Cloud eggs on avocado toast

Hipsters have given us two really good things: 1) They brought back knitting – and I do love a good sweater. 2) They have given us avocado toast. Sorry not sorry, but I love it.

There’s very little that’s better than a crusty or grainy bread slathered with fresh avocado – unless that entire situation is topped with a farm-fresh egg. Try it and you’ll eat it all the time. (Also, this is a great meal to make on Fridays during Lent and it’s vegetarian – just saying.)

Ingredients:

4 slices of a nice bread (I went with a whole nut and grain variety for this)

1 ripe avocado

1/2 lemon (or a tablespoon lemon juice)

Sea salt

Cracked pepper

4 eggs

1 pinch cream of tartar (optional)

2 Tablespoons of a decent shredded parmesan

Directions: Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Separate yolks and whites of the eggs (I discuss various methods for this at the bottom of the post). Add a pinch of cream of tartar to whites (unless you have a copper bowl, then it’s not necessary.) No stress if you don’t have any on hand, you can beat your whites without it, it just helps the eggs set better. Beat until soft peaks form.

Gently fold parmesan cheese into whites – don’t over-stir, fat is the enemy of fluffy eggwhites.

Spoon whites into four little egg white nests on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet, creating a small indentation for the yolk.

Bake for 3-4 minutes to set.

Add yolks back to the center of each egg – bake for an additional 3 -4 minutes – until the top of the yolk just starts to cook and crust up a little.

Toast bread. Cut avocado into 4 sections. Smash avocado onto toast, squirt with lemon juice and season with sea salt and cracked pepper.

Place a cloud egg on each toast.

Makes four avocado egg toasts.

Note: When it comes to egg separation I have tried several methods:

First, the most classic way to separate eggs is to crack the egg in half and pour the yolk back and forth between the two halves of the shell until all that’s remaining is the yolk. It takes a little practice to make that work. Secondly, the “water bottle hack” is actually quite effective, too. Lastly, there are egg separators that resemble little slotted spoons – you don’t need one of these unless you do lots of eggs. I do a fair number of angel food cakes, so I have one but it’s not something you probably need.

The most important thing is that you don’t break the yolk. As I said earlier, fat (egg yolk included) is the enemy of fluffy egg whites. So, if you’re planning a party and you’ve never separated eggs before, grab extras and use a spare bowl to transfer them, in case you break a yolk. There is nothing more frustrating than working on a recipe that calls for 12 separated eggs and busting your 11th yolk into the whites. Ask me how I know.