These fluffy egg bites are filled with veggies and cheese and baked in in a muffin tin. They are a perfect make ahead breakfast or on-the-go snack.
Be sure to check out more of my muffin tin recipes including my mini muffin tin ground turkey meatloaf, muffin tin potato stacks super fun mini muffin tin corn dog bites, and the appetizer that I cant make enough of – my brie and date tartlets.
Baking Eggs in a Muffin Pan
I have been making eggs in a muffin pan for years and just accepted that the egg muffins sink and shrivel almost immediately after coming out of the oven. But I was not satisfied with this for a recipe on my blog, so I did some troubleshooting.
The problem with egg muffins is that the top and outside cooks faster than the inside, so it dries out. This causes the shrinking and sinking. The solution?? Add more moisture in the oven to keep the outside from drying out. While baking, the muffin pan sits on top of a sheet pan with water (water bath) to create steam and yield puffy, perfect muffins, even when they cool.
Eggs are notorious for sticking to pans. So here are my recommendations:
- Use a good quality non-stick mini muffin tin or this Williams Sonoma Mini Muffin Pan. It does not have any toxic coatings, but cleans up easy. Your super old mini muffin pan that has been cleaned and scrubbed is probably not the best option.
- Grease the pan well with soft butter. They may still stick, but butter works better than oil. With oil, I found that by the time I was halfway through filling the pan, the oil had risen to the top.
Ingredients
The egg base is mixed with a few ingredients to make them tasty.
Cream adds sweet, rich flavor. I also tested the recipe with a dairy-free cream alternative like Silk Heavy Whipping Cream Alternative with excellent results.
Salt and pepper are flavor enhancers and make all the other ingredients taste better.
Cheese – My favorite cheese to use in these egg bites is mozzarella. It adds a wonderful creamy texture. But feel free to sub in your favorite cheese. Parmesan, Romano, cheddar, Monterey Jack, and Swiss are all excellent options.
Veggies – The recipe card below calls for red bell pepper, crimini mushrooms and green onion. I like the flavor combination of the sweet pepper, umami mushrooms and pungent onion. And the color combo looks great.
But this recipe is a great way to use bits of leftover veggies you have. Broccoli, red or yellow onion, finely chopped kale, fresh herbs, sun-dried tomatoes and peas are also good options.
The veggies will be lightly sautΓ©ed to soften them and release some of the water.
Dipping Sauce
The egg bites are super flavorful on their own, but a dipping sauce is a must for my husband. So I’m always thinking about a sauce for whatever I make.
- Ketchup is the classic for eggs and goes great with these egg muffins.
- My homemade chicken wing dipping sauce is a cool, yummy sour-cream based dip.
- And if you like a kick with your breakfast, your favorite hot sauce is perfect.
Mixed Veggie Muffin Tin Egg Bites
Ingredients
- 6-7 oz crimini (aka baby bellas) or white button mushrooms enough to make about 2 cups, chopped
- 4 stalks green onion
- Β½ of a medium sized red bell pepper
- olive oil for sautΓ©ing
- 6 large eggs
- ΒΌ c cream or dairy-free cream alternative
- ΒΌ heaping tsp salt
- 3 pinches finely ground black pepper
Instructions
- Place a large sheet pan in the oven. It needs to be large enough for your muffin tin to sit in. Use a pitcher to fill it halfway with water. Be sure to put the pan in the oven, then fill with water.This "water bath" will create steam in the oven to keep the egg bites moist and puffy. Without it, the egg bites will sink and shrivel right after coming out of the oven.
- Preheat the oven to 375β.
- Grease a mini muffin tin with soft butter. I use my finger to assure that every surface is covered. Eggs and cheese will STICK. So be thorough.
- Finely chop the mushrooms and measure out 2 cups chopped. This may look like a lot but they will be sautΓ©ed before adding to the eggs and will cook down quite a bit.
- Thinly slice the green onions.
- Finely chop enough bell pepper to make β cup.
- Place a skillet on the stovetop over high heat. Let it heat for 1-2 minutes.
- Add a light coating of olive oil and heat another 30 seconds.
- Add the mushrooms to the pan and turn the heat to medium high.
- Saute, stirring constantly until they are reduced by half.
- Add the bell pepper and sautΓ© one minute more.
- Add the green onion and sautΓ© one minute.
- Transfer the veggie mixture to a large plate or pan to cool.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, thoroughly beat the eggs, cream, salt and pepper. There should be no visible blobs of egg white. It should be very evenly combined.
- Stir in the mozzarella cheese.
- If there is a lot of moisture on the pan with the veggies, use a paper towel to absorb some of it.
- Add the veggies to the egg mixture and stir.
- Use a scoop or tablespoon to fill the muffin tin. Each egg bite needs just under 2 Tbsps. egg mixture, filling almost to the top.
- Check to make sure that there is still a good amount of water in the pan in the oven.
- Place the muffin pan in the water bath and bake 17-20 minutes or until the tops are set.
- Use a mini spatula or butter knife to loosen the sides of the bites and transfer them to a plate or cooling rack.
- Serve plain (delicious) with ketchup, hot sauce or you favorite dip.
- These egg bites will stay fresh in the fridge for 1 week.
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