Egg Muffin Ingredients

• 14 Eggs
• 1/2 green bell pepper: seeded and fine-diced
• 1/2 medium yellow onion: fine-diced
• 6 oz. breakfast sausage (not cased)
• 2 strips bacon, cut into 1/4″ pieces
• 1/2 bunch scallions/green onion: thinly sliced
• 1 1/2 c. shredded cheese of your choice
• 3 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
• 2 ounces heavy whipping cream
• 1 pinch nutmeg

Cooking Instructions

1. Spray each cup of a 12x4oz. muffin tin thoroughly, with nonstick cooking spray. Preheat standard oven (non-convection) to 375 F, with one oven rack placed in the middle of the oven.
2. Bring a sauté pan to medium high heat.  Add the bacon and sausage, breaking the sausage apart with a wooden spoon as it cooks.
3. Cook almost all the way through. Add onions and bell peppers to the sauté pan and cook until al denté — around 1 1/2 minutes.  Add 2 tsp salt and stir.
4. Remove contents of the sauté pan onto a plate, lined with a paper towel to cool for a moment and to soak up the excess fat.
5. In the meantime, crack eggs into a large mixing bowl.  Add cream, remaining salt, pepper and nutmeg.  Mix together with (your choice) whisk, hand mixer, egg-beater, or stick-blender.
6. Evenly distribute scallions to each egg cup followed by the shredded cheese (1 ounce of cheese per cup).
7. Next, evenly distribute the bacon/sausage/onion/pepper mixture into each cup.
8. Finally, pour the egg mixture into each cup leaving roughly a half inch from the surface of the liquid egg to the top of the cup.
9. Put in the preheated oven, on the center rack for 17 minutes. Remove from oven. Using a small rubber spatula, loosen the edges of each egg cup from each cavity, and then gently transfer each “muffin” to cooling rack.

Special Cooking Notes for Eggs

• Whenever working with eggs, it’s worth it to first crack the eggs into a smaller bowl or dish where it’s easier to scoop out pieces of shell.  Compared to directly cracking eggs into a larger bowl having to pick out shells without losing it in all ingredients, or — worse yet — a hot non-stick pan that’s already on the stove!.
• Scallions and other such delicate fresh herbs should be added as close to the end of any cooking process as possible.  This enhances the likelihood that they maintain their brilliant color and fresh aroma.
• The recipe I’ve created and provided above calls for a specific order in which the ingredients are to be added to each muffin cup.  This is not an accident: the cheese should be placed near the bottom, on top of the fresh scallions, but below the cooked meat/vegetables.  The reason why the cheese is not on the bottom is because cheese can stick to anything when cooked — even a non-stick pan sprayed with cooking spray.  Being put on top of the fresh (and cool) scallions uses the scallions as a suspension to allow egg to flow beneath the cheese before the cooking process ensues.

Why not sprinkle cheese on top of the eggs?

Many people like putting cheese on top of things before cooking so it will melt and create a decadent aesthetic.  While this does accomplish such things, it’s only that: aesthetic.

I can’t speak for everyone, but I’d rather bite into something with cheese equally dispersed throughout, as opposed to arranged neatly on top.  Plus, cheese is mostly fat (which tends to gradually rise to the top).  By putting it near the bottom, as it cooks and achieves molten form, it will begin to rise up through the liquid egg, but as the egg gradually cooks, it will thus gradually solidify the cheese at a steadily even distribution from top to bottom of each egg muffin.

 

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: “How do I make egg muffins?”
A: Read everything on this page before that question, and you should be good.

 

Q: “How long can you keep egg muffins in the fridge?”

A: While exposure to air will have an effect on the “shelf-life” of any food item, it’s safe to say that if you make these on Saturday or Sunday for your family’s “work” week, they’ll still be good to eat on Friday morning.

 

Q: “How do you reheat egg muffins?”

A: Simple: microwave.  As these are designed for an out-the-door breakfast, just wrap a couple in a paper towel and cook for no more than 1:30 in a standard home microwave.  They should be perfect eating temp. by the time everyone’s in the car.

 

Q: “What spray do you use?”

A: If it’s in a spray bottle and identified as “cooking spray,” they all provide the same function.  If you have specific things in what you choose to put into your body, read the label like you would anything else.  But I’ve yet to encounter a spray that didn’t do what it was supposed to do when used correctly.

 

Q: “What is the bake temperature?”

A: This can vary with the oven.  Even appropriately calibrated ovens can cook differently model-to-model.  The time and temp I provided (375F for 17 min) are informed suggestions, but there may be some trial and error.  Remember when trying to solidify the right measurables for your oven (and with this recipe), the common method of sticking a toothpick in and seeing it as gooey, might not mean it needs to be cooked more — it could be melted cheese, and not raw egg.

 

Q: “Can I/how do I freeze egg muffin cups?”

A: I can’t say I’d recommend this.  While I have very little empirical evidence to answer “why not?”, I know that I’ve never been instructed to freeze scrambled eggs, never known anyone to have tried it, and I’d be curious to learn of any item you might find in the frozen foods section of a supermarket, selling frozen scrambled egg products, that didn’t list preservatives not found in your kitchen among the ingredients.  There’s probably a reason for all this, but given how long they keep in your refrigerator, and how little time they take to make, there really isn’t a practical need to freeze them.

What did I miss? Leave me a comment below.