One-Pot Wonders

Baked Eggs with Mushrooms and Gruyere

May  2, 2021
4.3
15 Ratings
  • Serves 2 to 4
Author Notes

What can I say about baked eggs? They're so good. The texture of a nicely baked egg is so perfectly velvety, and if they're drizzled with cream that thickens and becomes buttery when baked? Yum. This is one of my many preferred combinations for baked eggs, with mushrooms and gruyere cheese rounding out the eggs and cream. —fiveandspice

Test Kitchen Notes

Featured in: I Was Lonely & Hated Vegetables—Until I Befriended Vegetarians. —The Editors

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Ingredients
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 8 ounces mushrooms - any variety you like - sliced
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon thyme
  • Salt and pepper
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1/3 cup shredded Gruyere
  • 2 tablespoons heavy cream
Directions
  1. Heat your oven to 400F. Melt the butter in a medium sauté pan over medium high heat. When the butter is foaming, add the mushrooms and sprinkle them generously with salt and pepper. Cook until tender, about 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the garlic and the thyme in the last 2 minutes of cooking.
  2. Grease an 8X8” or other smallish baking dish. Scrape the mushrooms into the baking dish.
  3. Crack the eggs over the mushrooms and sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the cheese over the eggs, then drizzle the cream over the top. Bake in the oven until the whites are set and the yolks are velvety and just barely runny, about 10-12 minutes. Serve warm.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

48 Reviews

Megan M. April 14, 2020
Made for lunch today after another unsatisfactory breakfast shake, and realizing I was not going to be able to work without something solid in my tummy. Followed the recipe with a few modifications: 1) cooked mushrooms in a 6 inch cast iron so I didn't have to use multiple pans 2) halved the recipe with a cook time of 8 minutes 3) added in (canned) artichokes hearts after the mushrooms had cooked for a bit of extra flavor. Also topped with red pepper after cooking.

New favorite breakfast dish, and one I can see being in rotation often! Thanks
FrugalCat January 22, 2020
If you use an ovenproof skillet, could you just break the eggs into the skillet and bake in it? Trying to avoid washing another dish.
Ingrid M. December 27, 2019
I made for Christmas breakfast for my daughter that is vegetarian. I added more eggs, spinach and smoke apple sage! It was delicious!!
lgoldenhar January 23, 2015
I just made this for breakfast, on a weekday! It was super easy and came together really quickly. I would even consider doubling it for an impromptu brunch with friends. I used Cremini mushrooms and I loved the meaty flavor that they provided. I am a vegetarian and I am constantly looking for good meat substitutes that are not fake meat. I did make a few modifications to reduce the fat content if anyone is interested and I still loved this dish (although, perhaps it would have been 10 times better if I followed the recipe perfectly). I used 1/2 tablespoon of unsalted butter for sautéing the mushrooms and instead of 2 tablespoons heavy cream, I used 2 tablespoons of 1/2 and 1/2. Also, as stated above, I used Cremini mushrooms as the sliced mushrooms. The modifications reduce the calories by about 110 and the fat content by about 12 grams. The protein and carbohydrates stay the same, which makes this a great, protein packed dish for a vegetarian.
Danette R. December 28, 2014
Made this last night. Even though I overcooked the eggs (horrors), it was delicious. I might be tempted to cut the cooking time to 8 minutes in a 400degree oven and also add more cream :)
Jmorganb@gmail.com December 25, 2014
Just made this! Used trumpet mushrooms and even a little heated parm. So good! if you don't like your eggs super runny, you can still enjoy this- just cook a little longer. But be sure to break the yolks, or you have cooked-through chalky yolk bombs.
Danette R. December 28, 2014
aha - yeah, i kind of did that. i will break them next time
girlwithaknife December 12, 2014
is there a close sub for gruyere? or do I really have to go get the real thing for this?
fiveandspice December 12, 2014
There are a variety of other cheeses you could use, but probably something like comte or a nice swiss would work well.
Scribbles December 9, 2014
Had this for dinner last week and it was yummy! I used the same pan for the entire prep and cooking - it was a snap. Easy to make, easy to clean up and very satisfying with a nice glass of wine and a salad...perfect!
Jordan August 26, 2014
This is the most decadent and delicious Sunday morning breakfast. My husband and I love it on a lazy weekend morning with a glass of ice cold champagne. I have made the mistake of overcooking the yolks a couple of times. Like the recipe says, make sure to keep a close eye on them starting around 10 minutes!
Aija H. March 24, 2014
I'm making this for dinner right now. Only change is I'm using garlic-infused grape seed oil to sauté the mushrooms in along with butter, omitting the chopped garlic.
Alex March 9, 2014
Is there a reason you couldn't just crack the eggs into the cast iron skillet in which you were sauteing the mushroom and put that into the oven?
Deirdre W. April 10, 2014
Cast iron sides are too thick for a clean crack on the shell. Learned this the hard way years ago when I first switched to cast iron for all my pans ;)
Tammy February 24, 2014
Simply the best egg skillet I have ever eaten. That's all I have to say about that. Forever on my brunch list of fav's. I cried when I read the recipe and thought it was orgasmic when I ate it. Divine. Thank you.
Elegante February 21, 2014
Fiveandspice I feel I should pay you for your excellent consultation. I am so glad I made that bad comment. Thank you for the information. I will use all of it. I did not realize coconut oil is better than canola. Do you have an office in NY or CT? I need an expert nutritionist like you.
fiveandspice February 22, 2014
I'm glad it was helpful Elegante! I know there is just so much nutrition information out there to wade through, and there is unfortunately a lot of very poor quality journalism about nutrition, where they're just trying to get a headline instead of really helping the public understand; and most doctors have such old info since they never receive nutrition training! I'm afraid I'm in Minnesota, so no office in NY or CT. If you'd like a useful book for explaining some good science about healthful eating, check out The Perfect Health Diet. Their website is helpful too. They base their dietary advice off of sound science, and their recommendations are especially good for people dealing with chronic disease like heart disease or diabetes. Their diet doesn't allow any grains or legumes or sugar, which are often important to eliminate if someone already has a condition. For people who are healthy, different people have different genes, so we have different responses to grains and legumes - some people tolerate whole grains and legumes fine, some don't - you kind of have to experiment and really listen to your body about what makes you feel best there. And, even though they're not healthy, I like to allow myself a treat now and then, so I do eat food with white flour and sugar sometimes, but my rule is to listen to my body and determine whether a treat is really, truly what I want to eat at that moment, and if I'm eating sweets, or pasta, or bread, I only eat it if it's really high quality and amazing and so it will be worth it. And then I enjoy the heck out of it! I think a lot of people's struggle with eating comes from our tendency to be extreme - extreme rigidity that caves and turns into extreme binging, and back and forth between those two poles - and lack of being mindful about our food (too much casual snacking! :). I truly believe a lot of health problems would be solved if people focused on eating real food, and paid close attention while they were eating to what they're eating so they can fully savor it without eating as much, and to who they're eating with so that eating is a nourishing, joyful, communal experience. My two cents! :)
Elegante February 24, 2014
Your "two cents" is worth a fortune to me. My husband is diabetic and I have high cholesterol. Even after losing 15lbs my cholesterol was 263 but my ratio was good. That made me crazy. I did not know grains and legumes could be a problem. I will get that book and start advancing my studies. THANK YOU Again!
joy J. February 21, 2014
So my husband cooked. I am g
David G. February 21, 2014
Sorry Fiveandspice, my most sincere apologies
fiveandspice February 22, 2014
Accepted. :)
Renee February 20, 2014
I think this dish looks delicious and easy to make on a weeknight. I will definitely be making this. Thanks for the recipe!
fiveandspice February 22, 2014
Thanks!
David G. February 20, 2014
Makes me wanna vomit if you ask me!
fiveandspice February 20, 2014
David, food52 is a place for fostering community and providing resources and constructive feedback for home cooks. It works because the community maintains a positive spirit, and when they have feedback they provide it in a constructive fashion. Unkind, unhelpful, uninformed remarks are not a welcome way of interacting with this community. In other words, no one asked you, but you can certainly vomit on your own time if you so choose.
Figaro14 February 19, 2014
OK, I know I'm being picky but there are only three eggs in the photo of the prepared dish, not four as the recipe calls for.
fiveandspice February 19, 2014
Haha, you're right. I normally make the recipe with four eggs, but when I made it to photograph I ran out of eggs - only had three! So, I made a 3/4s recipe.
Stephen W. February 19, 2014
If you sauté the mushrooms with a little bit of butter for flavor and olive oil along with sliced shallots, juice from half a lemon and parsley, you will have quite a dish.
fiveandspice February 19, 2014
Yum.
Elegante February 19, 2014
Let's have some cholesterol with that cholesterol than sprinkle it with fat and carbs This is OK for lunch or brunch if you don't have any heart or cholesterol problems and you are going to run a few miles after eating this. Eating this at night and going to bed is insane! Heart attacks happen at night.. while sleeping.
Stephen W. February 19, 2014
They also happen during the daytime and at sporting events and even when having sex. You don’t want to ban the last do you?
Kate M. February 19, 2014
Insane? Seriously? Getting yourself all wound up about a recipe will raise your blood pressure too. I would think that folks with cholesterol or heart issues would simply pass on this recipe. Doesn't seem like there's a need to issue dire warnings about heart attacks during the night. Sheesh.
fiveandspice February 20, 2014
Hi Elegante! In general I try not to talk nutrition on food52 because - as someone who actually has a PhD in nutrition - I find too much focus on nutrition can ruin the fun of cooking, though it is certainly important for people with health issues. That said, it always saddens/infuriates me that the public is still usually fed the old dogma that cholesterol and saturated fat cause heart disease. Those statements were based on bad science from decades ago, but unfortunately physicians receive almost no nutrition education, and RDs are remarkably slow to change their advice in response to better science. But, basically research has shown that cholesterol in your diet has virtually no impact on cholesterol in your body because your body moderates synthesis in response to intake. Saturated fat has a neutral impact on cholesterol, ie. it raises your good cholesterol as much as the bad - and the balance between HDL and LDL cholesterol is more important than total cholesterol - and finally, the link between cholesterol levels and heart disease is a tenuous one at best. It appears that high cholesterol doesn't cause heart disease but can be a marker that there is a different underlying problem that is causing both elevated cholesterol and risk of heart disease. That underlying problem is inflammation, and inflammation is caused by a variety of things but most especially too high intakes of sugar and vegetable oils (corn, soy, canola and other seed oils...) as well as stress. I think the best thing we can all do is strive for balance, which for most people should include getting rid of processed junk foods as much as possible, reducing our intake of sugar, vegetable oil, non-nutritive beverages, and processed grains, eating lots more fruits and vegetables and small fishies, and just altogether doing a good job of cooking real food with lots of flavor and savoring it instead of trying to restrict ourselves to an ascetic, unsatisfying diet most of the time and then caving and eating a box of cookies or a whole bag of chips in secret. Really sorry this is a little bit of a lecture, but hopefully it's helpful! :)
Kate M. February 20, 2014
Hi fiveandspice, I'd be really interested in more info on the vegetable oils issue. I eat lacto-ovo vegetarian, leaning toward more pure vegetarian, and so usually use more olive oil vs. butter. Where would you recommend I seek more info on this? I know you weren't replying to me, but your comment was so well put-together I thought I'd ask.
fiveandspice February 20, 2014
Hi Kate! Olive oil doesn't count as a vegetable oil, actually. Olives are a fruit, and a traditional source of oil. Generally, most of the traditional sources of fat (including olive oil, coconut oil, butter, even lard and beef tallow - and nut oils are pretty good too) are relatively healthy because our bodies are adapted to using them. Olive oil provides mono-unsaturated fat, which is generally quite healthy, you just don't want to cook with it at too high of heat because it will destabilize. The "vegetable oils" that are a problem are the ones that are high in omega-6 fatty acids. These tend to come from plants that aren't naturally very high in oil (corn, soy, safflower, canola), so we're adapted to eating this type of fatty acid in small amounts, but not in the large amounts that people now usually consume them in because so many processed products, baked goods, etc. use vegetable oil. So, the problem isn't omega-6 fats in general - they're actually essential in small amounts - but the fact that we eat too much of them in comparison with omega-3 fats (which mostly come from seafood, kelp, and animals that are raised on pasture instead of grain). Generally I'm wary of health information on the internet, but I've found some sites that d a pretty good job of explaining the science in an accessible way. Here's one little summary: http://perfecthealthdiet.com/2010/06/omega-3-fats-and-cardiovascular-disease/ And here are a whole bunch of blog posts about fats from another guy who does a pretty good job talking about it: http://blog.cholesterol-and-health.com/search/label/Vegetable%20Oils%20and%20PUFA
Of course, the other tricky thing is that science is always evolving. Studies are never definitive, just suggestive. That's the way science works. So, whenever someone starts treating a diet approach like religions I get wary. I try to look to how people have been eating for hundreds (even thousands of years) more than to science! :)
Kate M. February 21, 2014
Thanks for the info! Very helpful, I'll check it out. Also looking forward to trying this recipe, it looks delicious.