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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)
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!
Notes
Nutrition
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Ever tried sous vide? Ready to give it a try? Share below!
Hey Katie! Is it cream cheese or cottage cheese? Cottage cheese is listed in the ingredients, but the instructions say cream cheese.. I would gamble and do both but it doesn’t always work out in sous vide! I’m excited to try this recipe, I got a sous video supreme 6 years ago and it gets lots of use!
Should both say cottage cheese… fixed now 🙂
Sounds amazing! This may be the thing that breaks me down and gets me to buy an instant pot! 🙂
In the blender step, do you mean add cottage cheese rather than cream cheese? I don’t see cream cheese on your ingredients list.
Yes! both should say cottage cheese. Fixed now
I have some double egg coddlers. I bet they would work well for this too. I expect they are probably about the size of the 4 oz. jars.
Could you bake this in the oven like an egg custard? Blend all the ingredients and then bake in ramikins??
Absolutely!
How do you reheat these… I am guessing microwave but I’m no fan of those. Is there another reheat option?
In a pan or under the broiler in the oven 🙂
You should be able to do the mason jars safely in the regular stockpot without the sous vide if you put the jars on a metal trivet or canning rack. Even with the sous vide, it’s a good idea to use the trivet to let water circulate completely around and under the egg cups. I use the trivet from the Instant Pot, but an ad hoc trivet can be created using just canning lid bands. Can’t wait to try this, thanks!
Thanks for the great looking recipe! Two questions. The instructions call for cream cheese but there is no cream cheese in the ingredients list. Should this be cottage cheese? Also, there’s no mention of how to plate this. Does it just slide out of the jar upside down onto the plate? The picture does not look like those toppings were cooked in the jar with the eggs, as the instructions would suggest. For plating, did you add the bacon and veggies and cheese, omitting them from the egg mixture, or did you do both? And the picture sure makes it look like there is a crust on the bottom.
It should say cottage cheese… fixed now 🙂 they do slide out of the jars pretty easy, but I added extra crumbled bacon and cheese for visual appeal when taking the picture. When not trying to photograph and make it look pretty, I’d actually recommend putting under the broiler with some extra cheese for a crispy outer shell.
Looks great, can’t wait to try it! Hubby is obsessed with the Starbucks version, and we need to find a cheaper (and healthier!) substitute.
I plan on attempting cooking method #3, as I don’t own a Sous Vide. Do you think this would work with a silicone muffin pan set in a large skillet, instead of the silicone egg poachers?
I’ve never tried Sous Vide, but now I want to try! I don’t have a Sous Vide machine so I’ll have to try one of the other methods you mentioned.
I love poached eggs. Is the texture similar? It looks a little custardy in the picture.
Thanks for another great post, Katie!
They are so good. I’ve only had the Starbucks ones but agree I don’t like the ingredient list. It is a smooth texture. It’s delicious.
A poached egg isn’t beaten. This is more like a quiche texture. Same ingredients as a quiche as well!
I’d love to hear more about how you cook meat sous vide without plastic! I have been hesitant to try this method for that very reason, but I may now pick up that machine! What sort of container do you submerse it in?
I just use a large stockpot.