Caprese Eggs Benedict Bites
English muffin rounds with fresh mozzarella, ripe tomato, basil, and soft quail eggs — a single bite that fuses two of the great New York and Italian food traditions into a brunch canapé.
- 6English muffins(split)
- 24quail eggs(or 12 chicken eggs poached and quartered)
- 8 ozfresh mozzarella(sliced)
- 2 mediumtomatoes(sliced)
- 0.25 cupfresh basil(leaves)
- 3 tbspbalsamic glaze
- 2 tbspolive oil
- 0.5 tspflaky sea salt
- 0.25 tspblack pepper
Muffin rounds can be toasted and cut 1 day ahead. Eggs must be cooked just before serving.
- 1Toast English muffin halves until golden
- 2Use 2-inch round cutter to cut 2 rounds from each half (24 total)
- 3For quail eggs: bring water to gentle simmer, crack eggs carefully, poach 1 minute until whites are set but yolks runny
- 4Alternatively, fry quail eggs sunny-side up
- 5Place mozzarella slice on each muffin round
- 6Add tomato slice
- 7Top with basil leaf
- 8Place warm quail egg on top
- 9Drizzle with balsamic glaze and olive oil
- 10Season with salt and pepper
- 11Serve immediately while eggs are warm
Quail eggs are available at Asian markets and specialty grocers. If using chicken eggs, poach them soft and quarter each egg for 4 bites. The balsamic glaze should be thick enough to drizzle without running. Cherry tomatoes can substitute for sliced tomatoes.
This bite-sized canapé bridges two celebrated origin stories. Eggs Benedict has been one of New York City's great brunch dishes since the 1890s, though who exactly created it remains a source of spirited debate. In a 1942 New Yorker interview — recorded near the end of his life — retired Wall Street stockbroker Lemuel Benedict claimed he had wandered into the Waldorf Hotel one morning in 1894, hungover, and ordered "buttered toast, poached eggs, crisp bacon, and a hooker of hollandaise." According to this account, the maître d' Oscar Tschirky was so taken with the combination that he adapted it — swapping toast for an English muffin and bacon for ham — and added it to the menu. Tschirky, who is also credited with inventing the Waldorf salad and popularising Thousand Island dressing, had previously worked at Delmonico's in Lower Manhattan, which has its own competing claim: Delmonico's states on its menu that "Eggs Benedict was first created in our ovens in 1860," and chef Charles Ranhofer published a recipe for "Eggs à la Benedick" in his 1894 cookbook The Epicurean. Both stories are set in New York; both involve a Benedict. Caprese, the other half of this bite, was assembled on the island of Capri in the 1920s — its red, white, and green components a deliberate echo of the Italian tricolore — and gained international currency through the patronage of deposed Egyptian King Farouk, who lived in exile on Capri in the 1950s. The quail egg format brings both traditions into a single elegant party bite.