Freezer breakfast sandwiches

I had a few people ask me about some of the “food tricks” I have used as I have been on this little adventure, many asking about breakfast.

One of my mainstays is to prep my own breakfast sandwiches and have them sitting in the freezer ready to be warmed and nommed at a moment’s notice. So, by popular demand: Frozen Breakfast Sandwiches (or sammiches as I prefer to call them.)

First, I head over to Costco for my supplies. I make 24 of these bad boys at a time, so if I decide to have one every morning, they last me about a month. Prep takes maybe 2 hours or so (this includes cooking/cooling times) and the cost comes out to around $1.10/each. Depending on how you customize them, they are appx 300-325 calories each.

Here’s what I pick up:

• 2 dozen large eggs
• 2 dozen English Muffins (Costco usually has the packages of Thomasville in stock, I get the original variety)
• package assorted sliced cheese
• thick-cut bacon or Canadian bacon (ham)
• hot sauce of choice (I use Valentina or sriracha – you want a hot sauce, not a salsa for the prep phase)

First up: cook the bacon.

I do this in the oven rather than in a pan. It’s easier and requires less babysitting than smaller batches in a frying pan. (Put bacon on either a foil lined sheet pan or I lay the strips on racks on the sheet pans to let them drain, stick in oven, turn oven to 400F, check in 15 minutes or so. Thick-cut bacon will take longer. You want the slices slightly browned, NOT crisp. Save that for your next trip to the diner.)

Once bacon is cooked, transfer slices to a plate lined with paper towels to drain off excess fat and let cool.

*** Important: you want to let all ingredients cool to room temp before assembling.

The eggs are up next. Again, I do these in the oven. Not only can you get a more even distribution of egg for the sammiches, it helps get some of the excess moisture out of the eggs. No one wants watery eggs in a breakfast sandwich. I had it happen in an early batch I tried cooking in muffin tins. It was disgusting and I never want to revisit it.

Lower the oven temperature to 350F.

Crack all those eggs into a bowl, add a little salt, pepper, perhaps a splash of milk if you like and whip those bad boys up.

Spray the heck out of a half sheet pan with cooking spray, or you could grease with some oil.. or if you want to be decadent, a bit of the bacon grease. However you do it, be sure that pan is well coated otherwise you will spend a lot of time scrubbing eggs off your pan. No fun.

Put the empty sheet pan on the middle rack, then pour the eggs into it pan. Sure, you could do this step on your counter, but unless you have the steadiest hands on the planet and perfect balance, egg can easily go everywhere. Again, trust me on this.

Another tip, which I conveniently forgot as I was prepping this batch: I added in a liberal dose of Mural of Flavor spice blend from Penzey’s Spices. If you do want to customize your eggs with dashed of herby flavors, DO NOT ADD THEM AT THIS POINT. Why? Because as the eggs set, those herbs congregate in the middle like their having a flavor rave. Instead, wait until eggs have partially set and sprinkle it on evenly at this point. So yeah, these eggs look wonky because I decided to break that party up midway through the cooking process. 

After 15 minutes or so, the eggs will be set and the edges will start to pull away from the sides. Remove them from the oven and let them cool to room temp. When they are cool, cut into 24 even(ish) squares.

Now, everything is cooked and cooled and it’s time for SAMMICHES TO ASSEMBLE!

I create a little assembly line:

Cut English muffins in half, take each slice of cheese and “break” into 4 squares (you will use half a slice for each sandwich), cut bacon strips in half, open hot sauce, lay out sheets of foil or place roll of cling film. I use the foil squares from Costco – already in the perfect size and easier/cheaper than a roll of foil.

• Open muffin
• Add hot sauce
• Add slice of egg
• Add slice of bacon(two halves)
• Add cheese
• Close muffin
• Wrap
• Repeat

I then place all the finished sandwiches into gallon freezer bags (they can be reused from batch to batch) and some in the original Thomasville bag. Then toss them in the freezer.

TO REHEAT:

My preferred method:

Remove sandwich from foil and wrap in paper towel. Microwave for 1 minute 35 seconds on 50% power, turn over and micro it again for another 1:35 seconds at 50% power.

Then open sandwich and toast in toaster oven. Oh yeah, that’s what I’m talking about.

You can skip the toaster over if you don’t have one and just micro, though check the center for doneness – all appliances are different. If I skip the toaster over, I got for closer to 1:40 on each side.

Optional method: 

Put in microwave and nuke on high till cooked. This will vary based on your appliance. Since it usually ends with scorching hot edges and frozen center, I don’t use this method – but who am I to deny you if that’s the route you choose to take.

Optional method #2 (for those who think ahead):

remove breakfast sandwich from freeze the night before and thaw in the fridge. Open sandwich and toast in toaster oven until warm and.. well.. toasty.

FUN PART:

You can customize these bad boys all you want.

I have used ham, lunch meat (turkey breast) as the protein. I have added in sliced bell peppers and onions. After reheating, you can add in spinach leaves or other greens. Fresh bell peppers, salsa, or anything else that sounds tasty to you. You can add in your favorite spices and seasonings to give them your personal twist. You can add things in before freezing and after reheating.

Don’t want English muffins? use the same basic prep and ingredients but use flour tortillas to make breakfast burritos – add in some cooked, diced potatoes, chilies, cheese…. just make sure there isn’t a ton of moisture added, in other words, save that salsa until you’ve already reheated it.

A few notes since I get these questions fairly often:

Toasting the muffin prior to freezing sounds like it would be a cool idea, but I found it made the muffins ridiculously chewy when you heat them up. Not good.

I first made these with eggs baked in a muffin pan. Great shape, looked nice, but the eggs retained WAY too much water and biting into them resulted in liquid oozing out. This isn’t appetizing, so I go for the sheet pan in the oven method.

Be sure to cool everything. Less condensation will form while freezing and will prevent unwanted moisture in your sammiches.

So there you go! One of my go-to breakfasts.