Bacon and egg pies for a picnic

We had a picnic for dinner tonight, while my husband had footy training. So the perfect picnic food... bacon and egg pies. Bacon would have to be our family's official favourite food. Our two year old calls it bacy bacy and will eat any she can get her hands on, then steal other peoples. Needless to say the pies were a hit, and Ava wanted more bacon. I balanced the meal out by chopping up vegie sticks and making hummus.

I love moist bacon and egg pies, and have worked out the secret - the bottom of my pies have a ricotta spinach mixture in them under the bacon and egg. My daughter can't have too much dairy, so I just left the ricotta mix out of hers, it still works fine.

Individual Bacon and Egg Pies
makes 4
2 sheets puff pastry
200g ricotta
handful parmesan, grated
handful baby spinach, finely shredded
3 rashers bacon, rind removed, cut into thirds
1 tomato, sliced
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 180C.
Line large muffin tins with puff pastry, so the pastry hangs out the sides. I would cut one square from the pastry sheet, then cut the remaining L shape and overlap to make another square. My metal muffin tins tend to stick, so roughly line the tins with a square of baking paper pushed in before the pastry. My silicon trays dont need this. Prick the bases of the pastry cases with a fork a few times.

Bake the pastry for 10 minutes or so, until starting to cook.

Microwave the spinach for 20 seconds or so to just wilt. Mix with the ricotta and parmesan, season to taste.

Lightly cook the bacon pieces in a frypan.

Remove the pastry from the oven. Put a dollop of the ricotta mixture in the bottom, spread. Top with a slice of tomato. Curl pieces of bacon around the edge of the pastry (I chop the kids up into little pieces to make it easier to eat, so they dont have to bite through the bacon). Crack the egg into the centre.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until the white is cooked and the yolk still soft (or keep cooking if you like a hard yolk). Remember unless you are eating it straight away, the yolk will keep cooking a bit when you take it out of the oven.

I transported these to the picnic still in their tin, sitting on a tea towel in a wicker basket.