Who Cooked It Better? Eggs Benedict

No One Puts Cupcakes in a Corner takes the cake in last week’s Who Cooked It Better, racking up 61 percent of the vote for her dark chocolate bacon cupcake.

With Mother’s Day around the corner, I thought it would be fun to explore that ultimate brunch food, Eggs Benedict. Searching around the Interwebs for creative Eggs Benedict recipes was an appetite-whetting endeavor indeed, and I am just about ready to take a bath in egg yolk right now.

Of course, you can’t get too creative with the way you prepare this dish, as there are only so many ways to poach an egg, and hollandaise sauce is complex enough that it shouldn’t be trifled with. But here are four recipes that offer cool alternatives to the traditional Eggs Benedict. Yes, I know, getting creative makes it technically not Eggs Benedict, but these four recipes sound delicious, plus they are all friggin beautiful.

The recipe on the top left is from Jamie over at Cheese ‘N Things. Her “Eggs Jamie” has tastiness piled so high that hollandaise sauce seems unnecessary. The poached eggs are served on a bed of balsamic-upped arugula, which is mixed with crispy prosciutto and shavings of parmagiano reggiano, and the whole thing is topped with caramelized red onions. I love how instead of going for the money shot (runny yolk everywhere), she presents the egg just as it’s ready to burst. So much anticipation. Full recipe here.

The top right dish is from Julie of the Dinner with Julie blog, who, as you might gather, is chronicling a year in her kitchen. (Aside: Check out her bageleggs – how cool is that?) Julie’s Benedict uses a crabcake as a base instead of the muffin, and puts a cool spin on the hollandaise sauce with a lightened lemon-basil recipe. Complete recipe here.

The bottom-left Benedict is the traditionalist version, although it does make me think – I have never been served Eggs Benedict with a beautiful thick slice of Country Ham like Closet Cooking dishes up here. Usually you can barely taste the puny slice of Canadian bacon under the runny egg yolk and hollandaise, but this hunk of ham really completes the dish. Now this is one version that pays respect to the pig. Recipe here.

I stumbled upon this last photo over at Noshtalgia, who is noshtalgizing about “Italian Eggs Benedict” and points us to Lucahjin’s stream on flickr. Lucahjin put together this simple/genius creation – a poked poached egg swimming in a pool of tomato sauce and chickpeas. Brilliant!

So….

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Photos: Cheese ‘N Things, Dinner with Julie, Closet Cooking, Flickr user Lucahjin.