Know what I love more than brownies or ice cream? SOFT-BOILED EGGS! They hypnotize me with their creamy simplicity and sate my hunger beautifully. It’s one of my favorite ways to start, or end the day. Eggs are the perfect light dinner paired with cauliflower hash, gluten-free toast, or better yet – risotto!

The trouble with this soft-boiled egg love affair is it was never properly consummated until recently. What I mean is, I couldn’t get the yolks right and it was driving me BATTY! Too hard or too soft was my egg-boiling purgatory. Quite frankly, I’d resigned myself to being in that undesirable realm forever, until the April issue of Saveur magazine divulged the formula, and here it is, fellow soft-egg lovers:

Place four room temperature eggs in 8 cups of water (or two eggs in four cups of water) and bring to a gentle boil. Cook gently uncovered for 6 minutes then plunge into an ice water bath for 30-45 seconds and proceed to peel. As Saveur promised, this yields firm, meaty whites that encase yolks that are just creamy enough and not runny.

I can’t tell you how elated I am to finally nail this. All it took was me putting a little faith in the timer. It’s farmers market season now and the perfect time to round up some local eggs. Give the soft boiled method a shot and let me know how it goes! Here’s a photo of one of my masterpieces, paired with sauteed fennel – Divine!

The right amount of creamy