Low Carb Easter Brunch
Happy Easter! I've been uninspired to cook lately so when the opportunity presents itself to cook for people or with people, I'm all in. Luckily the holidays present the opportunity to do both. Growing up Easter was my favorite holiday. I feel like Thanksgiving and Christmas can be so stressful, but easter is always light and relaxing. We would often go to my grandma's and have two very distinct memories. We would do egg hunts in the yard, and one year we dyed the eggs and used them for the hunt. I don't know what happened, but 12 eggs went out, and 11 came back, and of course, the one that went missing was THE BEST ONE.
The other was when the Easter bunny left the basket within snouts reach of my Grandma's mini schnauzer, L'Chaim. Unlucky for us both, L'Chaim got into MY easter basket and ate my chocolate caramel bunny. I guess that morning was a little chaotic as we were trying to unhinge the dog's jaw and I was very unhappy since I didn't get the chocolate bunny. Oh well.
In college, I would spend Easter at my roommate's parents house as they were closer than my parents. Let me tell you, they have the most epic egg hunt. Kathryn, Jade, and I ran around the house and through the foot of snow covering the yard to collect as many plastic eggs as possible. Kathryn won, but only because she was prepared with snowboots and I was in moccasins, though I'm sure home court advantage helped too. Needless to say, we all ate plenty of delicious food and candy.
This year, I asked Paisley if she wanted to do a small Easter brunch because we both were in town with nothing else going on. A few weeks ago, she made these beautiful eggs' benedicts for her husband's birthday, and I knew I needed them in my life. So I set out and made some oopsie pies - a gluten free substitute for English muffins. They contain only four ingredients - eggs, cream cheese, salt, and cream of tartar - and are surprisingly good.
We topped one of our benedicts with avocado, smoked salmon, and spicy hollandaise, while the other had cream cheese, capers, shallots, smoked salmon, and dill. Perfectly poached eggs by Paisley topped the benedicts, and we dug in. With brunch, we had grapefruit mimosas, lemon loaf (coming soon), and lots of laughs. A great way to spend Easter Sunday. Now I am trying to clean my apartment and get ready for the week ahead. I'd rather still be brunching.
Recipe for the oopsie pies and hollandaise sauce below.
Oopsie Pies
3 eggs, separated
3 ounces cream cheese, cold and cubed
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
Preheat oven to 300-degrees Fahrenheit
In a stand mixer, or with a hand mixer, whip egg whites and cream of tartar together until stiff peaks form. You should be able to turn the bowl upside down and not have the egg whites fall down. The stiffer the peaks, the fluffier the pies will be. Set aside.
In another bowl, mix the egg yolks, cream cheese, and salt together until smooth. Fold egg whites into egg yolk mixture and spoon out onto a cookie sheet lined with greased parchment paper. Bake until puffy and golden brown - about 25 -30 minutes.
Immersion Blender Hollandaise Sauce
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon water
1 teaspoon lemon juice
pinch of salt
pinch of cayenne pepper (or to taste)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
In a tall bowl or pitcher that comes with your immersion blender, add egg yolk, water, lemon juice, salt, and cayenne pepper. Place the immersion blender in the container with your ingredients and turn it on its highest speed. While continuing to blend, slowly pour in the melted butter, creating an emulsion. The sauce will turn pale in color and be the consistency of mayo. Use immediately.