Scrambled eggs with powdered sugar

prepping for scrambled eggs

It's Christmas Eve morning.... what a great morning....  The world is more still and quieter than usual as everyone is prepping for Christmas Day celebrations.  Some people are on the road traveling to family and friends.  Others are on the road going to the office for a partial day before they head back home for the holiday. But the roads are less busy than usual and I like that.  I like it when the world slows down for a bit because it doesn't happen very often.  I love the holidays and food both simple and complex is a big part of these celebrations.  Today I'm starting off with something simple: scrambled eggs.  (In the photo above, ignore the four bowls at the back right.  They are for making pain au lait (milk bread) as soon as butter softens to room temperature later this morning.)  Recently someone stopped by while I was making scrambled eggs for a late-day snack, and was surprised that I wasn't adding lots of milk, so that turned into a discussion on the simplicities of making moist and flavorful scrambled eggs.

Many people like to include milk in their scrambled eggs, even many restaurants.  This has the effect of making them fluffier but more importantly to some it stretches the eggs into more servings.  But for me I will always make scrambled eggs with just eggs and a large pat of butter.

eggs whisked, but not yet enough

I always use my small 8-inch omelet pan.  It's non-stick, and it retains heat extraordinarily well.  So I will dump the whiskings of 5 eggs into this pan all at once.  That sounds like too much for this small pan, but it's not.

eggs whisked enough

I whisk the eggs very thoroughly.  (Yes, using "very" and "thoroughly" is a bit redundant since "thoroughly" by itself should imply the same thing, but we won't quibble over syntax here.)  Many people only whisk them until they are somewhat broken down, but I prefer to break them down as much as possible.

lots of butter

I always toss a very thick pat of butter into the pan first and wait until completely melted before adding the eggs.  This adds even more richness to the eggs and a velvety smoothness as well.  The pan should not be very hot.  For this pan on my stove I only use a setting of between 3 and 4 on the dial, which goes all the way up to 10.  Anything more will scramble the eggs too quickly and I won't have the texture that I want.

There's no need to hurry on the cooking.  This small pan almost filled with liquid whisked eggs will cook them very nicely without the need to hurry.  I personally like long ripples of cooked eggs to form as these will break down into smaller curds anyway during the cooking and stirring.   Using a smaller pan even for a large quantity eggs works really well.  I find it's much easier to control the cooking process.  And I think it makes it easier to keep the eggs moist right up to the end before they are served.

a sprinkling of powdered sugar

Now here's where we come to the most unusual thing.  I have never met anyone who puts powdered sugar on their scrambled eggs, but I grew up eating them that way and have done it ever since.  Just a light sprinkling is all you need, but it doesn't hurt to put a bit more on if you really want it.  Just know that anyone who sees you doing it will probably be very perplexed.  But let them try some, and maybe that will change their mind.