Pip's Plate

The idea of a savory breakfast muffin occured to me after a friend of mine (the pirate cupcake friend) said to me one morning a couple of weeks ago, “I just had a bacon egg muffin. It was delicious.” It didn’t occur to me right away that he was actually referring to an English muffin sandwich with bacon, egg, and cheese. Doh!

I couldn’t get the idea of a bacon egg muffin out of my head! I even had a dream about it. (I frequently have dreams about food.) So I had to see if something like this existed. You gotta love google. Sure enough, there are quite a few savory muffin recipes out there, but this one in particular caught my eye.

The consistency of these muffins is more biscuit-like, but they’re still quite good. Salty from the bacon, herby from the fresh chives – slather some butter on these babies and you’re good to go.

Bacon Egg and Cheese Muffins – the savory kind of muffin

makes 12

6 thick slices bacon

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tablespoon white sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 1/2 Tablespoons chopped fresh chives

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup cream of mushroom soup

1/2 cup vegetable oil

Directions

Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble and set aside.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease muffin pan or use muffin liners.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, garlic powder, chives, parmesan cheese, cheddar cheese and crumbled bacon. Combine the egg, milk, cream of mushroom soup and vegetable oil. Mix into the dry ingredients and stir together just to moisten.

Spoon the batter into prepared muffin pans and bake at 400 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.

recipe source

Mmmmm….nothing like savory french toast to round out a breakfast-for-dinner meal. Talk about a twist on a traditional Croque Monsieur sandwich. It’s total comfort food.

This french toast recipe comes from chow.com. It’s quite simple to make but there are a few steps involved. The best part is after you fry it, you stick it in the oven to melt the cheese. My mouth is watering just thinking about this!

Savory French Toast (Ham and Gruyere French Toast)

serves 4

8 slices white bread

4 slices ham

4 slices Gruyere cheese

2 t dijon mustard

4 eggs

3/4 cup milk

salt

pepper

1 T olive oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Spread dijon on 4 slices of bread (too much dijon mustard and it’s all you’ll taste, so use sparingly). Place one slice of ham and one slice of Gruyere on each of the 4 slices of bread with mustard. Top each sandwich with the remaining 4 slices of bread. Place theses sandwiches in a shallow baking dish.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Pour over the sandwiches and let soak for 5 minutes, turning once. Soak these too long and you might have some difficulty transferring the sandwiches to the frying pan.

In a nonstick skillet, heat half of the oil over medium heat. Fry 2 sandwiches at a time, turning once – giving each side a nice golden brown color. This is just like making french toast. Move the fried sandwiches to a baking sheet. Repeat with the other 2 sandwiches.

Place the baking sheet with the 4 sandwiches into the oven. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

You can serve this with some garlicky green beans sauteed in olive oil for a light dinner.