Creamy greens pie with baked eggs
Claire Saffitz x Dessert Person · ♥ 13.2K likes · 293.8K views · 18 min video
Read about whole eggs in the BrightCulinary Book
Timestamp
Ingredients
Method
Techniques
- 1 portion buttery pie dough
- 10 oz frozen spinach
- 8 cup torn Swiss chard leaves
- 8 cup kale
Heat the oven to 400F.
Ingredients and the carbon steel skillet
Work the chilled dough with a rolling pin to soften the butter and beat it towards a round, then roll it to about a 13-inch round for a 10-inch skillet, keeping it moving on a little bench flour.
Beating and rolling the pie dough
Roll the pastry onto the pin and unroll it into the skillet. Let it slump naturally down rather than stretching it, press the seams, and trim flush with a paring knife run along the rim.
Lining and trimming the skillet
Line the shell with a double layer of heavy duty foil laid in two directions and fill with pie weights, here four cups of dried beans.
Blanch the chard and kale in batches in boiling water a minute or two, until wilted and bright green.
- 1 whole onion
- shallot
Rinse the greens under cold water in a strainer rather than an ice bath, breaking up the pile so it does not trap heat, then wring out as much water as possible and give them a rough chop. Sixteen cups of raw greens cook down to about three.
Lift out the weights and foil and turn the oven down to 350F to bake the shell uncovered until the bottom is golden and cooked through.
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter
Melt the butter in a second 10-inch skillet started over low heat, add the chopped onion and shallot and sweat until translucent and tender, not browned.
- 1 tbsp all purpose flour
Sprinkle in the flour and stir until the onions are coated, then add the greens so the flour cooks in, driving off moisture and coating them in the fat.
- ⅔ cup heavy cream
- 7 whole eggs
- kosher salt
- black pepper
Off the heat, beat one egg in a separate bowl and stream in the heavy cream, so the egg does not scramble in the hot greens.
- dried dill
- 0.0625 tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ cup finely grated cheese
Season with dried dill, the nutmeg and plenty of black pepper, stir in the grated cheese, then fold in the greens.
Scrape the filling into the cooled crust and level it. Cracks in the crust do not matter because the filling is not liquid.
Filling the crust and cracking in the eggs
Make six evenly spaced divots in the filling with a spoon, crack an egg into each and season the eggs with salt and pepper.
- hot sauce
Bake about 25 to 30 minutes until the whites are set and the yolks jammy but not dry. It is not possible to bake eggs to a set white with a runny yolk.