A traditional Easter breakfast from my family to yours.

My family may not be very religious (or religious at all really) but we do have ”meal traditions”  and this is one of them. In my family, we call it Eggs Goldenrod. Turns out that the great Martha Stewart is familiar with the recipe and also calls it Eggs Goldenrod (I always thought my family invented it). It consists of toast (usually made with good Italian bread), hard-boiled eggs, white sauce, and seasonings including paprika.

Something that I think is unique to my family, though, is that once the eggs are hard-boiled and cooled, we crack them slightly and then we dye them for Easter. Then, when it comes time to peel and separate the parts of the eggs you will have multicolored egg whites to bring some pops of color to your breakfast! The following is Martha Stewart ’s recipe for Eggs Goldenrod and it is incredibly close to my family recipe.

Eggs Goldenrod

https://www.marthastewart.com/1514636/eggs-goldenrod

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for toast
• 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 3 cups whole milk
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 6 peeled hard-boiled eggs
• 6 slices white sandwich bread
• Chopped chives and smoked paprika, for serving

Instructions

1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.
2. Add flour; whisk until nutty and golden, 1 to 2 minutes.
3. Whisk in milk; bring to a gentle boil, whisking constantly, until mixture thickens to the consistency of gravy, 4 to 5 minutes.
4. Remove from heat, season with salt and pepper, and cover to keep warm.
5. Cut eggs in half.
6. Remove yolks and press through a medium-mesh sieve, or mince them.
7. Chop whites; stir into the bechamel.
8. Toast and butter bread.
9. Divide bechamel mixture evenly among toasts; sprinkle evenly with yolks.
10. Top with chives, paprika, and pepper. Serve immediately.

Things my family does differently

After reading through Martha’s recipe for Eggs Goldenrod, I noticed several things that my family does a little differently (aside from cracking and dying the hard-boiled eggs prior to peeling). One addition that my family does is garlic powder in the bechamel sauce (white gravy sauce). This, of course, is not a required ingredient but, my family loves garlic some pretty much add it to everything. We also prefer good Italian bread instead of using a plain white sandwich bread. There is just nothing quite like a loaf of Italian bread.

Things Martha does differently

Now, while I have already pointed out that Martha doesn’t use garlic powder, doesn’t crack and dye her eggs first, and she uses white sandwich bread instead of Italian bread, I noticed a couple more differences. The first of which is that Martha butters her toast prior to adding the rest of the ingredients. As far as I know, my family has never done this. We always used dry toast, but why not butter it? So, this morning I chose to try my family’s recipe for Eggs Goldenrod with buttered toast. It was delicious! I will probably be making this a welcomed change for all future occurrences.

A second difference that I noticed between my family’s recipe for Eggs Goldenrod and Martha Stewart’s recipe for Eggs Goldenrod is the seasonings. My family typically seasons their eggs goldenrod with salt, pepper, and paprika. Martha seasons her eggs goldenrod with pepper, paprika, and chives! This was so eye-opening to me as a culinary student and home chef. I loved the idea of this addition, so I also plan to try it in the future.

However, I would encourage other home chefs that plan to make this dish that garlic powder and salt are two seasonings that should not be forgotten or overlooked. Salt and lemon juice are often added to recipes as a way to bring out the best flavors in the food itself.

This is an incredible old-school southern-style breakfast and I highly recommend it!