Brekkie Slice

Photographer: Adam
Makes 6 slices

Every week, twice a week Lauren (fellow blogger) and I bake for the Dunedin office; the population of which is predominantly male, which worked out perfectly for this months’ theme of ‘blokes’ food.  In the past our efforts to create beautiful cupcakes, and slightly adventurous spinach and feta parcels, didn’t go down too well. The men in our office like meat, pastry and cheese.

Recently, I remembered a brilliant ‘blokey’ recipe from when I was living in Western Australia; it used to sell-out in the café I worked in, without fail every day – always to the tradesmen who would stop off on their way to work. So I decided to try and replicate the formula, to see how it worked in our office.

Suffice to say, after all the slices disappearing almost instantly, and several congratulatory emails on the deliciousness of the slice (Our engineers are a polite bunch!) I think we can call it a success…

Below are the steps to the ‘brekkie slice’. Enjoy

INGREDIENTS


Flaky puff pastry (3 sheets)
1 ½ onions (diced)
250g Bacon (roughly chopped)
250g Cheese (grated)
7 eggs

METHOD


1. Preheat your oven to 170º on Bake
2. Line a baking sheet with baking paper (to save making a mess) and lay out one whole pastry sheet, as well as half of another one. Lay the ‘half’ slightly over the other piece of pastry so it overlaps. Gently push together to form one long piece, approximately 33cm x 22cm.
3. Cover the pastry with the diced onions, leaving around half an inch clear at each edge. Do the same with the roughly chopped bacon and 3/4 of the cheese.
4. Create 6 little wells (see the picture below) in the mixture. These wells will each hold an egg. The idea is there enough onion/bacon/cheese mixture ‘supporting’ each well to contain an egg*.
5. Crack an egg into each well.
6. Whisk the final egg and with a pastry brush paint the edges of the pastry.
7. Place the remaining sheet of pastry over the mixture and push gently onto the edges to seal. Repeat step 2 with regards to the ‘half’ sheet of pastry which is leftover.
8. Cover the top pastry with the remaining beaten egg. This will give a nice glossy finish to the pastry once cooked. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and bake for 45-50 minutes. The pastry should puff up and turn a gorgeous golden brown.
9. Once cooled, cut into 6 pieces, ensuring each piece has a whole egg inside

*occasionally you will get a bit of egg spillage out of the side of the slice before or during baking. This doesn’t matter, just remove it from the slice once cooled; (purely for aesthetic reasons) – it will still taste delicious.