Still on the Farmhouse Breakfast Week theme, here’s something for a weekend breakfast when there’s a little more time to mess about. An egg in a hole.

The egg came from this hen that has laid all through the winter; the same hen that survived the fox attack. My little brown hen has just started to lay again but, so far as I know, the speckled hen with the skew-whiff back end has never laid an egg, possibly due to her anatomy. The other hens have all disappeared down the fox’s throat.

The hens are fed on the wheat that comes from our farm like this wheat being combined last summer. For a change, I didn’t grind my own flour for this bread but bought some good Strong White flour from our local miller. As my sister is one of their suppliers, I buy the flour in the unlikely hope that my particular sack of flour contains some of the wheat from her farm.

What follows is a list of instructions for cutting a hole in a piece of toast and baking it in the oven. Feel free to skip and use your initiative.  If you’re feeling romantic, then use a heart shaped cutter to make this breakfast for your dearest love.

how to make it:

Line a roasting tin with non-stick baking liner. Preheat the oven to 200C and put in your tin to heat up. Cut a thick slice of bread – at least 1cm thick otherwise your egg will overflow – and lightly toast it on both sides. Using a cutter, punch out your desired shape in the middle of your slice. Take the tin from the oven, lay your toast in it and break a very fresh egg into the hole. Throw the cut-out shape in the tray too so that it browns up a bit. Return to the oven for five or ten minutes until the egg has just set. Carefully remove from the tin and serve. I like to dip the cut-out in the egg yolk.