A recipe developer has shared a simple swap that can make fried eggs even more delicious, and you won't need butter or oil. Megan Scott, a recipe developer, claims that using double cream instead of traditional fats produces the 'most buttery-tasting, tender-yet-caramelised eggs' you'll ever prepare.
The Creamy Secret
Rather than using butter or oil, Megan chooses a richer dairy alternative: double cream. The concept is that as the cream cooks, it helps create a crispy base by forming brown butter in the pan. She wrote for Simply Recipes: 'To my amazement and delight, the cream eggs were not only delicious, but they tasted even more buttery than eggs fried in actual butter!'
How to Make Cream Eggs
The notion of 'cream eggs' was devised by Aki Kamozawa and Alex Talbot on their blog, Ideas in Food. To create the perfect caramelised egg, begin by warming the double cream in a pan. Megan utilises approximately three tablespoons of cream to prepare two eggs.
- Wait until the cream begins to simmer, then add the eggs, together with any seasoning of your preference.
- Cook until the cream starts to evaporate.
- The eggs will be ready once all the cream has evaporated and the egg whites have set.
- Megan advises removing the pan from the heat, placing a lid on top, and allowing the yolk to finish cooking using the residual heat.
Why It Works
She explained: 'When I say that the cream evaporates, that's not the whole story. Cream is mostly water, but it is also very high in fat and milk solids. As you simmer cream, the water indeed evaporates, turning into steam. However, fat and milk solids cannot evaporate, so they remain in the pan, becoming more and more concentrated. Once all the water in the cream has evaporated, the fat 'fries' the eggs, and the milk solids start to turn golden, just like when you make brown butter.'
