How To Make Cafe-Worthy Egg Bites Sous Vide-Style

There are few things more satisfying than finding a recipe that perfectly mimics one of your favorite restaurant meals. The fact that you can make it at home whenever you please can somehow make you feel powerful. If you've been on the hunt for a worthy Starbucks copycat egg bite recipe lately, we've got you covered. Mashed spoke with John Warr, the executive chef at Radisson Blu Mall of America and FireLake Cocktail Bar & Grill, who explained how a few special ingredients and the use of the sous vide method can really take at-home egg bites to the next level.

Warr explained that before you can start cooking, you first have to make the ultimate egg bite mixture. "Blending eggs with cheese, cottage cheese, and seasoning before cooking will give a creamy, custard-like texture," he noted. While the additional ingredients can create an impossibly smooth, almost soufflé-like texture when done right, it's all for nothing if the ensemble isn't properly mixed together. In this case, to ensure a completely uniform consistency, look to your blender. To highlight the importance of this step, Warr said, "Make sure you blend the egg mixture before cooking."

While baked egg bites go directly into muffin tins and into the oven after blending, a sous vide egg bite recipe has different specifications. First of all, the bites will need to be separated into airtight containers that will give them shape, like small, lidded mason jars or ramekins tucked into sealed plastic bags. After that, as John Warr told us, the eggs can be cooked for one hour at 172 degrees Fahrenheit. If there's one thing you need to know about sous vide eggs, it's that timing and temperature are of the utmost importance. As Warr explained, "Egg bites hold well at this temperature, resulting in a smooth, velvety bite similar to what you'd find at a coffee shop."

Incorporating cottage cheese into your egg bite batter isn't the only trick to giving them that gourmet, restaurant-level quality. By adding different spices, meats, and veggies to the mix, you can create an array of different flavors that will feel like a mini meal with every bite. "I love to add something spicy and a bit of protein before cooking," said Warr. "My personal favorite is peppered bacon with red pepper flakes." If you think you'd miss the crispy, eggy edges of baked egg bites, you can even pop your sous vide bites under the broiler for a few minutes to give them those perfectly browned tops.