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A year or so ago, Starbucks announced a new menu offering: sous vide egg bites. They are one of their only gluten-free food options and I’ve seen several people raving about them on social media. I tried them while traveling when there were no other decent breakfast options and I’ll give it to Starbucks on the taste… they are good!
Unfortunately, they contain carrageenan and maltodextrin, ingredients I try to avoid. They also cost about $5 (or more in airports), which makes them much pricier than our normal breakfast options. In fact, for our whole family to eat them we’d have to spend almost $40.00!
Instead, I figured out how to make them at home with real-food ingredients. A whole batch costs about what one order costs in a coffee shop!
Why Sous Vide Rocks
I’ve been experimenting with sous vide cooking for about six months and it has become one of my go-to kitchen gadgets. If you aren’t familiar with it, sous vide cooking uses circulating water at a carefully controlled temperature to achieve incredible results. The best steaks, chicken, and eggs I’ve ever cooked were cooked in a sous vide.
In the past, this method required a big machine and was most often used in restaurants. Most methods also use plastic bags to submerge the food in water (so I’d never tried it because we avoid plastic if at all possible).
Sous Vide at Home!
Now, thanks to smaller and much less expensive home sous vide immersion machines (like this one that I have), sous vide is possible at home! It is still a pretty expensive kitchen gadget, but I asked for it as a gift for a big-ish birthday (me=getting old!) and have used it a lot!
After much experimentation, I’ve also found that this recipe is possible without a sous vide machine (although not quite as good). In fact you can do it three ways:
- Mason jars in sous vide: The traditional way with a sous vide machine in a pot of water and small mason jars. This yields the best texture and result. I’ve found that 4-ounce mason jars and 8-ounce mason jars both work.
- Silicone bags in sous vide: With silicone bags (like these) using a sous vide machine and a pot of water. The texture is amazing, but the presentation isn’t as pretty. This is the method I use to sous vide most other foods without using plastic. Since sous vide is low-temperature cooking, I don’t worry about using the silicone.
- Egg-poaching cups: By poaching the eggs using egg-poaching cups in a skillet of water. This is the fastest method and also the least expensive if you don’t already have a sous vide machine.
Sous Vide Egg Bites
Once you’ve decided on one of the three cooking methods above, you’ll also need the ingredients and some patience!
Starbucks lists their ingredients online so the recipe was relatively easy to duplicate. I was surprised that the first ingredient was cottage cheese! I’ve actually been on a bit of a cottage cheese kick anyway since finding a grass-fed organic brand at the grocery store (ask for Good Culture cottage cheese at yours).
Other ingredients include eggs (obviously), cheese, cream, and optional ingredients like bacon, vegetables, or other add-ins.
Time-Saving Tips:
- Make these with just eggs and cheese and add other flavors as toppings when you re-heat.
- Make a double or triple batch of these while the sous vide is running and keep in the fridge until ready to use. I often make 16-24 to keep in the fridge for several days of breakfasts.
- Use 4-ounce size mason jars for a small breakfast or 8-ounce jars and double the recipe for bigger kids or adults.
Sous Vide Egg Bites Recipe (Low-Carb, Keto, THM-S)
Servings
Ingredients
- 12 eggs
- ½ cup cottage cheese I love that brand because it is grass fed, organic and doesn't contain gums or stabilizers
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ½ tsp each of salt pepper, garlic powder, and paprika, or any other spices you like
- ½ tsp hot sauce of choice optional
- 2 TBSP butter
- 10 slices of bacon cooked (optional)
- any cooked vegetables you like optional
- 1 cup gruyere or cheese of choice grated
Instructions
- Set the sous vide machine to 172°F. This is the common temperature for eggs and you can cook almost any egg recipe this way.
- Crack the eggs into a blender or food processor and add the cottage cheese, heavy cream, spices, and hot sauce.
- Blend on medium speed until just blended and smooth. You don't want to add extra air by blending on high.
- Use the butter to lightly grease ten 4-ounce mason jars (or five 8-ounce jars). You can also easily double or triple this recipe, just use more jars!
- If using bacon and vegetables, place these in the bottoms of the jars.
- Add the grated cheese to the jars.
- Pour the egg mixture into the jars and hand tighten the lids (do not over tighten!).
- Cook for 50 minutes if you are planning to reheat or one hour if you are planning to eat right away.
- Remove from heat and refrigerate right away if not consuming immediately. In theory, these should last at least a week in the refrigerator because they were cooked at over 140 for over half an hour, but we've never had them last that long without being eaten!
Nutrition
Notes
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Ever tried sous vide? Ready to give it a try? Share below!
Do the 8oz jars cook for the same time as the 4 oz?
Hello!
Can I bake these in the oven using muffin tins? I’ve done that to make egg muffins and wondered if I could do the same with this. Thanks!
Yep! It won’t have quite the same texture but will work!
Wow just made these and they are amazing. I got a sous vide that clips onto my instant pot for 50.00 on Ebay and I used the 8 quart instantpot and had plenty of room with 4 oz jars. The texture is just like the Starbucks ones. Only question is how to reheat?
how do you reheat egg bites made by sous vide in mason jars?
You state one can make these dairy free. What would you replace the cottage cheese with? I have a family full of dairy allergies 🙁 except for me. I want to make these for all of us. Suggestions for a cottage cheese substitute? Thank you in advance.
I bought silicone molds for the egg bite recipe. Can I put the molds in the oven and for how long and what temp?
Thanks for the recipe! How do you recommend reheating these?
Katie,
I do have a sous vide but have not done a lot with it. My question is when making the egg bites in the mason jars is the water completely covering the jars, lid and all ?? I have only sous vide in plastic bags,
Thank you so much in advance.
Joy
Is there an instant pot version?
Hi Jill!
I did use the 7 egg mold from amazon. 🙂 I just cover them with tinfoil a little tented up and then placed them on the trivot that comes with your instant pot and enough water to cover the bottom. The recipe will make 2 batches which you will want. LOL I re-heat them in the microwave using 70% power for 45secs or so and they’re prefect, not overcooked at all.
These look great Katie! What would be the approximate cooking time using egg poaching cups?
I ordered silicon baby food molds to get the size & shape of the Starbucks Sous vide bites & make these in my Instant Pot, it only takes 6 minutes!
What is the best way to reheat the egg bites?
Have you found success freezing the egg cups?
Thank you! I used this as a basis, but needed to make a number of modifications:
– egg whites (15)
– 3/4 c cottage cheese (put in blender last)
– 3/4 c half and half
– minced onion, caramelized
– minced sautéed mushrooms
– minced sautéed spinach
– shredded gruyere
I used 4 – 8 oz ball mason jars, and made two batches (veggies, cheese, liquid). Perched the mason jars on some extra lids. Used my immersion sous vide at 172 for one hour.
They were incredibly delicious! Thanks again!
Hi Katie, I’m looking to buy a sous vide and came across your article. It has been awhile since you first posted this review. Just wondering if you still use it much and also is it good for making grassfed steaks more tender? I usually cook my roasts in the InstantPot and burgers on my grill and they taste great but the steaks need more tenderizing.Would you recommend the sous vide for that? Also any other brands you could recommend as well as the InstantPot brand? Thanks for the help.
Love the Instant Pot! And yes, I still use the sous vide… it definitely tenderizes steaks beautifully and that’s one of my favorite ways to use it 🙂
These were tasty and easy to make. However, I found the texture to be more dense than I expected. Do you know how I can make them more fluffy? I did blend the shredded cheese into my recipe, but I don’t think that would impact the texture.
Put them in from the beginning. Timing begin once the set temperature is reached.