English Breakfast Bread

The idea came from Korean egg bread, gyeran bbang, which I gave a savoury British twist. English Breakfast Bread packs everything you love about a full English into one brunch bake: eggs, bacon, tomatoes, chipolata sausages, cheddar and a little fresh oregano, all on a soft, fluffy base.

Best of all it comes together fast and is ready in about 20 minutes, so it suits a busy morning or a lazy weekend. Bake it in a cast-iron pan, a cake tin, or a baking tray, whatever you have.

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What Goes On Top

The version in the card is the full English one: eggs, streaky bacon, chipolata sausages, tomato and cheddar. The base does not care what sits on it, though, so treat that as a starting point rather than a rule.

Black pudding is the obvious British addition, and it wants slicing thin so it heats through in the time the bake takes. Mushrooms and spinach both want cooking first and squeezing dry, because either one raw will put water into the batter and leave you with a soggy patch. Baked beans go on after it comes out, spooned over the slice, rather than into the oven where they dry into a skin.

On cheese, cheddar is there for flavour rather than stretch. Mozzarella gives you the pull and much less taste, so use both if you want the look. Feta and blue cheese do not melt in the same way at all, they soften and stay in place, which is fine and worth knowing before you scatter them and wait.

Chorizo works because it renders its own paprika fat into the base as it bakes, the same job the bacon is doing. Kimchi is a nod to where the idea came from, and it needs draining first for the same reason the mushrooms do.

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Which Pan to Bake It In

A cast iron pan is the one I reach for, and not only because it looks the part. It holds heat, so you can warm the base on the hob for a minute before it goes in the oven and the batter starts setting from underneath straight away. That head start is most of the reason a bread this thick can be done in a quarter of an hour.

A cake tin gives you a deeper, softer bread and needs the full bake without the hob trick, since a thin tin will scorch on a burner. A baking tray gives you the opposite: a thin base with more room for toppings, more crust and less crumb.

Whichever you use, the thing to judge is the depth of the batter rather than the width of the pan. This is a small quantity, and it wants to go in as a thin even layer with room left for everything sitting on it. Spread into too big a tray and you get a crisp savoury pancake; crowd it into something small and the middle is still wet when the bacon is done. Grease it properly with butter either way, corners included.

A few options if you are buying:

• Lodge Cast Iron Skillet - Perfect for even cooking and a timeless addition to any kitchen.
• Non-Stick Round Cake Tin - Ideal for thicker breakfast bread and easy to clean.
• Large Baking Tray with Handles - Great for a flatter bread and easier slicing.

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Equipment You’ll Need

Short list here, though the pan does most of the work.

A Closer Look at the Ingredients

There is no yeast in this and nothing to prove. The base is a batter, closer to a thick pancake mix than a dough, and it rises in the oven rather than on the worktop.

• Plain flour and baking powder A hundred grams of flour and a teaspoon of baking powder. Self-raising flour is the same thing sold ready mixed, at roughly five to seven grams of baking powder to every hundred of flour, so if that is what you have in the cupboard use it and leave the spoonful out.
• Egg and milk One egg and fifty millilitres of milk bind the flour and set it. That is a stiff batter by design, thick enough to hold a sausage half where you put it rather than letting everything slide into the middle.
• Sugar, salt and black pepper A teaspoon of sugar for colour more than sweetness, and pepper in the batter as well as over the top, so the bread itself is seasoned and not just the things on it.
• Chipolatas, cooked They go on already cooked and cut lengthways, cut side down. Fifteen minutes will not cook a raw sausage through, and half a cooked one lies flat and browns instead of rolling about.
• Streaky bacon, sliced small Streaky rather than back, because the fat renders into the base as it bakes. Cut it into pieces rather than laying whole rashers on: small pieces crisp in the time the bread takes, and a whole rasher will not.
• Eggs, tomato and cheddar The eggs are cracked straight onto the batter and want a flat spot each. Tomato thick sliced, not thin, or it collapses to water. Cheddar grated into the gaps, where it also stops the bare batter drying out.
• Oregano and brown sauce Both after the oven rather than before. Herbs scorch at this heat, and brown sauce is mostly sugar and vinegar, which catches.

How to Make English Breakfast Bread, Step by Step

Everything lands in one pan and the whole thing is over in about twenty minutes, so have the sausages cooked and the bacon cut before you mix anything.

1. Heat the oven to 200C and grease the pan. Butter, and go round the sides as well as the base, because the batter climbs a little as it rises and sticks where it lands. Get this done first: baking powder starts working the moment it meets the milk, so you want the oven at temperature before the batter exists rather than after.
2. Mix the batter. Flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and pepper in the bowl first, stirred together dry so the raising agent is spread through the flour rather than sitting in one corner of it. Then the egg and the milk, whisked in until it is smooth. Lumps here are pockets of dry flour that will still be dry when you cut it, so keep going until the whisk moves through cleanly.
3. Spread it and load it. Push the batter flat into the pan, corners included, then crack the eggs onto it first and give each one a bit of space. They are the only topping that needs a level surface, and cracking them last means dropping them onto sausage and tomato where the white runs away down the sides. Sausage halves cut side down next, then the tomato, then the bacon, then cheddar into the gaps. Keep the bacon on top of the cheese rather than under it, so the oven can actually reach it.
4. Give it a minute on the hob, then bake for thirteen to fourteen minutes. If you are using cast iron, set it over a medium burner for about a minute before it goes in the oven. The base starts to set from underneath, which is what lets a bread this thick come out done in the time the eggs need. Then straight into the oven, and judge it by the eggs rather than the clock. The whites want to be just opaque all over, with the yolks still soft, and the edges of the bread pulling away from the pan.
5. Oregano, sauce, and cut it in the pan. Scatter the herbs over as it comes out, when the heat is enough to bring them out and not enough to burn them. Brown sauce at the table. Let it settle for a couple of minutes before you cut it, or the yolks run straight off the slice.

Recipe Card for English Breakfast Bread

Recipe Card

English Breakfast Bread

A full English baked into a bread: eggs, bacon, chipolatas, tomato and cheddar on a thin batter base, cooked in one pan in about twenty minutes. My own idea, borrowed from Korean egg bread.

★★★★★ 5 from 1 vote · Rate this recipe

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Prep

10 min

Cook

13 min

Total

23 min

Serves

2

Per serving

730 kcal

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2 servings

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Equipment I Use

Mixing BowlWhiskCast Iron PanMeasuring SpoonsSpatula

Ingredients

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Ingredients for the Bread:

100 g Plain flour 1 tsp Baking powder 1 tsp Sugar 1/4 tsp Salt 1/4 tsp Black pepper 1 Large egg 50 ml Milk 1 tsp Butter , (for greasing the pan)

Topping Ingredients:

4 Chipolata sausages, (cooked) I used Cumberland type cut in half. 2 Eggs 1 Large Tomato , thickly sliced 2 slices Streaky Unsmoked Bacon , sliced 50 g Cheddar Cheese, grated Black pepper, to your taste Oregano , for garnish Brown sauce, or any other sauce that you like

Instructions

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1

Preheat Your Oven

Set your oven to 200°C (392°F). While it heats, grease your cast iron pan with butter to prevent sticking.

2

Prepare the Batter

In a mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and black pepper together dry, so the raising agent is spread evenly through the flour. Whisk in the egg and the milk until the batter is completely smooth, with no pockets of dry flour left.

3

Assemble the Bread

Spread the batter flat in the greased pan, corners included. Crack the eggs onto it first, giving each one its own space: they are the only topping that needs a level surface, and cracking them last means dropping them onto sausage and tomato where the white runs off. Then the sausage halves cut side down, the tomato slices, the bacon pieces, and finally the cheddar into the gaps. Keep the bacon sitting on top of the cheese rather than buried under it, so the oven can reach it. Sprinkle with black pepper.

4

Bake to Perfection

If using a cast iron pan, heat the bottom on the stove for one minute to give the bread a head start. Then, transfer it to the oven and bake for 13 to 14 minutes or until the bread is golden, the eggs are set, and the toppings are bubbling.

5

Garnish and Serve

Remove the pan from the oven and garnish with fresh oregano. Brown sauce at the table. Let it settle for a couple of minutes before cutting, or the yolks run straight off the slice. It is also very good cold the next day.

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Chef’s notes＋

Cut the bacon small and keep it on top of the cheese, not under it. Small pieces crisp in the time the bread takes; a whole rasher, or thick cut bacon, will not. If you want it crisper, fry it for a couple of minutes before it goes on.

Judge it by the eggs, not the clock. The whites want to be opaque all over with the yolks still soft. Whites set at about 65C but firm up hard by 80C, so a couple of extra minutes is the difference between tender and rubbery. They keep setting out of the oven.

Self-raising flour instead? Use it and leave the baking powder out. Self-raising is plain flour with baking powder already in it, about the same amount the recipe adds. Both together and it rises fast, sinks in the middle and tastes soapy.

Crack the eggs on first, straight onto the flat batter, before the sausage and tomato go on. Onto lumpy toppings the whites run down the sides and set unevenly.

The hob minute matters if you are using cast iron - it sets the base from underneath and is most of the reason this bakes in a quarter of an hour. Skip it for a thin cake tin, which will scorch on a burner.

Nutrition per serving＋

730 kcalProtein 38 gCarbs 43 gFat 44 gSat fat 17 gFibre 3 gSugar 4 gSodium 1584 mgServing 355 g

English Breakfast Bread · https://chefsbinge.com/english-breakfast-bread/

Check out my other Recipes:

Love baking your own bread? Try my Quick and Easy Sourdough Bread Recipe, Authentic Greek Flatbread and Chicken Shawarma with Laffa Bread.

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Storing, Freezing and Reheating

It is at its best straight out of the pan, and it is genuinely good cold the next day, which is not true of many things with a fried egg on. Cool it completely, wrap it and keep it in the fridge for two days. Leaving a slice out on the side all day is the one thing not to do: there is egg, bacon and sausage on it, so treat it like any other cooked breakfast.

Slices freeze well for a month. Freeze them flat on a tray first and bag them once they are firm, or they weld together. To reheat, ten minutes at 180C brings the base back and crisps the bacon again, from frozen or from the fridge. A toaster works for a thin tray-baked slice and will make a mess of a deep one, and a microwave turns the base to a flannel.

FAQ for English Breakfast Bread

A Few Words from the Chef

A note from the chef: English Breakfast Bread is my own creation. Once you really understand the science behind cooking, you can start to play - so I took the flavours of a full English breakfast and baked them into a loaf. It is a little different, but it works beautifully. That is the joy of cooking for me: understand the process and the nature of your ingredients, and you can invent something new that still tastes great. In the end it is all science and nature - the way of things.