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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!
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Is there a reason you don’t put the bacon and cheese on top? So that you can broil and still eat from the jars?
You can absolutely do that!
I thought you were against eggs according to a trailer tease I saw a while ago for your program. Explain?
No, I’ve never been against eggs. Some people can’t handle them due to allergies, but there’s nothing objectively wrong with eating them…
I can’t wait to try this! What are the two different texture layers from in the egg bites in the photograph? Is it just the eggs doing a little something different on the bottom or did the grated cheese sink to the bottom and make it look different?
The eggs were frothy when I put them in and it is just a less dense layer that tastes the same 🙂
I just discovered the completely addictive Starbucks egg bites and am delighted to learn I can now make them at home!!! Do you think I could sub a pretty firm ricotta for the cottage cheese? Thanks!
I do use ricotta, its great room temperature for lunch at work. Layered like this….. Carmelized mushrooms and onions, then spinach, I season, salt & pepper and any spices I like to match this all first before adding ricotta on top of the previous layers to hold down the layers, then turkey bacon and then pepper jack sprinkled on top last, then pour a beaten mixture of NO cream just eggs and more ricotta. Sprinkle a little cardamom and chili powder to give first bite flavor and pretty color. You do not have to carmelize but at least saute veggies, brings out the flavor. You can “oven” carmelize mushrooms & onions together with butter and bake the turkey bacon too all at once very simple while you are preparing the rest. I always have carmelized Mushrooms, onions and tomatoes on hand. For quick recipes.
Desert is made easy this way too. Layer dried cherries, soft cream cheese spread on top and more cherries and sprinkle chocolate chips pushing down into the cream cheese, sprinkle cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg then add beaten eggs and ricotta. Both the savory and sweet Egg cups cook in Sous Vide as stated in the recipe above for a quiche like the egg cup, or in the other methods for a more scrambled egg texture.
could you put theses in a crock pot of hot water, if you don’t have the Sous Vide machine – as it doesn’t boil but is a slow heat?
Maybe on low? I haven’t tried it, and there won’t be circulation of water, but you may be able to get similar results.
In the ingredients it says Cottage cheese, and in the directions it says cream cheese. Does it matter? Or is it just whatever your preference?
Either will work, but it should say cottage cheese in both places.
Do you add the cottage cheese with the eggs before they are blended? I didn’t see where it was added.
These sound delish! They would make wonderful breakfasts for guests! (Or just my hubby and me…!) I will be trying the egg poaching cups and the recipe says to “add to a skillet of boiling water until the eggs are cooked”. Approximately how long is that? Thank you!
Hi, I too wonder how long in the skillet.
Just made these in a brand new egg poacher I found at Value Village. My Starbucks sous vide habit was getting out of hand. They are exactly like the Starbucks ones….seems the cottage cheese is what gives it that special flavour.
I cooked mine for 10 minutes once the water was boiling and then put them under the broiler with extra cheese on top.
Cottage cheese or cream cheese? (List says cottage, blender part says cream…) Thanks! These look good 🙂
I haven’t splurged on a machine, but am a food network fan, so I’ve drooled over them for awhile. Somehow, it never occurred to me to try to rig one up! I like the comment about using my canner/extra bands.
Do you think I have to have the circulator, or is it worth bringing to a boil, then reduce the heat & cook on low? Or do I have to maintain a boil for safety?
It should all say cottage cheese. And I don’t think it is possible to replicate the results with just boiling water. For one thing, with sous vide, it is never getting close to boiling temp (212) but is usually staying at 150 or below. It would be very difficult to maintain this temperature consistently for hours on the stove or with other methods.
Starbucks has that great crispy cheese flavor, have you managed to replicate this? Would you broil or pan fry then to finish them?
Broiling would probably get the closest to their flavor.