Bacon and Egg English Muffins (Like MacDonalds But Cheaper and Better)

Bacon and egg English muffins are an easy, filling, hand-sized breakfast. Here’s how to make it in ten minutes for much less money than buying takeaway.

A bacon and egg muffin with oozy melted cheese is a great one-handed breakfast for when you need food on the go.

As convenient as Macca’s drive-through is, you can make one of these tasty morsels at home in about the same time it takes to navigate the drive-through queue, and you can make it for a fraction of the cost of takeaway (and without any eggshell in it too).

Bacon Egg and Cheese Muffins – Cost and Savings Tips

If you’re heading to Macca’s, a bacon and egg muffin will set you back AU$5.55.

If you make them yourself using all Woolworths home-brand products, it will cost $1.88 per muffin. If you use Aldi products (pictured below), each muffin will cost $1.72. That’s a saving of $3.83 per muffin. If you’re buying more than one, those savings add up quickly!

Because I like to geek out on spreadsheets, I’ve included a bunch of cost variations below to compare the cost of a takeaway muffin to homemade.

Ingredient	Woolworths Most Expensive Brand Names	Woolworths Home-Brand	Woolworths Cheapest*	Aldi
Muffin	0.88	0.38	0.38	0.32
Bacon	0.51	0.63		0.60
(Ham)*			0.14
Fancy Sliced Cheese	0.71	0.46		0.43
Cheapest Cheese Slice*			0.18
Free range egg	0.92	0.41	0.41	0.37
Total	$3.01	$1.88	$1.11	$1.72

As you can see, even buying top-of-the-range stuff from Woolworths will save you money compared to the drive-through alternative.

So we know making a bacon and egg muffin is cheaper than Maccas, but is it worth the time and effort? Surely drive-through is easier?

Well, you do have to plan ahead and buy the ingredients, so in that sense, drive-through is easier. But once you have the ingredients on hand, you’ll be surprised how quick these are to make.

How to Cook The Usual Way and The Quick Way

To cook your bacon and eggs fast, fire a frying pan up to medium-high before you start taking ingredients out of the fridge. That way, the pan is nice and hot and your bacon and eggs cook quickly.

If you have a toaster, pop your English muffins in the toaster while you’re cooking the bacon and eggs. Otherwise, cook them under the grill. Top with cheese and melt it if you like.

This whole process takes about ten minutes.

To make cooking super speedy, cook the bacon and eggs in a sandwich press.

A sandwich press (compared to stove-top cooking):

• heats up faster
• uses less electricity
• cooks faster (because you’re cooking top and bottom at once)
• is quick to clean
• can be used anywhere there’s electricity (if you don’t have a full kitchen).

Turn the sandwich press on and get out your ingredients. It will heat up in about a minute, so put the bacon on and press to cook. Depending on the size of your sandwich press and bacon, you can cook enough bacon for two to four muffins.

You can also cook the egg on the sandwich press. If your press has multiple height adjustments like this one, you can easily cook the egg from top and bottom at the same time without squashing it. Otherwise, you can just hold it over the egg for a minute or two.

Again, cook the muffins in a toaster or under the grill (or in the sandwich press, too!), add the cheese, and you’re ready to go in less than 10 minutes.

Freezing Bacon and Egg English Muffins For Later

For an even speedier breakfast, these muffins can be made ahead of time and frozen.

To freeze, make the muffin with cooked egg, bacon, and cheese, let cook and then wrap individually before placing in the freezer. They can be kept frozen for up to one month.

To reheat, you can unwrap the muffin and reheat it in the microwave until warm, or you can wrap it in foil and reheat it in the oven until warmed through (approx. 30 minutes). You can also defrost the night before and reheat in the sandwich press!

Taking Your Bacon Muffin to the Next Level – Gourmet Additions

You don’t have to stick to bacon, egg, and cheese just because that’s how Maccas does it.

(Although, if that’s how you like it, you don’t have to mess with a good thing, either).

Some delicious additions and variations include:

• Spinach
• Tomato relish or chutney
• BBQ sauce
• Mayonaise or aoli
• Fried mushrooms
• Ham
• Fresh tomato
• Avocado
• Haloumi
• Hollandaise sauce