Breakfast Cupcakes

I think I've said this before, but I think breakfast is my favorite meal of the day.  This is unfortunate because I very rarely eat breakfast.  I'm the kind of girl who wakes up, hits snooze as many times as she can, showers and is ready to go in 30 minutes.  This rushed, hectic morning is pretty terrible (goal in life: change my morning craziness, preferably before we have kids) and leaves no time for breakfast.  If I'm lucky, I can grab a granola bar, or a veggie egg white flatbread from Dunkin' Donuts if I'm doing great on time.  But never do I have a good old salty breakfast - no sweet stuff like pancakes for me.  This is one of my favorite parts about summer: I have time to make breakfast if I feel like.  I must admit that Mark makes the best breakfasts so I rarely have the chance to go up against his to-die-for hash browns or stuffed French toast, but this morning I decided to whip up something amazing for Mom and me.  I have a Pinterest board dedicated to interesting breakfast ideas, and this was one that caught my attention immediately: breakfast cupcakes.  Hash brown crust, scrambled egg top, filled with whatever your heart desired - and all in an adorable muffin form (great for grab and go!).  I was very intrigued.


These aren't exactly the quickest breakfast dish since the hash brown crust has to be baked for 45 - 55 minutes.  Once the crust comes out all golden brown and delicious looking, you smoosh it down to make room for the egg and cheese filling.  The recipe calls for bacon to be added, which I did for half of the cupcakes; the other half I left with just eggs and cheese; but i think next time I will add some fresh herbs and vegetables, kind of like an omelet.  Then you bake them one last time, and voila: breakfast cupcakes!

Breakfast cupcakes are adorable and simple.  They are also very delicious; let's just say Mom and I decided that the serving size was definitely 4 cupcakes ;)  But I can't overlook the problem in this recipe: they stuck to the foil wrappers.  Badly.  As in, you had to scrape them out with forks and spoons and knives and still end up losing most of the hash brown crust.  Why this happened, I am not sure.  I greased the muffin cups pretty well.  I am curious to see if it would happen if I made this in a casserole dish rather than muffin cups.  Maybe it would stick less (maybe it would stick more!?).  It was definitely a problem but not one that makes me want to give up on this recipe.  The cupcakes were too tasty to abandon the idea; everyone who tried one loved them (they just had to work really hard to get them out!)

Recipe:

breakfast cupcakes

from Quick Dish by Tablespoon
makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 bag (20 ounces) refrigerated shredded hash brown potatoes
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
6 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
3/4 cup crumbled, crisply-cooked bacon
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Place foil liner in each of 12 regular-sized muffin cups.  Generously spray with cooking spray.

2) In a large bowl, mix potatoes, oil, salt and pepper.  Divide evenly among cups; press lightly (I found that my 1/4 cup measuring cup fit perfectly!)

3) Bake 45 - 55 minutes or until golden brown.

4) In a medium bowl, beat eggs and milk.  Stir in bacon and cheese.  Firmly press potatoes in muffin cups, and top each with slightly less than 1/4 cup egg mixture.

5) Bake 13 - 16 minutes or until knife inserted in center of egg comes out clean.  Cool 5 minutes.