One thing about me: I really dislike Starbucks. The coffee is overpriced and, in my opinion…very mediocre, bordering on bad. But what I really like? Starbucks bacon and gruyere egg bites, purchased in bulk from Costco. Because again, Starbucks itself is overpriced. At Costco, it’s $14.79 for 10 egg bites (5 servings, since 1 serving is 2 egg bites), which translates to $2.95 per serving. At a Starbucks store, the same product at costs $5.25 per serving. But we have backyard chickens, which means an overabundance of eggs, so the idea of spending $14.79 on a pack that my kids will devour in 2 days is economically ridiculous. Also the nutrition of homemade will always be superior to that of ultra-processed food, so I set off on a mission to make a copycat version of them. The result: these cottage cheese egg bites.
The first secret to achieving the same consistency to the Starbucks ones is a bain marie, which is the method for cooking delicate foods like custards with a surrounding hot water bath, which creates a gentle and uniform heat around the food resulting in moist (read: not dried out), delectable egg bites. The second secret is cottage cheese. I’ve written before about my love for cottage cheese in dishes, but it really shines here!
My two particular kids both have given these the highly sought after two thumbs up. And while I’ve never cooked in a Michelin star restaurant, I have to imagine that it feels something like that.
I’ve included a few pertinent notes below, which hopefully tackles some questions I’m anticipating. If you, too, are being bankrupted by your love of Starbucks egg bites, I really hope you try these cottage cheese egg bites! They couldn’t be easier — and you can make them exactly how you like them. No more breaking the bank in 2024!
Cottage Cheese Egg Bites
Equipment
Ingredients
- 18 eggs
- 1 cup cottage cheese full or low fat, up to you!
- 1 cup cheddar cheese grated
- 1 cup gruyere cheese grated
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1 lb cooked and chopped up bacon optional! Or use cooked breakfast sausage
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Boil a kettle of water, which you will use as the water bath for surrounding the muffin tin. This is the major key to getting a moist consistency, instead of dry egg bites!
- Add all ingredients (except bacon!) to a high-powered blender and mix thoroughly. Bacon is added before you pop them into the oven.
- Grease muffin tin (I used PAM, but use whatever you'd like. Butter? Bacon grease!?), place muffin tin in the middle of your baking sheet, and pour mixture until each section is 3/4 full.
- Top egg bites with chopped up bacon. This recipe makes 2.5 muffin trays full, so reserve some for the next couple rounds.
- Place baking sheet with muffin tin into a middle rack in the oven, and slide it out so you can access it a bit. CAREFULLY pour your boiling water into the baking sheet, until it's about half way up the outside of the muffin tin. CAREFULLY slide rack back into oven, and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into an egg bite comes out clean.
- After 30 minutes, carefully remove muffin tin, use a small spatula to remove egg bites and cool on a wire rack, then make the remaining egg bites. For me, this was 2.5 muffin tins worth, but you may do more or less depending on how full your tins are. Place back into the tray (with hot water) that's still in the oven, top off with more boiling water if needed, and bake for 30 minutes as before.
- Let cool a bit before refrigerating, or serve immediately. I like to freeze 1/2 of the batch — directions for that below!
Notes
- This recipe makes 30 egg bites when I do it — that equals 15 servings, as I’m basing it on Starbucks 2 egg bites/serving.
- Because it can work with full-fat, low-fat, or fat-free, I calculate nutrition with low-fat numbers. I also think fat-free cottage cheese tastes not so good and because my kids eat these, I make sure to use one with a bit of fat in it!
- I purposely made this a large recipe because my family devours these. I’m talking like each of us will eat 2 in a sitting, so between the 4 of us a dozen would be gone in a day or two. You could have the recipe if you’re cooking for a smaller group, but I recommend making as is and freezing the extras!
- For freezing, flash freeze them. Meaning you’ll place them on a baking sheet, freeze for a couple hours so they don’t all stick together if you throw them in a bag. Once semi-frozen, then you can combine them into a freezer bag.
- To re-heat from frozen, I pop them in the toaster oven at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes. You could also microwave for 1-2 minutes, checking for doneness.
- Feel free to add more pepper — the first few times I made them, my daughter said they were “too spicy”, but she’s 4 years old so take that with a grain of salt!
- Bacon is optional but encouraged. You could use sausage, ham, or any manner of meats of your choice. I’m also going to make a veggie version of these!
- I do gruyere (because that’s what the Starbucks egg bites have) but add cheddar because I like the combo! You could do any other cheese of your liking, though. Monterey jack, manchego, Parmesan… let your imagination run wild!
- This technique of cooking the eggs in a bath of hot water is known as a bain marie (ban mah-REE) and I was first introduced to it via Great British Bake Off! The presence of water will form a barrier between the food and the direct heat of the oven, facilitating a slow and even cooking process for the egg bites. No dry eggs here!
Nutrition
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