Maple Toast Egg Cups

Directions

1. 1
   Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a six-section muffin pan with some vegetable shortening in each cup.
2. 2
   Cut the crusts off of the bread and then flatten the slices with your rolling pin.
3. 3
   Melt the butter and syrup together, either in a small saucepan on the stovetop, stirring over medium low heat, or in the microwave (this will take less than a minute, monitor it closely to avoid a sticky catastrophe!)
4. 4
   Use a pastry or basting brush to paint one side of each slice of bread with the butter and syrup mixture. Press a slice, painted side up, into each muffin cup of your pan. Break an egg into each cup. Salt to taste.
5. 5
   Carefully place it in the oven and cook for 20 minutes, which will result in a medium-cooked yolk. If you want more of a soft-boiled egg texture, check at 15 minutes, or cook up to 25 minutes for a hard-boiled texture. We like ours somewhere in between soft-boiled and medium.
6. 6
   Use two forks to pop the egg cups out of the pan and onto a plate or a very shallow bowl.