After I decided to make scallion pancakes for my cousins' post-race brunch, I had the happy problem of having some extra focaccia dough; the scallion pancakes only require half of a batch. I decided to use the other half to make some of "Flour's Famous Egg Sandwiches." I have been to Flour Bakery in Boston, but I've never had the egg sandwich. It's just not my nature to order savory food at a bakery (similarly, the reason I waited so long to purchase Flour, Too is because
I knew that the cookbook contains mostly savory recipes). But these sandwiches seemed like a great choice for the brunch because you can prepare the eggs ahead of time instead of having to cook them to order.
I baked the focaccia rolls the day before the brunch. Basically you just divide the dough into pieces (the recipe says to use a half batch of focaccia dough and divide it into four pieces, but this looked like a lot of dough and so I divided the dough into six parts instead); form each piece into a taut ball; proof the rolls until they have doubled in size; sprinkle the rolls with flour; deflate them; and bake. Deflating them right before baking was a little scary. Specifically, the recipe says to "slap each ball flat with the palm of your hand to deflate it." The rolls looked nice and round and puffy after proofing, but slapping the dough deflated them into sad, wrinkly, shapeless puddles of dough. I was a little worried what they would look like after baking. Fortunately, they baked into relatively smooth rolls, although they were on the flat side. I didn't mind the flatter shape, because I don't like eating sandwiches on rolls that are so tall that they're difficult to fit into your mouth.
To make the egg portion of the sandwich, you beat eggs with half and half and salt and pour the mixture into an oiled cake pan. You cover the pan with foil and cook the eggs in a bain marie in the oven, pulling them out halfway through the baking process to sprinkle on black pepper and thyme. The recipe says this should take about 40 minutes total but my eggs were still quite jiggly after 40 minutes, and so I left the eggs in the oven for an extra 10 minutes. After you take the eggs out of the oven, you slice them into individual patties. You can store them in the refrigerator if you've made them ahead.
To assemble the sandwiches, I spread a mixture of mayonnaise and dijon mustard on the bottom half of each focaccia roll, and then stacked on some spring greens, an egg patty, and cheddar cheese. I put them in the oven for a few minutes to warm up the egg and melt the cheese. Then I topped the rolls with some black forest ham, a slice of tomato, and the top half of the roll (also spread with mayo and dijon). As it turned out, everyone arrived at our house after the race at varying times, so the flexibility of being able to quickly assemble and warm up sandwiches on demand worked out great.
Everyone was a big fan of the fluffy egg patty as well as the homemade focaccia roll. I was expecting the structure of the focaccia to be a bit more open (with larger and more irregular air holes), but it had a relatively small and even crumb. The bread was delicious, although I have to say that it's a lot of effort to go to for a sandwich roll, so I'm not sure if I would make my own rolls very often. But regardless of what bread you use, these egg patties are a great way to be able to serve egg sandwiches to a crowd without having to stand over a hot stove the entire time.
We rounded out the brunch menu with some pumpkin cake doughnuts, Benton's bacon, a Spanish tortilla, and fresh fruit. Tom and I were able to complete enough of the food prep ahead of time so that we only needed to spend a minimal amount of time in the kitchen during brunch, allowing us to kick back and enjoy the time with family. I couldn't have been more pleased with the way everything turned out.
Recipe: "Flour's Famous Egg Sandwich" and "Flour Focaccia" from Flour, Too by Joanne Chang; you can watch a video of Joanne making this sandwich here.
Previous Post: "Off to the Races: Scallion Pancakes," March 6, 2015.
I baked the focaccia rolls the day before the brunch. Basically you just divide the dough into pieces (the recipe says to use a half batch of focaccia dough and divide it into four pieces, but this looked like a lot of dough and so I divided the dough into six parts instead); form each piece into a taut ball; proof the rolls until they have doubled in size; sprinkle the rolls with flour; deflate them; and bake. Deflating them right before baking was a little scary. Specifically, the recipe says to "slap each ball flat with the palm of your hand to deflate it." The rolls looked nice and round and puffy after proofing, but slapping the dough deflated them into sad, wrinkly, shapeless puddles of dough. I was a little worried what they would look like after baking. Fortunately, they baked into relatively smooth rolls, although they were on the flat side. I didn't mind the flatter shape, because I don't like eating sandwiches on rolls that are so tall that they're difficult to fit into your mouth.
To make the egg portion of the sandwich, you beat eggs with half and half and salt and pour the mixture into an oiled cake pan. You cover the pan with foil and cook the eggs in a bain marie in the oven, pulling them out halfway through the baking process to sprinkle on black pepper and thyme. The recipe says this should take about 40 minutes total but my eggs were still quite jiggly after 40 minutes, and so I left the eggs in the oven for an extra 10 minutes. After you take the eggs out of the oven, you slice them into individual patties. You can store them in the refrigerator if you've made them ahead.
Everyone was a big fan of the fluffy egg patty as well as the homemade focaccia roll. I was expecting the structure of the focaccia to be a bit more open (with larger and more irregular air holes), but it had a relatively small and even crumb. The bread was delicious, although I have to say that it's a lot of effort to go to for a sandwich roll, so I'm not sure if I would make my own rolls very often. But regardless of what bread you use, these egg patties are a great way to be able to serve egg sandwiches to a crowd without having to stand over a hot stove the entire time.
We rounded out the brunch menu with some pumpkin cake doughnuts, Benton's bacon, a Spanish tortilla, and fresh fruit. Tom and I were able to complete enough of the food prep ahead of time so that we only needed to spend a minimal amount of time in the kitchen during brunch, allowing us to kick back and enjoy the time with family. I couldn't have been more pleased with the way everything turned out.
Recipe: "Flour's Famous Egg Sandwich" and "Flour Focaccia" from Flour, Too by Joanne Chang; you can watch a video of Joanne making this sandwich here.
Previous Post: "Off to the Races: Scallion Pancakes," March 6, 2015.
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