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How to cook folded eggs (aka the perfect cafe-style scramble)

Jill Dupleix
Jill Dupleix

Ever ordered scrambled eggs at a cafe and received a perfect round of pillowy goodness perched on your toasted sourdough, like a gleaming, golden cowpat? You’ve actually been given folded eggs, which are halfway between scrambled eggs and an omelette.

Here’s how to cook folded eggs at home as beautifully as they do at your local cafe, with tips from Melbourne’s Lobbs in Brunswick, Tall Timber in Prahran and Sydney’s Gypsy Espresso and Pena Potts Point. They all have slightly different methods to create the dreamy, mousse-like folds of egg, but the technique is essentially the same.

Cafe-style folded eggs on toast.
Cafe-style folded eggs on toast.iStock
  1. In a bowl, gently whisk 2 eggs with one egg yolk and 2 tablespoons of cream, and season with salt and pepper.
  2. Melt a little butter and olive oil in a non-stick or cast-iron frypan over high heat, swirl to allow it to coat the base, and pour in the egg mixture. Leave it over medium heat for about 15 seconds to help set the egg on the bottom.
  3. Now, get in there with a rubber or wooden spatula and drag the egg mix from one side of the pan to the other. Wait 5 seconds for that to set, then push the cooked egg back to the other side, allowing the non-cooked egg to run free.
  4. From now on, just push the cooked egg into the uncooked egg, tilting the pan slightly each time. Do this three or four times, rotating the cooked egg each time, and it will gather up the uncooked egg and fold it into itself. (You can lift the egg to help any unset egg on top run back into the pan and cook). That’s it, all over in less than a minute.
  5. The finished eggs should be rippled with soft, golden folds. Gently slide them onto buttered toast, and serve hot. Or take it onto TikTok and go viral.
Follow these tips from the pros to create golden folds.
Follow these tips from the pros to create golden folds.Simon Letch
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Tips from the pros:

  • “We use a high heat, a good non-stick pan and a heatproof curved spatula known as a maryse,” says Kristie Stewart of Lobbs cafe.
  • “You can make up the egg mixture beforehand and let it sit,” says chef Francis Simeon of Gypsy Espresso.
  • “Once you pour the eggs in, you have to leave it undisturbed until the egg underneath has set,” says Tall Timber’s David Gold.
  • “It’s all in the timing,” says head chef Kenny Willis at Pina Potts Point. “Move it, then wait a few seconds, then move it again.”

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Jill DupleixJill Dupleix is a Good Food contributor and reviewer who writes the Know-How column.

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Original URL: https://www.theage.com.au/goodfood/tips-and-advice/how-to-cook-folded-eggs-aka-the-perfect-cafe-style-scramble-20230328-p5cvwv.html