Building a Better Breakfast Sandwich

This will come as no surprise to anyone, but I am NOT a morning person! I will hit the snooze until the very last minute where I can still manage to be dressed going out the door!  Getting up to "make" breakfast?  So not happening!  When the kids were little, I used to fix them a sippy cup of soy milk in the fridge at night and leave a covered bowl of Cheerios on the table.  I taught then to use the TV remote and what channels they were allowed to watch until I was coherent.  I know, Mom.of.the.Year!

I now have 2 kids in high school which means they should be fairly self sufficient, right?? But guess what - they aren't morning people either!  Both will need to be at school this year BY 7AM for marching band.  An hour of strenuous exercise to start off your day.  Breakfast is going to be a necessity.  In the past, a handful of cereal or fruit bar in the car on the way to school was enough to get by until morning break when they could eat a snack.

Da girl figured out quickly that she needs breakfast - something with protein to hold her through the morning until break.  Last year, she started eating those frozen biscuit, egg, and sausage sandwiches.  Not the healthiest thing on the planet, but they fit the bill of calorie dense and a quick fix in the morning.  She can nuke it and eat while she's getting other stuff together.  My biggest gripe was how expensive they are!  Every once in a while as I gazed in shock at the price, I'd contemplate how to make these at home.

Finally, I decided to make it happen!  My pondering had led me to some conclusions like make sure everything is stone cold before assembling them.  Baking the eggs would be much easier than trying to fry them.  I did a little poking around on Pinterest and other blogs and came up with a plan....and the plan worked!  I made a sample batch to try out some variations and the initial reaction from da girl was that they were "legit"!  High praise coming from a teenager....at least I think so!  They "taste just like the frozen ones"....was not quite as enthusiastic about this comment since I was going for "better", but I'll take it.

Make Ahead Breakfast Sandwiches

 

 

Biscuits or English muffins - I'm using biscuits. My Gluten Free Yankee Doodle Biscuits to be exact.  And yes, the hold up very well to the freezing and microwaving. They are not crumbly or gummy.

Eggs - enough to match the number of biscuits you have.

Sausage, ham, or Canadian bacon - I used the bulk breakfast sausage which gave me 10 slices.  This was good because I get 10 biscuits out of a batch of dough.  Ham or Canadian bacon should not been cooked before using.

Sliced cheese - whatever you like, but I used cheddar

Bake the eggs:

When I was contemplating how to cook the eggs, a light bulb went off when I spotted my Whoopie Pie pan.  It's the 12 cavity one from Wilton and the perfect size for an egg.  If you don't have one of these pans, you can use a jumbo muffin pan or individual ramekins.  You can use a regular muffin pan too, but then you will need to scale down the size of your biscuits and sausage patties. Spray this liberally with cooking spray.

If you want Egg McMuffin kind of eggs where the white and yolk are still separate, then just crack an egg into each cavity.  Use a small fork or something to break the yolk and swirl it around a little.  Be gentle here or you'll slosh the egg out of the shallow cavity. Top with salt and pepper if desired.

If you want scrambled eggs, crack your eggs into a bowl and scramble as usual.  Don't whip them too much or you put too much air in.  If you do this, you wind up w/ really puffy eggs. (Ask me how I know!) They will deflate when they cool though.  Use a 1/4 cup measure to fill up the cavities.  You want to fill it almost to the top.  You should have 1 cavity filled per egg you started with.  Just try to evenly divide it.

Bake the eggs at 350F for 10 minutes.  They should be firm and not jiggle.  Make sure they are thoroughly cooked, but don't overcook or they will get rubbery.  Remove from oven and let cool for just a minute.  Loosen with a rubber spatula and transfer to a cooling rack.

Cook the sausage:

Slice the sausage and make thin patties.  These will shrink up, so make them bigger than they need to be.  Place on parchment lined baking sheets and bake at 350F for 12 minutes.

Be sure they are cooked through.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a couple of minutes.  Depending on your sausage, they will likely be swimming in grease.  Put a couple layers of paper towel on top of a cooling rack and transfer the sausage patties to drain off as much of the grease as possible.

Make Your Biscuits:

Make your biscuits and allow them to cool completely.  I found the 2 3/4" circle cutter matched the size of my Whoopie Pie cavities nicely. 

 

I used my Gluten Free Yankee Doodle Biscuits. See how yummy and flaky??

 

Assembling the Sammies:

Make sure everything is cooled!  I pop the cooling racks with the eggs and sausage into the freezer while I make the biscuits and let those cool.  Flash freezing is the secret to make ahead foods.  It makes sure that there is no extra moisture to make things soggy.

Split your biscuits and lay them out.  I carefully cut them using a serrated knife.  Top each bottom with a slice of cheese.  It's best to keep the cheese smaller than the biscuit or it tends to ooze out when you heat it.  Top each with a sausage patty and an egg.  End with the biscuit top.  You like yours in a different order??  Do it up!  Whatever works for you!  Place assembled sandwiches on a lined sheet pan and stash that in the freezer for at least an hour.

Wrap for Storage:

Now you can contemplate your storage options.  Small, sandwich size fold over or zipper top bags will work.  I've been trying to reduce our use of disposable plastic, so I looked for other options.  What I decided on was sandwich wraps - precut sheets of dry waxed paper.  I got the 9x12 size. These are perfect!  The premade frozen sandwiches come packed in plastic, but the directions say to remove from plastic and wrap in a paper towel to heat.  Now, you just threw away plastic AND a paper towel.  With the sandwich wraps, you can reheat right in the wrapper which means less waste.  Wrap up your sandwiches and put them in another container. Either a gallon sized zip top bag or some other sort of sealed container. Practice good food storage and mark this with the date.

 

Breakfast is Ready!

OK, now that you have a stash of frozen breakfast sandwiches, how do you reheat them??  The best way is to thaw in the fridge overnight.  Just pop one in the fridge before bed. Then in the morning, microwave on full power for 40 seconds.  Microwaves may vary, so you may have to adjust the time, blah, blah, blah.  They are best a little under heated, then let it stand for a minute to let the heat distribute.  The more you heat it, the rubberier they get.  Fair warning - this is after all, microwaved eggs and bread products!

If you are forgetful at night and don't put one out to thaw, don't despair. Just put it on 50% power for a minute, let stand for a minute, then full power for 30 seconds.  See above disclaimer about microwaves varying.

There you have it! A better breakfast sandwich.  One where you control the quality of the ingredients and can customize it to your tastes. Can't eat eggs?  Make just sausage biscuits which is what I did for myself. Cow's milk cheese a problem?  Use dairy free cheese or no cheese at all.  Now that you know how to make these, it's just one less reason to have to go down the frozen food aisle where the sirens call to you from behind frosty doors telling you to buy more junk food!