Shirred eggs, more commonly known as baked eggs, are eggs that are baked in a flat-bottom dish. Although they are traditionally prepared with minimal ingredients, my variation is a little different in that I like to use cupcake pans and layer a host of ingredients into a cup lined with ham or other form of cured meat. I like the idea of building your whole breakfast at once.
These baked eggs are a great way to treat guests that come over for brunch, or everybody’s favorite meal, “breakfast for dinner.”
(Serves six)
12 eggs
5 tbsp butter or ghee
12 slices cured pork – ham, prosciutto, pancetta, etc
5oz frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed
2 fully-cooked bratwurst or kielbasa sausage, diced, or some chopped (cooked) bacon
1 small onion, diced
1 small red pepper, diced
1/2 tsp each salt and pepper, and more to taste
Cut up your sausage, onion, and red pepper, and set aside.
For this recipe I used US Wellness Meats’ Natural Smoked Bratwurst, which was mild and very tasty. This particular sausage has a little added sugar, so if you are on a Whole30 you could use all sorts of alternatives – sugar-free sausage, bacon, whatever floats your boat.
Heat up 1 tbsp of the butter or ghee in a skillet on med/low heat, then add the onion and sausage. Sauté for five minutes, stirring every minute or two, until the onions are softened like in the picture above.
Add the red pepper and sauté for another two minutes, adding a little salt and pepper if you’d like.
Remove your onion/pepper/sausage combo and set it aside.
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Melt the remaining butter/ghee and pour a little of it into 12 different cupcake holders in a cupcake pan.
Mold your ham or other cured pork to form a small cup. It’s okay if it tears a little bit, the spinach will act as insulation.
Put a little of the thawed spinach in the bottom of the cut (be sure to squeeze any water out!). You are totally welcome to use fresh, blanched spinach instead of frozen spinach.
Add a couple spoonfuls of the onion/pepper/sausage combo, leaving enough room in your cupcake mold for an egg.
Lastly, crack an egg into the cup.
Bake at 425 for 15-20 minutes, until your eggs look done enough for you. We liked ours more gooey than runny, so we cooked ours for just shy of 20 minutes.
Let them cool for a minute or two, then serve and enjoy. And because you asked so nicely, here are some more pretty pictures of the eggs.
Two egg cups per person sounds pretty fair, although we were all fighting over who got a third cup.
The Domestic Man 
beautiful work!!! sausage, onions, peppers and eggs on ham…lots of protein with vegs included. Perfect!
Could this turn into a crustless quiche if we added a bit of cheese and laid scrambled egg on top…possibly?
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That is definitely an option! :) I left this one cheese-less because every recipe this month is dairy-free (with the exception of butter/ghee), but some nice aged cheese would give these eggs a nice little taste boost.
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THAT’S what I call breakfast!!
Damn…I wish I was fasting right now just so I could break it with a few of these! :)
Thank’s for a great breakfast idea Russ, and be so sure these will be served in a Swedish kitchen on Sunday morning…ish! ;)
Take care
//P
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Sweet, if you make it send me some pictures! :)
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Absolutely, no problem! :)
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Oh, wow. That looks so good. We’re definitely making this on the weekend.
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Yum. That looks great!
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Dang! That looks tasty. Good recipe.
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Looks delish.
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Aren’t those pretty! They almost look like flower blossoms! I’d love to try these! I’ve done the eggs and meat this way before, but the spinach on the bottom is a new twist I’d like to try. Glad I saw this post!
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I’ve been doing something like this but I like your way better – though I prefer my cured meat to be pepperoni. then it gets all crispy :D
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Great idea, I love crispy pepperoni!
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What a simple elegant dish…
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Looks very tasty!
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Just made it 5 minutes ago. I would recomend this to ANYBODY. Holy cow! If someone wasn’t on paleo, I’d say this’d convert them! HA! I didn’t have sausage, so I subbed in some bacon, and I didn’t have peppers, so I used tomatoes. This recipe leaves so much room for improvisation! Thanks so much!
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Yukenna, thanks for sharing! Glad you liked it.
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This was amazing thanks for sharing I would of never thought to use the bacon like that. Although when I made it i used panchetta I like the savory crispy aspect.
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Awesome, thanks for sharing!
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NO WAY LOOKS GROSS
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Reblogged this on The Boy and The Burger and commented:
Really really good I made this for brunch this morning!
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Reblogged this on Bertha's Blog.
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This is Awesome. Looks so de-lish & light. I am not a cook :( However this looks easy to follow.. Lol.. Thanks!
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Wow! Using the ham as a kind of “shell” is genius. A great alternative to quiche crust. This recipe sounds awesome! I am definitely going to make it this weekend. I’m thinking about doing an Italian version with Italian sausage, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, pesto and mozzarella cheese.
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Reblogged this on Forever Aloe and commented:
Excellent idea, might surprise my wife with this on Sunday morning !
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If you’re not dairy-free, a little cream and a sprinkle of Parmesan on top before baking would take them to another level.
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