Egg Bread

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Eggs and bread, such simple basics, but so good. So timeless, so delicious. There's probably about a million ways and recipes to spice up eggs and toast (which I also subsequently did with this recipe after trying it plain), but the main recipe of today's post is inspired by a pretty true-to-elements, bare-bone iteration of the classic combination, which is the Korean street food 계란빵 (gyeran bbang), or egg bread.

For those unfamiliar, it's basically exactly what it says on the tin: bread with an egg on top. To be a little more specific, egg bread is typically made from a slightly sweet batter with a whole egg cracked over it, usually made on specialized cooktops with small ovular molds for each bread in order to get a perfect shape.

I'm not sure why egg bread suddenly popped into my head, as I can only remember trying it once when I was actually in Korea, and it's been a hot minute since then, so the memory is a little fuzzy. Either way, I could not get it out of my head, and while there have been a number of Korean street food themed restaurants that have cropped up locally in the last few years, I guess egg bread is not exactly the most glamorous or exciting of street foods and isn't really on the menu anywhere. So naturally the only option was making my own bootleg version at home (and maybe this is a sign that I've finally found my restaurant niche and should open an egg bread stand...)

Anyways, this version is the result of combining a number of recipes I found around the internet along with a healthy dose of experimenting with some tweaks. I'm not sure how 'authentic' my take is stacked up to an actual street food version, but I like to think that this muffin tin, baked version is pretty good regardless. It's also pretty simple to make, and way less expensive than a plane ticket or buying a specialized griddle, so there's that.

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Recipe Notes, Modifications, and Customizations

Ingredients

Milk

I tested this recipe with an unsweetened almond milk as well as with just plain water. Personally I found the bread made with water to be ever so slightly denser, but I don't think it would have been noticeable had I had not known that something was different between the two.

I certainly don't think the kind of milk used would make or break the recipe regardless of what you use (be that water, regular dairy milk, or any non-dairy alternative), but if switching things up I'd recommend keeping in mind the usual things to think about when it comes to milk: higher fat content milks generally yield a richer final product, consider reducing the sugar slightly if you're using a sweetened milk, and be aware that some non-dairy milks can be stronger in flavour than others which can be evident in the finished product.

Butter

By default I just use the Becel plant based butter in pretty much everything, and that's basically become equated to actual butter in my mind by this point. I did also test with oil instead of butter, and didn't really find any discernable difference. As with milk, the recipe seems pretty flexible on the fat element. Especially since the butter is being melted anyways, I can't imagine it would be a problem to substitute with margarine or any other neutral flavoured oil if you can't do butter.

Flour

I didn't test any completely gluten free flours, but if you like cornbread then I found that subbing in half cornmeal for half the amount of flour written in the recipe works quite nicely.

Method

Pan size

I used a "jumbo" muffin tin, in which the cups are around 9cm/3.5' in diameter. The batter and eggs puff up a bit during baking which resulted in the cups being comfortably full, so I wouldn't recommend downsizing to a regular muffin tin. Another good option is mini loaf pans, if you've got those kicking around instead. The recipe as written yields about 1+1/3 cup of batter, or 1/3 cup for each bread if you're making four breads.

Bake time

I found that a 20 min bake time at 400°F resulted in a fully set but not overly dry yolk and a cooked but still moist bread, but exact timing will probably vary dependent on the individual oven, and on how set or runny you like your eggs. I'd recommend checking on things at the latest at the 18 minute mark and seeing if they need more time or are ready to come out.

Yolks

This is also very heavily dependent on personal preference, but I have seen other recipes that recommend breaking the yolk before baking if you prefer a more consistent texture throughout the egg as opposed to possibly getting a bite of just yolk. I don't mind either way and thought the whole yolks looked more appealing visually so that's how the pictures are, but to each their own!

If you're really trying to cut calories, I don't see why the recipe wouldn't also work with just egg whites, it'd just be a little lighter and won't have the classic look with the yolk.

Scaling the recipe

Four jumbo muffin sized breads is a decent breakfast serving for two people, but you can definitely scale the recipe. For six breads I still stuck to just one egg in the batter, but for eight or more I would probably increase. If you are looking to scale down to two breads I would recommend beating one egg, add half to the batter, and the rest could be added to the eggs being cracked onto the top so it's not being wasted. Besides the eggs, all other ingredient measurements can be directly multiplied/divided at the appropriate ratio.

Freezing

These freeze pretty decently. I tried reheating both in the toaster oven at 350°F (which took a long time, so wouldn't really recommend) and in the microwave, and while neither were as good as fresh out of the oven I certainly wouldn't call either offensive.

Fillings/Add-ins

If you're in the mood for something a little more egg-citing (I'm sorry, you can close the browser and I'd understand) than just eggs and bread, these are also really good with some extra toppings thrown in between the batter and the eggs! A couple ideas:

• Ham/bacon and cheese: classic breakfast sandwich combo. I'm not sure if this weird or not but I personally really like ham, cheese, peanut butter, and jam all together. I would imagine that ham, cheese, and mustard would also be really good and am definitely going to try that one myself next time.

• Jalapeño Popper: white cheese, cream cheese, jalapeño slices, sweet jalapeño jelly, and a sprinkle of panko bread crumbs. If you can do spicy, it SLAPS.

• Caprese: Slice of tomato, soft white cheese (I used a Babybel mini cut into thinner slices and it's the perfect amount), and basil. I used a basil paste since I couldn't find fresh at the store when I went, but either would work!

• Pizza: Tomato sauce, cheese, pepperoni.

• Vegetables: mushrooms, onions, spinach, pepper, tomatoes, any of the classic omelette fare would probably be good in these too! I haven't tried vegetables yet, but if you are I would suggest frying the vegetables first so that they are a little drier and don't make the bread soggy releasing water while cooking in the oven.
  

*Note: adding toppings/fillings does increase the volume by a significant amount, so don't go too ham because everything will bubble up and overflow (or alternatively just find a bigger pan I guess lol)

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Egg Bread

prep time: 10 mins

bake time: 20 mins

yield: 4 x 9cm/3.5" diameter round breads

calorie estimate: 270cal/bread*

Ingredients:

Batter:

• 2/3 cup (80g) flour

• 1/2 tsp (2.5g) baking powder

• 2 Tbsp (12g) sugar

• pinch salt

• 1 egg

• 1/2 tsp (2.5mL) vanilla

• 2 Tbsp (30g) butter

• 1/2 cup (120mL) milk

Additional:

• 4 eggs

• optional add ins (cheese, ham, bacon, vegetables, etc.)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F/200°C and grease muffin pan/mini loaf pans/ramekins.

2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl.

3. In separate small bowl or measuring cup measure milk, and whisk in one egg.

4. Melt butter and whisk into egg and milk mixture along with vanilla.

5. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

6. Divide batter between muffin cups/pans.

7. Top batter with optional add ins, if using, and then crack one egg on top of each batter portion.

8. Season eggs with salt and pepper.

9. Bake at 400°F/200°C for 20 mins, give or take a couple minutes depending on how set you prefer your eggs/yolk.

*Calorie count will vary based on the type of milk/milk substitute chosen. This estimate uses a mid-range assumption of 100cal/cup for milk.