Eggs In a Cloud

I eat a lot of eggs. Between me and my two roommates (both ketoers as well) we will easily polish off a palette of 30 eggs in a week. So finding new ways to prepare eggs is pretty exciting stuff.

I found this recipe on the I Breathe... I'm Hungry... blog (via reddit). It's like a savory pavlova, and I LOVE pavlova. How did I never think of this?

Naturally, I set out to make this darn thing immediately. If you have an electric whisking appliance, it's a really simple recipe, which is always convenient in a breakfast food. And like an omelette, you can really change it up just by switching the fillings. Mushrooms, peppers, ham, chopped chicken, carrot, spinach, onion, prosciutto, tomato, etc. The world is your oyster! You could even use oysters, although I'm not a huge fan myself.

I'd like to play around with this recipe some more - try adding cream of tartar and/or vinegar to see if it helps form a nice crispy outside. I'm not convinced a pavlova-like crispy crust would taste right, but I'd like to try.

I've included a text version of this recipe for those who enjoy copy/pasting and an image version for those who like pictures. The image-recipe has a more detailed nutrition breakdown of the individual ingredients. And for those who are into micronutrients, I have a detailed breakdown here.

Although I've included nutritional info, your recipe will probably be different because pretty much no sausage has ever been created equally. And if you completely switch up the ingredients, then it will definitely be different. You can use the nutritional breakdown below to parse out and replace any ingredient changes.

Per serving (1/2 of the recipe, or 1 cloud): 236 calories, 1.4 g carbs, 0.0 g fiber, 1.4 g net carbs, 17.4 g fat, 17.3 g protein

Ingredients

• 2 eggs, separated
• 2 bacon, cooked an chopped
• 2 small breakfast sausages, cooked and chopped
• 1 Tbsp chives, chopped
• 1 oz cheese, shredded
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Note 1: As you will probably be cooking your bacon and sausage first, I suggest putting them in the freezer to cool them down. You don’t want them cooking the egg or un-fluffing the whites when it’s time to mix it all up. You can do the same with your shredded cheese if it’s prone to getting soft and melty.

Note 2: When separating your egg yolks from the whites, be sure not to pop your yolks. And store the yolks in separate bowls - this will prevent you from accidentally double-yolking your egg white clouds.


1. Preheat your oven to 375F / 190C. Grease (or line with parchment paper) a cookie tray.


2. Using whatever method you prefer, beat your 2 egg whites into stiff peaks. They need to be able to hold their form when you mix in the other ingredients. 


3.  Gently fold in the 2 chopped bacon, 2 chopped sausages, 1 Tbsp chopped chives and 1 oz shredded cheese. You may want to do this in two batches. Remember - fold it in! No stirring. 


4.  Once your egg white mixture seems to have an even distribution of bacon and sausage, lightly dole two fluffy piles onto your greased or lined cookie tray. Make a small yolk-sized impression in the peak of each cloud and gently slide 1 egg yolk into each impression. 


5.  Place them into your 375F / 190C oven and bake for approximately 6 minutes. However, I suggest keeping a close eye on them so you can get that perfect balance of meringue-y whites and runny yolk. If you’re a fan of runny yolk that is. I am. 


6.  Let them cool and stiffen up for a couple of minutes before sliding them off the tray. You don’t want your clouds to fall apart after all that hard work. Salt and pepper those bad boys and enjoy!