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Upgrade your next egg breakfast with Eggs in a Basket. In just 10 minutes, the yolk and white bake up in the center of the toasted bread. With my sheet pan method, you’ll have enough stuffed toasts to feed the whole family.
Egg in a Hole, Toad in a Hole, Eggs in a Basket, Egg in a Nest, or Bullseye Eggs. Whatever you call it, this breakfast recipe has delighted people of all ages for centuries. Usually, it’s done in a skillet with one piece of toast at a time, but baking on a sheet pan in the oven simplifies and speeds up the process.
With my Eggs in a Basket recipe, there’s no tricky flipping involved, and it only takes about 10 minutes once the oven is heated up, so what are you waiting for? Brew up some coffee, slice the bread, and let’s get cracking.
Table of Contents
Ingredients
Ingredient notes
- Sandwich bread: Any kind of good, sliced, toast-able bread you have on hand. You want the slices to be large enough to fit a cooked egg, so a baguette, for example, would be too small.
Step-by-step instructions
- Move the oven racks to the highest and lowest positions, and preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place one baking sheet on the lower rack of the oven to preheat it too. Generously butter only one side of each slice of bread. Then using a 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter (or even the opening of a drinking glass) press into each slice to cut a round hole in the center of the bread. Remove the bread to create the “hole.”
- Remove the hot sheet pan from the oven and melt the remaining butter in it. Tilt the pan to distribute the hot butter all around the surface. Then arrange the slices, buttered side up, on the baking sheet, closer to the edges. Place the circles you cut out in the middle of the pan too, also buttered side up.
- Bake the bread on the lower rack of the oven for 1 ½ minutes until lightly toasted. Halfway through, take out the baking sheet, carefully flip the bread, and rotate the pan.
- Once the bread is lightly toasted, take out the pan and place it inside the second (room temperature) baking sheet. This creates a buffer that keeps the food from overcooking. Carefully crack one egg into each hole, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and return the stacked baking sheets to the oven, this time on the top rack. Bake for 6 to 7 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking, until the egg whites just start to set up.
- When the egg whites are just firm, remove the sheet trays from the oven and place them on a wire rack for 3 minutes before serving. The residual heat of the baking sheets will continue to cook the eggs during that time and firm them up beautifully.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: One recipe makes 6 pieces of toast with 6 eggs. Depending on how hungry you are, you may want to whip up more than one slice per person, so feel free to adjust accordingly by employing larger or multiple pans.
- Make ahead: Eggs in a Basket are designed to be eaten right away while the yolk is still runny. To get a head start, you can slice the bread and butter it up a few minutes before you’re ready to eat.
- Shapes: Don’t feel stuck in that circle. Use a cookie cutter to make cute shapes in the bread: a star, a dog, a heart for Valentine’s Day, or a tree for Christmas morning. The sky’s the limit, as long as the egg fits in the space you make.
- Cooking times vary: Depending on how you like your toast, how hot/cool your oven runs, and how large your eggs are, you may need to cook a few minutes longer to get your eggs just the way you like them.
- More egg recipes: Roll up a quick Egg Burrito for on-the-go, or sit down for a delicious Eggs Benedict or a fresh Asparagus Frittata.
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Eggs in a Basket
Upgrade your next egg breakfast with Eggs in a Basket. In just 10 minutes, the yolk and white bake up in the center of the toasted bread. With my sheet pan method, you'll have enough stuffed toasts to feed the whole family.
Ingredients
- 6 slices sandwich bread (see note 1)
- 6 tablespoons butter softened and divided
- 6 eggs
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Adjust oven racks to lowest and highest positions and preheat oven to 425 degrees. To preheat the baking sheet, place heavy-bottomed baking sheet on rack. Set a second baking sheet aside.
- Using 3 tablespoons melted butter, butter one side of each slice of bread. Using a 2 1/2-inch round cutter, or a sturdy drinking glass, cut a circle out of the center of each slice of bread and remove circle.
- Remove preheated baking sheet from oven and melt remaining 3 tablespoons of butter in the sheet, carefully tilting the sheet to evenly distribute the butter. Place bread slices butter-side up on each end of the baking sheet and place bread circles in the middle, butter-side up as well.
- Return sheet to lower oven rack and bake until bread is lightly toasted, about 1 ½ minutes. Flip bread and rotate sheet halfway through baking.
- Remove sheet from oven and place inside second (room temperature) baking sheet. Crack an egg into each hole and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste.
- Return pans to oven, placing stacked baking sheets on top rack in oven and bake until egg whites are just setting, about 6 to 7 minutes. Rotate sheets halfway through baking. Remove from oven and allow to sheets to cool on wire rack until egg whites are set, about 3 minutes. Serve immediately.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Sandwich bread: Any kind of good, sliced, toastable bread you have on hand. You want the slices to be large enough to fit a cooked egg, so I don’t recommend baguette.
- Yield: One recipe makes 6 pieces of toast with 6 eggs. Depending on how hungry you are, you may want to whip up more than one slice per person, so feel free to adjust accordingly by employing larger or multiple pans.
- Make ahead: Eggs in a Basket are designed to be eaten right away while the yolk is still runny. To get a head start, you can slice the bread and butter it up a few minutes before you’re ready to eat.
- Shapes: Don’t feel stuck in that circle. Use a cookie cutter to make cute shapes in the bread: a star, a dog, a heart for Valentine’s Day, a tree for Christmas morning. The sky’s the limit, as long as the egg fits in the space you make.
- Cooking times vary: Depending on how you like your toast, how hot/cool your oven runs, and how large your eggs are, you may need to cook a few minutes longer to get your eggs just the way you like them.
Nutrition
Calories: 213kcalCarbohydrates: 13gProtein: 8gFat: 14gSaturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 189mgSodium: 269mgPotassium: 89mgFiber: 1gSugar: 1gVitamin A: 529IUCalcium: 92mgIron: 2mg
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Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.
I make this every 11/5 to watch V for Vendetta and this is the best recipe I have found for them! Never going back, it was so delicious and crispy.
Hi Loren, I’m glad you loved it! – Meggan