The Best Breakfast Pies and The Hairdresser

I might have mentioned Archie left boarding school with the highest number of detentions on record.  There were many different kinds of detentions, the worst of which were ‘Saturdays’.  ‘Saturdays’ went for three hours and prevented the student from doing what they’d really like to be doing like playing sport or having free-time or sleeping in or just being at home.

When Archie was in Year 8 there was a boy in his Year who was also in his boarding house called Will.  Once a week before school the boys would have compulsory chapel service.  Before the service the boys would have to line up outside the chapel in rows and be inspected by the school’s Sergeant for uniform discrepancies.  One day Will was singled out for having hair that was touching his collar and his ears, both of which were crimes, and warned that he had one week to fix his hair or he would be given a ‘Saturday’.

The Best Breakfast Pies


Well Will forgot about the threat until the it was time for the next Chapel service.  Then he flew into a panic.  He ran through the boarding house looking for someone to help him but all the boys had already left the house and were walking to the chapel.  All except for Archie who was lingering and loitering in the study room.  With a look of reluctance Will asked Archie to cut his hair.  Archie refused.  Will begged.  Archie had only cut hair once before and that was when he was two and he gave his sister a haircut and that didn’t end well.  Archie said, ‘I don’t think I’m any good at cutting hair’.  Will was desperate.  ‘You know everyone’s already left for chapel.  You’re my only hope’.

What are mates for!  Archie felt obliged to help him out so he found a pair of paper-cutting scissors and sat Will down and as time was of the essence, Archie quickly trimmed around the perimeter of Will’s head clearing the ears and the collar very well and giving him an appalling bowl-cut.  And then Archie thought he should give him a few layers to make it a more modern cut so he hacked into his hair giving him a few ‘steps’.

After he’d finished, Archie stepped back from his work and was horrified.  What he’d done to Will was atrocious.  He said, ‘Sorry mate, it’s the best I could do’.  Will had a quick glimpse of his new hair-do in a dimly lit mirror and said, ‘Oh, shit’, and then the two of them sped off to Chapel.  If only I had a photo!

A great way to start the day

They arrived outside the chapel just before the service started and stood in their line that was in the front row.  Their house master walked past and after walking by Will he suddenly stopped and back-tracked.  ‘Who the hell cut your hair?’ he asked.  And Will said, ‘It was Archie, sir’.  And the house master became very angry and yelled, ‘Right Archie, you’ve got a Friday detention for cutting Will’s hair and Will you’ve got a Friday detention for asking Archie to do it’.

Friday detentions went for an hour and a half.  Usually you had to write lines, pick up rubbish, weed garden beds or prune bushes.  Archie’s house master made the boys clear land – with no tools.  The next week Will was taken to the local shopping centre and given a proper hair cut.

Nobody ever again asked Archie to cut their hair.

Prior to chapel the boys would have to run to breakfast.  Eggs were always on offer but nothing like these breakfast pies.

A pretty breakfast

The Best Breakfast Pies

Makes:  6

Degree of Difficulty:  2/5

Cost:  These can be made using regular ingredients that are all affordable.  I only needed to buy basil and filo pastry.

  • 6 sheets filo pastry
  • 30g butter, melted
  • 1 tbspn olive oil
  • 2 rindless bacon rashers, finely chopped
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
  • 400g tin Ardmona crushed tomatoes
  • 1/2 tspn sugar
  • 1 tspn balsamic vinegar
  • handful of basil leaves, roughly chopped
  • salt and pepper to season
  • 6 tspns thickened cream
  • 6 organic or free-range very fresh eggs
  • a few chives, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 180C (or 160C if Fan-Forced).

Lightly brush a muffin tin (large capacity holding 6) with melted butter.

Take a sheet of filo pastry and brush with melted butter.  Fold the pastry into thirds so you have a rectangle, then fold again so it becomes a square.  Place the square of filo into one of the muffin holes, then repeat 5 more times.

In a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat, add olive oil.  Add bacon and onion and cook until bacon is crispy and the onion transparent, stirring frequently to avoid mixture catching on the bottom of the pan.  Add garlic and cook until fragrant.

Add tomatoes, sugar, vinegar and basil and gently simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 10 mins.  Season.

Spoon mixture into filo molds.  Pour 1 tsp of cream over the top of the tomato mixture into each pie.  (You can be more generous if you desire).  Carefully crack an egg into the top of each pie.

Place in the oven for 20 mins or until egg is just set.

Sprinkle with freshly ground pepper and chives.

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Comments

  1. Must have been a doozy of a haircut! Wish I’d seen it. 🙂

  2. Oh I just love those pies! Great project for the weekend!|
    Hugs Charlie!

  3. When I was first married a million years ago and we were both in university and poor, my husband said, “you can cut my hair, it’s easy.”  I kept evening up his sides  until all he had was a bit of a mohawk.  LOL  He never asked again.

    I bought filo yesterday and I think I’ll try your pies tomorrow.  🙂

  4. Oh my gosh I love this breakfast idea!

  5. I remember those school ‘friend’ hair cuts.  They were always horrendous, I can only imagine a cut with blunt scissors!  Great breakfast pies.  Perfect for a weekend with lots of friends staying over.  GG

  6. Mandy - The Complete Cook Book says:

    Poor Archie getting into trouble for helping his mate!  Scrumity breakie.
    🙂 Mandy

  7. This would be great for the dinner too!

  8. The pies are fabulous!  Such a pretty presentation and pretty simple, too.  Love this idea.

  9. Green Dragonette says:

     

    Wow Charlie-these look and sound fantastic! Must give them a
    go. I’ll skip the bacon as I don’t eat meat but pop in a few black olives
    instead and they should be scrumptious…many thanks again for the idea!

  10. Choc Chip Uru says:

    Will is brave indeed! I can’t even imagine asking my friends to cut my hair! But so unfair that they got in trouble for trying to keep out of it!
    Also loving looking breakfast pies my friend 😀

    Cheers
    CCU
    http://gobakeyourself.wordpress.com/

  11. Kids and their hair!  Well, everyone and their hair, I suppose.  Always an issue of sorts.  Poor boys, to get detention for what should be a simple, personal thing!  I’m on Archie’s side here!

    Love the look of these.  I wonder if they would also work with corn tortillas.  I feel some experimentation coming up.

  12. Niasunset says:

    This is so beautiful… I am sure it is delicious too, but the way of its serve is amazing, so artistic… What a beautiful breakfast… My eyes first of all taste this… Thank you dear Charlie, love, nia 

  13. Poor Archie agreeing to help a friend in a jam out and poor Wil who obviously didn’t have very good luck in finding a prospective barber. 🙂 I wish you had the pictures to share as well. They must have been a hoot.

     That sounds like a lovely breakfast egg pie. I’d be too lazy to cook the tomatoes/garlic etc and probably just dice up some leftover bacon, and sprinkle it over a tablespoon of jarred salsa and then break the egg on top. My take on heuvos rancheros. 🙂

  14. AnnGMorrone says:
  15. Hi,
    Oh I would of loved to have seen a photo of that haircut. 🙂

    Your breakfast pies look delicious, and very easy to do I will definitely have a go at this one.

  16. I love your stories Charlie, that Archie certainly got himself into some interesting predicaments. Knowing you are not meant to be a barber at an early age is a good thing.
    I love this recipe for the eggs, I’m going to make them when we visit our friends from Illinois at their lake house in Wisconsin.
    Eva http://kitcheninspirations.wordpress.com

  17. Jed Gray (sportsglutton) says:

    Those breakfast pies look awesome Charlie.  My kind of “fix me up” in the morning food. 🙂

  18. I love hearing your family stories! They crack me up every time. The breakfast pies are gorgeous and look delicious. What are bacon rashers?

  19. Juliet Batten says:

    The breakfast pies look so attractive – unlike that hair cut!

  20. Ooh I devour one of those pies right now. How delicious. 

    Detentions are crazy! My friend and another friend were messing around in class one day and one girl bopped the other with her drink bottle. They both got detention.. one for hitting and the other one for being hit!

  21. InTolerant Chef says:

    That seems a bit rough, Archie was just helping out after all!
    I once cut a boyfriends hair and his mother called my mother to complain. My mother very sensibly commented that if he was stupid enough to ask me to do it he just had to live with the consequences and it was none of her business, thank-you-very-much!
    Lovely pies Charlie, perfect little surprise of filling underneath, yummo 🙂

  22. Well, the Friday detention was still better than a Saturday.  Poor Archie – just trying to be helpful!  Lovely egg pies.  I would leave the onion out, of course, but would still love to try.  Thank you for sharing!

  23. OMG OMG OMG i made something JUST like this for Mr Bao for breakfast yesterday morning 🙂 i should try your recipe though it sounds and looks much better than  mine hhehe ~ and Archie is just too funny LOL cutting other classmates hair 😛 

  24. What cute little pies! Far fancier than anything I have served up for breakfast, that is for sure 🙂 They look picture perfect.

    I feel Archie was hard done by in this story, detention for assisting a friend seems most unfair! At least it wasn’t a Saturday…

  25. I have little filo pastries sitting in my freezer. This is perfect! 🙂

  26. ChgoJohn says:

    Your stories are something else, Charlie! I think this time Archie got treated poorly. If someone is foolish enough to ask for a haircut, last minute, then he pretty well gets the cut he deserves. 
    I’m really not much of a breakfast person but these pies would be perfect. Part could be made the night before so the morning is just assemble them and bake. I’d certainly rather one of these over a bowl oc cereal.  OK, two of them and certainly not more than 3.

    • hotlyspiced says:

      I think he was poorly treated too. But he clashed with the housemaster who delighted in giving him detentions whenever possible. Yes, you can make the tomato sauce the night before and then just assemble the pies in the morning xx

  27. I once tried to give myself a fringe. Very, very bad idea when your hair is as curly as mine. Frizz forehead galore!

  28. foodrehab says:

    This for breakfast…DONE!  Looks damn good and a great idea for using all the pastry sheets in my freezer

  29. There always seems to be something easy about cutting hair…… till you step back and take a ;look at your handy work. I love these little pies. Beautiful for brekky . My sister makes them with ricotta and peas

  30. I tried once cutting my brother’s hair, that didn’t go well… This recipe looks fantastic!

  31. Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella says:

    LOL I wish we had a photo too! Poor Archie, he was just trying to help!

  32. Denisetyrrell1 says:

    This is my sort of brekky! How unfair Archie didn’t deserve detention at all!  Would have loved to have been a fly on the wall though.

  33. Wow they really was an overabundance of detentions at Archie’s school! And for such silly reasons too….if my school gave out detentions for hair length, I’d ALWAYS be in detention!

  34. Yes, I’d take these egg pies any day!

  35. Given its breakfast time for me … I’m hungry for these!

  36. I always love your stories and I was laughing out loud as I read this one 🙂

  37. AnnGMorrone says:
  38. i don’t eat bacon either so i might add shredded chicken. 
    and when i make these, i know i would be eating these little beauties throughout the day and not just breakfast…lol
    -Abeer @ http://www.cakewhiz.com

  39. love how there is hidden deliciousness, they look so neat.
    its a very funny story about the haircut!

  40. Aaah Archie, your mother could write a book on your adventures. And I hope she does! 🙂  Lovely breakfast pies, Charlie!

  41. SarahKate (Mi Casa-Su Casa) says:

    Can you please write a children’s book called Archie’s Adventures? You’ve got plenty of first class material! 🙂

  42. The World Is My Cuttlefish says:

    Cutting someone else’s hair is a huge responsibility. If you don’t get it right, youjust have to keep cutting – and thast can obviously lead to disaster. One of the best haircuts my younger brother ever had was the one he gave himself aged about 20. Very stylish.

  43. Minnie Gupta says:

    Poor kids! I was laughing so hard. But it does seem harsh…..they should reward a friendly gesture, it was done with good intent. Not fair!

    These look so delicate and yummy.

  44. GourmetGetaway says:

    WOW! This recipe looks awesome! I love the story, this is the same typ of discipline we had in our school.

  45. Friday detentions all around – well, at least they weren’t saturdays, right? 😀

    Great looking breakfast pots… I love eggs in little cups like this.

  46. My goodness! Well, Archie’s heart was in the right place! And the most detentions? That must make him more or less a legend! 🙂 The breakfast pastry/eggs looks just wonderful. They are quite unique! Debra

  47. Arabella says:

    These were amazing! Best breakfast

  48. Minnesota Prairie Roots says:

    Hilarious hair cutting story.

  49. Gretchen says:

    Oy, vey I want to eat that RIGHT NOW!!

Trackbacks

  1. All is Well says:

    […] them in the Rainbow Birthday post I thought I’d let you know that you can find the recipe here.  These are great pies that are wonderful at any time of the day but work particularly well for […]

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