Cloud Eggs Recipe

Instructions

1. Step 1

   Gather the ingredients.

2. Step 2

   Preheat and oven to 400 F and arrange a baking rack in the top third of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly oil it (spray oil works nicely).

3. Step 3

   Separate the eggs , putting the yolks in a small bowl and the whites in a big bowl. If you happen to have a copper bowl for beating egg whites, this is the time to use it! Set the yolks aside.

4. Step 4

   Whisk the egg whites until they’re foamy—use the biggest whisk you have to beat as much air as possible into them.

5. Step 5

   Add the salt and keep whisking until firm peaks form—when you lift the whisk out of the whites the peak that forms should hold its shape. You can do this with electric beaters or a standing mixer, but whisking such a small number of whites goes fairly quickly by hand and is less of a clean-up hassle, plus you get just the teeniest of workouts!

6. Step 6

   Gently fold in the cheese—run a rubber or silicone spatula down along the side of the bowl, under the egg whites mixture and back up the other side of the bowl, lifting and turning the egg whites and the cheese together without causing the egg whites to lose too much of the air you've worked so hard to incorporate into them.

7. Step 7

   Spoon the egg whites in 4 equal mounds on the parchment-lined or oiled baking sheet.

8. Step 8

   Use the back of a spoon to make egg yolk-size wells in the center of each one.

9. Step 9

   Don't add the yolks yet! Bake until just starting to color - about 5 minutes.

10. Step 10

    Gently spoon a yolk into the center well of each “cloud.”

11. Step 11

    Return to the oven and bake until the yolk is runny, 3 minutes, or up to fully set, 8 minutes.

12. Step 12

    Mince the chives and/or dill and use them to garnish the cloud eggs, if you like.

13. Step 13

    Serve immediately. Cloud eggs don't store well and are not the best option for meal prepping eggs to eat another day. If you want to make eggs ahead of time, try hard-boiled eggs or a baked egg frittata or muffins.