Breakfast, Morning, Noon and Night: Egg and bacon toast muffins, recipe

Breakfast has always been the most important meal of the day, and now it‘s the most fashionable too. As the first in our new series, Indy Brunch on Saturday, we have selected a classic brunch recipe to try at home

Egg and bacon toast muffins look as good as they taste and don't require too much effort (recipe below)

Looking forward to a lie in and a lazy Saturday morning is best accompanied with a bloomin’ good breakfast. No matter if you're still an early riser on the weekends or can sleep until post-noon, there's always time to brunch.

And it has fast become the best meal of the week, from fancy porridge adorned with berries and seeds to stacks of pancakes with smoked streaky bacon.

The beauty of Fern Green's book, Breakfast, Morning, Noon and Night is all in the name – as all the recipes are suitable for anytime of the day, Monday to Sunday.

Even if you're always in a rush in the mornings, many of them can be prepared the night before and just picked up on your way out the door.

There's a dedicated section for hangovers – while it is not vital you‘re suffering to eat these – the comforting recipes from moroccan eggs to the author‘s own version of a fry up with moorish ingredients on top of a puff pastry. There's also recipes for brunch on toast, the healthy options and ideas to suit a crowd for your own brunch party.

Bacon and egg toast muffins

Makes 6 Muffins

3 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
6 medium slices white or brown bread
6 rashers (slices) smoked streaky bacon
4 spring onions (scallions), thinly sliced
6 eggs
salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 portobello mushrooms, grilled, to serve
vine tomatoes, roasted, to serve

This breakfast not only tastes great but looks really impressive, and it doesn’t take much effort. I have used normal sliced white or brown bread for this recipe, but if you wanted to go all out you could use puff pastry or even corn tortillas for those who are wheat intolerant. I like mixing it up a bit by replacing the bacon with prosciutto and adding a few sun-dried tomatoes and slices of mozzarella.

I find that a standard muffin tin works well for this recipe, but you could use ramekins or even dariole moulds. Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F/Gas 5) and grease a muffin tin with the melted butter. Flatten the slices of bread by rolling over each one a few times with a rolling pin. Use a 10 cm (41/4 in) round biscuit cutter to cut a circle out of each slice of bread.

If you don’t have one of these, you can use a pair of kitchen scissors to cut out the circle instead. Cut one of the circles in half and push one half down into a mould in the muffin tin, with the curved edge at the top, so the edges of the bread stick up out of the mould. Then push the other half in the mould so that the two halves overlap slightly and completely line the mould. If you find you have some gaps, just use some of the bread you cut off to fill them in. Brush the bread with the remaining melted butter.

In a heavy-based frying pan, fry the bacon on one side over a medium heat for 4 minutes without flipping it over. Lay a piece of bacon, cooked side down, into each muffin cup. Sprinkle some spring onion evenly over the bacon and then crack an egg into each muffin cup.

Season and bake for 20 minutes in the oven. Run a small knife around the bread, which will now be toasted, and pop out each muffin from the tin. Serve immediately with a large grilled mushroom and some roasted vine tomatoes to make a complete dish. Otherwise these are great on their own for a complete elevenses.