{Weekend food} Bacon Breakfast Cups

My father told me that his first experience of actually cooking- growing up in the textile industry in the North of England- was when he helped his father cook a family breakfast on Sunday mornings. My Gran did all the cooking six days a week so Grandad liked to treat her to a big breakfast on his day off. Just learning to cook eggs and bacon gave my father a love of cooking that has stayed with him all his life.

I’m fairly sure that one of the first things I cooked when I left home was a fried breakfast. It was certainly the last meal I ate as a single woman in a cafe near to the church where I married my husband. He sat opposite me and nursed a Lucozade and a hangover.

Which is a roundabout way of saying that I really enjoy a cooked breakfast when I get the chance. I draw the line at Black Pudding but I do like bacon, eggs, beans, toast and ideally some fried mushrooms. This usually necessitates me eating at a cafe because DH would never cook mushrooms: he can’t bear them. Imagine my delight when a ”hamper’ of Denhay Farm goodies arrived ahead of Farmhouse Breakfast Week. Imagine my astonishment when I had my breakfast- sausages, bacon, eggs, toast and beans- cooked for me by my darling husband.

If you are looking for something a little creative with your breakfasts, how about making Bacon Breakfast Cups?

 

All you need for each Bacon Breakfast Cup is:

1 slice bread

1 slice bacon

1 egg

1 tablespoon melted butter

Firstly, preheat your oven to 180C (higher if you don’t have a fan oven.) Grease the appropriate number of ‘holes’ in a muffin tin with some of the butter.

Next, start frying your bacon. Keep an eye on it: you are aiming for slightly underdone as it’s going in the oven.

Whilst it’s sizzling, tear off the crust of your bread, then roll out the remainder with a rolling pin. Press-gang each flattened slice into a muffin tin ‘hole’- the best method is to fold the slice in half, insert into the hole then spread and squoosh until it takes the shape of the hole. This description will make much more sense once you’ve done it. Brush the bread with melted butter.

Lay the slice of cooked bacon across the middle, tucking into the hole.

Crack the egg in to the hole, season and bake until the whites are just set (approx. 22-25 minutes) You may have to jiggle the bacon a little to get all the egg in the bread cup but it should just fit.

These are a great way of making a weekend breakfast extra special so are great for impressing your loved one. They’d be perfect for Valentine’s Day, in fact. Just in case you are reading, Darling.

47% of people regularly skip breakfast during the week so their aim is to encourage people to enjoy a healthy breakfast more regularly. Farmhouse Breakfast Week– from 21st to 25th January- is an annual celebration championing the importance of breakfast which aims to get the nation to Shake Up Their Wake Up! They very kindly sent us a breakfast box for the purposes of writing this post.