pinch of salt, beat well and leave to one side. Fill and boil the kettle.
2 Spread your puff pastry out on to a cold baking tray and trim off 1cm from each side and set aside. Working quickly, prick the base all over with a fork, and lightly brush with the beaten egg. Add the trimmed edges back on top of the pastry around the edges you cut them from, forming a border, and egg-wash those too.
3 Put the spring onions and baby courgettes on to a baking tray, drizzle with a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake, along with the puff-pastry case, for 20-25 minutes until the veg is golden and the pastry is really crisp.
4 Meanwhile, pour a little boiling water over the baby broad beans, allow them to cool, then pop each one out of its tough outer skin, leaving the bright-green bean inside.
5 As soon as the pastry comes out of the oven, press down on the middle rectangle of the base (which will have puffed up a little), leaving yourself a nice border around the outside.
6 Mix the creme fraiche with the mustard, add a little salt and pepper and spread it over the crisp pastry, keeping it within the border.
7 Arrange the courgettes and spring onions over the base, then make four little spaces to crack the eggs into. Stop here if you are preparing the tart in advance and cover and keep it in the fridge.
8 When you are nearly ready to eat, take the eggs out of the fridge and really carefully crack each one on to a saucer, then pick up the whole egg, leaving behind as much of the watery white as you can. Gently place each egg in the little wells, sprinkle over the broad beans and bake for 20 minutes, until the egg whites are set and the yolks are still a little soft.
9 Remove the tart from the oven, grate over the lemon zest and scatter over the hazelnuts or toppings of your choice.
- This article was edited on 11 April to add a picture of the Sunny Egg Muffin to the recipe.
