Recorded Books Inc. - Crazy For Breakfast Sandwiches: 75 Delicious, Handheld Meals Hot Out Of Your Sandwich Maker

Text copyright 2014 Jessica Harlan. Design and concept copyright 2014 Ulysses Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized duplication in whole or in part or dissemination of this edition by any means (including but not limited to photocopying, electronic devices, digital versions, and the Internet) will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Published by

Ulysses Press

P.O. Box 3440

Berkeley, CA 94703

www.ulyssespress.com

ISBN: 978-1-61243-371-4

Library of Congress Catalog Number 2014932298

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Acquisitions editor: Kelly Reed

Managing editor: Claire Chun

Editor: Phyllis Elving

Proofreader: Elyce Berrigan-Dunlop

Design and layout: what!design @ whatweb.com

Cover photograph: JudySwinksPhotography.com

Food stylist: Anna Hartman-Kenzler

Distributed by Publishers Group West

IMPORTANT NOTE TO READERS: This book is independently authored and published and no sponsorship or endorsement of this book by, and no affiliation with, any trademarked brands of the breakfast sandwich makers or other trademarked brands or products mentioned in this book within is claimed or suggested. Although the recipes in this book were prepared for and tested with one brand of sandwich maker, the recipes can be adjusted appropriately by the reader for use on any brand. All trademarks that appear in this book belong to their respective owners and are used here for informational purposes only. The author and publisher encourage readers to patronize the quality brands and products mentioned in this book.

To Breakfast Clubbers everywhere.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Breakfast: The Most Important Meal

I love breakfasts and bruncheseverything about them. Savory egg dishes (preferably involving biscuits or a rich hollandaise sauce), cinnamon rolls and other pastries, decadent pancakes or French toast, you name it.

But, like most people, I rarely have time to make the elaborate morning meals of my dreams, even on the weekends. My solution? For a quick and tasty morning meal, I make a sandwich! You can pack a world of flavors alongside an egg between pieces of bread, English muffin, or even bagel. Healthy or decadent, vegetarian or meaty, fancy or lowbrowthe choice is yours.

And never have breakfast sandwiches been easier or more convenient to make thanks to the array of specifically designed cooking tools at your disposal, including egg rings, microwave egg pans, panini presses, sandwich grills, and even all-in-one breakfast sandwich makers. My personal favorite for making these handheld mealsand the one I used to make all the recipes in this bookis the breakfast sandwich maker from Hamilton Beach.

The Hamilton Beach appliance cooks an egg, toasts the bread, melts the cheese, and heats other ingredients at the same time, then assembles the sandwich with the flick of a lever. Another all-in-one machine is the West Bend Egg and Muffin Toaster, which cooks all your ingredients in separate compartments and then allows for easy assembly.

Another way to produce a perfectly proportioned breakfast sandwich is to use a microwave egg pan or a stovetop egg ring, both of which form a perfectly round cooked egg. Progressive International has a microwave version with 2 round compartments for eggs and another section for heating bacon, sausage, or other ingredients, and Nordic Ware offers an Eggs N Muffin Pan that heats up your egg and meat together in one pan. Once you have cooked the egg and heated the other ingredients, I recommend putting the assembled sandwich into a panini press or other sandwich grill to toast the bread and melt the cheese.

Since the recipes in this book use the Hamilton Beach breakfast sandwich maker, the egg is placed in the top ring compartment, while the other ingredients of your sandwich are placed in the bottom. With a little tweaking, any of the recipes in this book can be made using one of the round egg cookers and a traditional sandwich press. If you opt for this multi-step approach, feel free to layer the ingredients in whichever order works best for your particular cooker.

The majority of the recipes in this book are for breakfast sandwiches, but once you have a sandwich maker youll probably want to maximize its use. Thats why Ive included creations that can be enjoyed any time of day, from lunch to dinner to dessert. For college students, office workers, and others with limited kitchen facilities, I hope this will help you utilize your sandwich maker to its full potential.

The Breakfast Sandwich Through the Years

McDonalds is commonly credited with being the first major restaurant chain to offer a breakfast sandwich: its Egg McMuffin debuted in 1972. The creator of this sandwich was one of the chains franchisees, attempting to make a handheld version of eggs Benedict. His sandwich was an instant success, and other restaurant chains hastened to create their own handheld breakfasts. Burger King introduced its Croissanwich about a decade later.

Meanwhile, as people recognized the practicality of a hot, nourishing breakfast thats perfectly portable, breakfast sandwiches started popping up on menus at city diners, coffee shops, and food carts. Today these sandwiches are getting fancy: Starbucks and Panera both offer artisan breakfast sandwiches made with rustic bread and fancy cheese.

The Breakfast Sandwich Kitchen

When you get to be as obsessed with making breakfast sandwiches as Ive become, youll see every other meal as an opportunity to squirrel away a few leftovers to tuck into the next mornings meal. Since you only need an ounce or so of an ingredient for a breakfast sandwich, it makes sense to plan your sandwiches in conjunction with other meals in order to use ingredients wisely.

Here are some tips to help you become a breakfast sandwich pro:

Set aside small amounts of cooked meat and vegetables that would work in a breakfast sandwich. A few stalks of grilled asparagus, a couple ounces of broiled salmon, a slice of steak, a few spoonfuls of cooked cornthese are just a few examples of leftovers that can be incorporated into a breakfast sandwich.

If youre making pancakes or waffles on the weekend, cook a couple just the right size to fit your sandwich maker. We always have a ton of pancake batter left over, and I cook it up in 4-inch rounds to use in sandwiches during the week. Sometimes Ill even sprinkle in cheese or herbs to make savory versions.

Be sure to fully preheat your sandwich maker before using it, so that food cooks thoroughly. I like to plug mine in before I start assembling and preparing the ingredients for my sandwich; usually its preheated by the time everything is ready to make my sandwich.

I recommend using large eggs in your sandwich maker. Extra-large eggs have the potential to overflow the compartment. I always crack the egg into a small bowl first, giving me more control when I pour it into the sandwich maker. If youre daring, go ahead and crack it right into the top compartment.

Cut or fold foods to fit the sandwich maker. A pair of kitchen shears or an appropriate-size (4 inches in diameter works well) metal biscuit cutter is great for trimming meat, cheese, and bread into rounds.

Precook meat. The top compartment of the sandwich maker gets hot enough to cook an egg, but the bottom compartment doesnt get quite as hotand certainly not hot enough to cook meat in the short cooking time thats involved. Itll heat meat or melt cheese, but ingredients such as bacon, sausage, and fish should be fully cooked before you put them in the sandwich maker.