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Home ► Recipes ► American

Egg in a Biscuit

Updated: 07.25.23 | Marc Matsumoto | 41 Comments

5 from 3 votes
Moist fluffy cheddar chive biscuits with a soft boiled egg inside. My secret to getting an egg with a liquid yolk inside a biscuit.
Recipe

Today I'm going to share with you one of the best things I've put into my mouth this year. It may not be much to look at from the outside, but crack these babies open and the fluffy cheddar and chive biscuit parts to reveal a soft boiled egg with a molten gold core. It may look like some kind of sorcery, but I assure you, there were no spells involved in the making of these magical biscuits.

I wish I could lay claim to this brilliant idea, but I first saw something like this at Craftsman and Wolves in San Francisco, and I believe the idea comes from Texas baked eggs, where muffin tins are lined with biscuit dough and filled with a raw egg before being baked.

The trouble with baking the eggs without being covered is that the top inevitably gets a little rubbery by the time the biscuit dough cooks through. By enclosing the whole egg in dough, it protects the egg, keeping it from drying out. Of course if you've ever worked with biscuit dough you know it's less a dough and more a batter in consistency making it virtually impossible to get a raw egg inside.

The trick is to soft boil the egg and then chill it before baking the biscuit quickly at a high temperature. The little air-pockets insulate the egg, preventing it from overcooking, giving you a moist fluffy biscuit with a luxuriously soft egg in the center.

While wrangling a soft-boiled egg is easier than trying to wrap a raw egg, it still takes a bit of finesse to get right. With a little practice and a lot of flour (on your hands), it's possible for mere mortals to get the egg inside of the cheddar-y biscuit.

The real challenge here is to boil the eggs as little as possible while still being able to peel them. If the white starts falling apart while peeling the egg, it will be almost impossible to form the biscuit dough around the eggs, so if you're not confident in your egg peeling skills, give my post on perfect boiled eggs a read and make a few extras. I've found that 4 minute eggs are pretty tough to work with, so I usually let them go for 5 minutes.

Also, keep in mind that once you mix the yogurt and dry ingredients, the baking soda will activate, leavening the biscuit with CO2, but like a baking soda volcano, its powers are finite, which is why it's important to work quickly once you've mixed the yogurt in.

Lastly, using a good quality egg with a golden yolk is obvious, but most of the flavor in this biscuit comes from the cheddar, so be sure to find the best aged clothbound cheddar you can find.

If you like the concept here, but you're more inclined to a sweet filling, check out my Peanut Butter Jelly Biscuit, which makes a magical lunch box addition.

Other Perfect Eggs

  • Best Eggs Sunny Side Up
  • Perfect Poached Eggs
  • Best Scrambled Eggs
  • The Perfect Frittata

📖 Recipe

Egg in a Biscuit

5 from 3 votes
Print Pin
Prep Time 5 minutes mins
Cook Time 12 minutes mins
Total Time 17 minutes mins
Yield 4 servings

Units

Ingredients 

  • 130 grams all-purpose flour (~1 cup)
  • 15 grams evaporated cane sugar (1 tablespoon)
  • 7.5 grams baking powder ( 1 ½ teaspoons)
  • 3 grams baking soda (½ teaspoon)
  • 3 grams salt (½ teaspoon)
  • 28.5 grams cultured unsalted butter (2 tablespoons) chilled & cut into cubes ¼-inch cubes
  • 30 grams white cheddar cut into cubes ¼ - inch cubes
  • 2 tablespoons chives chopped
  • ⅔ cup plain yogurt
  • 4 soft boiled eggs

Instructions

  • Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and preheat to 475 degrees F (245 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  • In a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to combine.
  • Distribute the butter evenly over the flour and pulse 1 full second at a time until the mixture resembles gravel. Add the cheese and pulse a few more times to break up the cheese, but be sure to leave some small chunks.
  • Transfer this mixture to a bowl and stir in the chives.
  • Shake (or whisk) the yogurt until it's thin enough to pour.
  • Add the yogurt to the the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. It's okay if it's not 100% incorporated but be careful not to overmix.
  • Working quickly, put 4 small circles of batter down on the parchment paper and top each one with an egg standing upright. Cover each egg with the remaining batter and place the pan into the pre-heated oven.
  • Bake for 4-5 minutes and then turn down the heat to 400 degrees F (200 C) and bake until the biscuits are golden brown (about another 7-10 minutes).
  • Serve hot, or transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
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Nutrition Facts

Calories • 304kcalCarbohydrates • 31gProtein • 12gFat • 14gSaturated Fat • 7gCholesterol • 192mgSodium • 626mgPotassium • 348mgSugar • 5gVitamin A • 595IUVitamin C • 0.9mgCalcium • 214mgIron • 2.5mg

Comments

    5 from 3 votes (3 ratings without comment)

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    Recipe Rating




  1. deborah knight says

    September 18, 2019 at 8:51 pm

    l have cooked these wonderful eggs before and they are yummo great to impress guests with pop it next to a slice of golden french toast topped with smoked bacon and a fried tomatoe or baby toms.

    Reply
    • Marc Matsumoto says

      September 18, 2019 at 10:16 pm

      Hi Deborah I'm glad to hear you enjoyed these. Thanks for taking the time to let me know!

      Reply
  2. Ben Carter says

    June 09, 2015 at 11:26 am

    If you poach the egg inside glad wrap or cling film there's no problem

    Reply
  3. Marc Matsumoto says

    April 25, 2015 at 5:23 pm

    Hi VN, sorry to hear it didn't work out for you. There's a couple of possibilities. The first is that your batter was too thin for some reason (probably the thickness of the yogurt you used). Did the batter look like what's in the photos in steps 6 and 7? The other possibility is that your egg was wet. If you washed your egg after peeling it and it was wet on the outside, your batter will not stay put.

    Reply
  4. VN says

    April 25, 2015 at 8:41 am

    My batter went everywhere except on top of the egg. Kept slipping off...

    Reply
  5. Marc Matsumoto says

    April 20, 2015 at 12:39 am

    Hi Cheryl, the baking soda in the biscuit dough will only be active for a short time once mixed, so you really need to bake them right away once you've added the yogurt to the mixture. You could however boil and peel the eggs, do the biscuit mixture up to step 3(and keep it in the fridge), and have the chives chopped. Then all you have to do is mix the dry stuff with the yogurt and chives and form the biscuits.

    Reply
  6. Cheryl says

    April 19, 2015 at 6:08 pm

    Is there a way I can prep these the night before, and pop them in the oven in the morning?

    Reply
  7. kelli says

    April 19, 2015 at 9:09 am

    You may find that goat milk works for you. My hubby can't have cow milk, but found the others like Rice Milk, Almond Milk, too thin to cook with, so we use goat milk.

    Reply
  8. disqus_Tv5ClP2zIs says

    April 19, 2015 at 2:58 am

    Thanks! Can't wait to make these!

    Reply
  9. Marc Matsumoto says

    April 19, 2015 at 2:02 am

    You need the acidity from the yogurt to activate the baking soda, so you can substitute any alternative milk, like soy or almond, but you'll need to add enough lemon juice to make it about as sour as yogurt. You may also need to cut back on the amount of liquid since soy milk will be much more watery than yogurt.

    Reply
  10. Marc Matsumoto says

    April 19, 2015 at 1:58 am

    Yep absolutely, but you may want to boil the eggs just short of hard-boiled otherwise the time in the oven may turn the yolks green.

    Reply
  11. Heidi says

    April 18, 2015 at 10:25 pm

    Unsweetened almond milk would probably work. Though, you might want to reduce it to 1/2 c.

    Reply
  12. Jaimy Lefort says

    April 18, 2015 at 8:00 pm

    I am lactose intolerant, any ideas what I can substitute the yogurt with?

    Reply
  13. disqus_Tv5ClP2zIs says

    April 18, 2015 at 4:49 pm

    Could this work just as well with hard (or almost)-boiled eggs? I’m not into the soft yoke, but these sound so GOOD!

    Reply
  14. Pat Jenkins says

    January 16, 2015 at 12:22 pm

    Made them - spot on. Nice job, great item! Thanks.

    Reply
  15. Marc Matsumoto says

    January 14, 2015 at 7:36 am

    Hi Pat, they're great at room temperature, but you could in theory reheat them in an oven (I would not recommend a microwave). You'll just have to be careful not to overcook the egg.

    Reply
  16. Pat Jenkins says

    January 12, 2015 at 7:00 pm

    Hi marc - can these be reheated for service if cooled and I can't serve them directly from the oven? Thanks for the great post!

    Reply
  17. Marc Matsumoto says

    October 20, 2014 at 11:22 pm

    Great point Addy, cheddar and rosemary sounds like an awesome combo!

    Reply
  18. Addy says

    October 20, 2014 at 5:15 pm

    I did this this weekend and it came out delicious!!! Thank you for this new Sunday staple! The one thing I would point out is that really any herb can be used in place of chives and any cheese (I did cheddar with rosemary), and have a ton of eggs on hand in case you screw up the first 8 like I did!

    Reply
  19. Marc Matsumoto says

    April 18, 2014 at 12:44 am

    Hi Sansei Chef, personally I like the crust that you get from having more surface area with the freeform method, but you can absolutely do these in a muffin tin and it will make them much easier to shape them. You may want to use an over-sized muffin tin though so I'm not sure you'll get a good egg to batter ratio with a regular-sized tin.

    Reply
  20. Sansei Chef says

    April 17, 2014 at 8:07 pm

    Marc, would the results be similar if you create a nest of batter in a greased muffin tin, place the boiled egg placed carefully in the nest, and then carefully cover the egg with more batter? I am thinking it would offer a more structured muffin upon baking versus the artisan look of a drop muffin, as an alternative. This recipe reminds me of a soft-cooked, vegetarian version of a Scottish egg, and is such an interesting breakfast concept that I am considering this for a food shoot featuring delicious alternatives to ordinary meals (with appropriate credits, of course!). Your culinary approach and ideas are fabulous! Domo arigato.

    Reply
  21. Svetlana Bodnya says

    March 30, 2014 at 4:13 pm

    Thank you very much for your answer! I'll try again!

    Reply
  22. Marc Matsumoto says

    March 25, 2014 at 12:45 am

    Hi Svetlana, it looks like your batter may have been a bit soft. There's a couple possibilities here. Did you use the weight measures for the flour or the cup measures? Volumetric measures (cups) are not a very accurate way of measuring ingredients that can be compressed (like flour) so if you measured this way it's possible there wasn't enough flour. The other possibility is that the yogurt you used was the thinner than the yogurt I used. In either case, just include a bit more flour next time. Did your batter look like the one in step 6? If so there is one other possibility which is that your oven may run cool. The reason for the relatively high initial temperature is to quickly set the outside before turning the heat down to bake. If you think this might be the problem, try starting off at a higher temperature. I hope that helps!

    Reply
  23. Svetlana Bodnya says

    March 24, 2014 at 5:48 pm

    Hi! I've made it and the dough has flowed... I don't know why, do you have any ideas? Thanks.

    Reply
  24. Erin Bailey says

    March 11, 2014 at 3:57 am

    It also helps with getting a nice golden brown color. Same for pancakes. Leave out the sugar and they are too pale and pasty. 🙂 I am going to try this recipe for my family for breakfast. Thanks!

    Reply
  25. equalos says

    March 01, 2014 at 10:05 pm

    My trick for peeling eggs is dipping them into cold water. I'm not really sure why, but the shells peel off really easily and makes minimal mess!

    Reply
  26. Tay Mor says

    February 26, 2014 at 7:22 pm

    kyaaaaaa!!! for a budding foodie, your site is like heaven! I love that you put everything you need! Hello bookmarking haha! I deffo want to try these out!

    Reply
  27. Marc Matsumoto says

    February 23, 2014 at 8:50 pm

    Hi Ad Hooc, it should work in theory, as long you you dry the poached eggs thoroughly using paper towels. I do think the shape will be better if you soft boil them though. If you give it a go, let us know how it goes.

    Reply
  28. Ad Hooc says

    February 23, 2014 at 6:59 pm

    What about doing them with poached eggs?

    Reply
  29. Risa says

    February 21, 2014 at 1:08 pm

    I am completely in love with this. I am on a soft boiled egg kick and can't wait to get these started!

    Reply
  30. KB says

    February 20, 2014 at 8:18 pm

    A thing of beauty. Wow!

    Reply
  31. Marc Matsumoto says

    February 20, 2014 at 1:58 am

    Hi Kaetchen, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it. Soft boiled eggs will get a little flat once peeled, so it's best to leave them in the shell until you're ready to use them. As for the sugar, it's in there for the same reason you add salt to sweet baked goods, it adds depth and balances out the salt in the cheese.

    Reply
  32. kaetchen says

    February 19, 2014 at 12:07 pm

    I made these for breakfast with friends this morning. My guests loved them! I boiled and peeled the eggs last night and got them out of the fridge as I started preparing the dough. They were flat on one side, so i just laid them on their side instead of the end. I only used one tablespoon sugar; next time I will just leave it out. Why put sugar in a savory biscuit? I salted and peppered the eggs, too. Next time I will grate the cheese, because my chunks stayed in chunks. I added a bit too much yogurt to the dough and it was too soft, but it has to be somewhat soft to get around the eggs. As they baked, the biscuits spread out and the egg showed through a bit, but they didn't dry out. This is a keeper.

    Reply
  33. Evan says

    February 18, 2014 at 9:58 pm

    i wanna try this with chunks of bacon in the batter.

    Reply
  34. Anya Rawks says

    February 18, 2014 at 3:14 pm

    I'm making this in the morning. I will eat them so fast and be so happy.

    Reply
  35. Bev @ Bev Cooks says

    February 18, 2014 at 2:23 pm

    A.MAZ.ING.

    Reply
  36. joannova says

    February 17, 2014 at 3:08 pm

    Looks like perfection to me!

    Reply
  37. Angela Roberts says

    February 17, 2014 at 2:47 am

    Wow. I consider myself a bit of a biscuit queen who loves eggs, so this really got my attention. I'm not sure if I can pull this off, but I will be trying to. The egg peeling is going to be a challenge. I get my eggs from a farmer around here, so they have those orange yolks and are wonderful.

    Reply
    • Valli Garza says

      November 15, 2019 at 1:56 am

      I wonder if baking the eggs in a muffin tin would make it easier to make in the biscuit. It might take a few tries to figure out how long to bake the egg to make it "soft boiled".

      Reply
      • Marc Matsumoto says

        November 16, 2019 at 1:38 am

        Hi Valli, that's a creative idea, but I'm not sure it will work that well. The problem is that you want the yolk to be soft and if you break the egg into a tin, the yolk will be exposed, causing it to cook through. The round flat shape of the muffin might also make it more difficult to wrap the soft biscuit dough around. If you end up trying it, let us know how it goes!

        Reply
  38. Lena Zapassky says

    February 16, 2014 at 12:19 pm

    It's good for a trip!

    Reply
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I’m Marc Matsumoto, a former chef raising a family in Tokyo, Japan. I believe anyone can become a great cook with the right ingredients and a few techniques, so I created No Recipes to help you unlock your culinary potential!

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