I never ate an egg in a hole before I made them for my kids last week.

Even then, I only ate their scraps.

I'm not sure why, but my mom never made them for us when we were kids.

I love fried eggs, though, and I like buttered toast a lot (gluten-free toast for me, thanks), so I think they are a nice treat.

My kids eat one thing for lunch day after day: chicken nuggets. As much a failure of my imagination as their pickiness, their lunch choice is easy but bugs me greatly.

Their idea of variety is having chicken nuggets from different sources in the same week.

One day last week, they were both complaining of hunger on the way home from errands. I'm not sure how or why, but egg in a hole popped into my mind, and I asked if they'd eat an egg for lunch. They both said they would, so when we got home, I made them.

It was easy to make, but it took me quite a few failures to get two where both the toast and the egg were cooked to perfection.

Here's how to do it yourself:

How to Cook an Egg in a Hole for Your Valentine

My picky eater ate two whole eggs and two whole pieces of bread, raving about it the whole time. My less picky eater (surprisingly) just picked the bread off of the egg. Either way, it wasn't chicken nuggets and they both ate, so it was a win.

Note – My cookie cutter was just a little too big for my bread, and it cut the bread apart in one spot. If this happens to you, don't worry. After breaking the egg into the hole, carefully hold the bread together until the egg begins to turn white. Once that happens, it will seal the bread shut and no more egg will leak out. Do be careful, though, because you're holding bread in a very hot pan.

How to Cook an Egg in a Hole for Your Valentine

5 from 2 votes

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Ingredients

1-2 tablespoons butter
1 egg
1 piece bread (works best if the bread is frozen, but this is not a requirement)
heart-shaped cookie cutter (could use a circle or a drinking glass, too)

Instructions

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Get the pan nice and hot.
Melt butter in the center of the skillet. Before it's completely melted, move the pat of butter to the side of the pan to make a small puddle of butter there, as well.
Cut the center out of the bread.
Lay the bread in the center of the skillet and the cut out in the small puddle of butter to the side.
Immediately crack the egg into the well in the bread. I broke the yolks so they'd cook hard, but you don't have to do that if you like your eggs dippy.
Wait 2-3 minutes, until the egg white are beginning to firm up, and carefully flip the whole thing. (Also flip the cut out on the side of the pan.)
Wait another couple of minutes and check to see if the egg whites are firm (and the yolk if that's your preference). The bread should be toasted but not burned.
To serve, top the egg with the toasted cut out.