Cranberry Eggs Benedict

Yield: 4 Servings

Ingredients

Cranberry Muffins:

• 2 cups flour
• 6 tablespoons of sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup cranberry juice
• ½ cup of melted butter
• 1 beaten egg
• ½  cup fresh or frozen chopped cranberries

Clarified Butter:

• 1 pound of butter

Cranberry Hollandaise Sauce:

• ½ cup sparkling white wine
• ½ cup cranberry juice
• ¼ teaspoon peppercorns
• 2 parsley chopped sprigs
• 4 egg yolks
• ½ cup of clarified butter (see recipe)
• Fresh Lemon juice to taste
• Salt & pepper to taste

Cranberry Eggs Benedict:

• 8 medium size eggs
• ¼ cup of water
• 1 teaspoon of white vinegar
• 4 cranberry muffins
• 8 oz (1 cup) Atlantic smoked salmon
• 1 cup cranberry hollandaise sauce
• Salt & pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.  Combine all the cranberry muffin ingredients in a large bowl.  Mix until consistency is smooth.  Grease muffing molds.  Pour the batter into the tins and proceed to bake for 25 min.  Set outside to cool down.
2. Prepare the clarified butter by placing the butter into small saucepan over a low flame.  Heat the butter slowly until foam rises to the top. Skim off the foam and carefully remove the clear liquid.  This liquid is the clarified butter.
3. For the hollandaise sauce, in a saucepan combine sparkling wine, peppercorns, and parsley sprigs, and reduce the sauce to half the volume.  It should coat the back of a spoon.
4. Using a heat proof bowl, beat your egg yolks together until frothy.  Gradually – while whisking – incorporate the reduced wine/juice mixture.  Do this slowly so that the eggs don’t scramble.
5. Place the bowl over a pot of boiling water and whisk until the mixture has doubled in consistency.
6. Keep whisking while gradually pouring in the clarified butter until completely united.  Strain the sauce into a clean bowl and add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.  Season with salt & pepper.
7. To poach the eggs, place water in a skillet.  Add the vinegar.  Crack one egg at a time into a small cup or bowl and slowly slide them into the water and poach until whites are solid, but yolks are still soft.
8. Cut the cranberry muffins in half or use just the caps.  Place 1 oz of Atlantic smoked salmon on each half.  Set one poached egg on each muffin half and drizzle with a generous amount of hollandaise sauce.  Season once more with salt & pepper.