During the holidays, Pete and I didn’t get to our local produce markets, so when we finally made it there, I got a little carried away at the egg stall. Normally I’d buy a tray of 30 free-range eggs (for an outrageously cheap $6) – enough to tide us over for a fortnight – and occasionally I’ll splurge on some duck eggs for baking.
Last week I bought a standard tray and a dozen duck eggs, forgetting that I had a carton at home that I’d purchased – reluctantly – from the supermarket to see us through the festive season. Then our wonderful egg man decided to give me an extra tray of tiny eggs as a New Year’s gift. And all of a sudden, I had eighty-four eggs in the fridge, and there weren’t any fruit cakes or Christmas presents left to be baked!
Of course, the market eggs are always super-fresh, which means they’ll be fine for at least a month in the fridge. But it’s still a lot of eggs, so here’s what I’ve been doing to reduce the glut.
I thought about making some lemon curd, but we’ve got so much jars of jam open in the fridge at the moment that we might not get to it.
Instead, I baked Dan Lepard’s Chocolate Brandy Layer Cake, following his instructions here. I omitted the hazelnuts, since there weren’t any in the pantry. We ended up with an excess of custard frosting, which I thinned with a little milk and then churned into hazelnut chocolate icecream. Five eggs down…
I made two batches of shortbread cookie freezer dough, which needed six egg yolks, and turned the whites into meringues (half of which went into the freezer as well)…
Joanna’s kugelhopf recipe used up a further four eggs…and turning the leftovers into bread and butter pudding should account for another five!
Lastly, I made scotched egg meatloaf – four baby boiled eggs in the middle, and one egg as binder. It’s topped with roasted tomato passata and slices of dry cured pancetta.
I’d be grateful for any other suggestions….I’ve been thinking about making pickled eggs, but I’m not sure the boys will eat them!
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Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
