Individual Sausage, Egg & Cheese Rolls

BOY have I missed my kitchen! This crazy school/life stuff has got to chill out, for realz. So I am especially thankful for this Easter weekend because I finally got a good reason and a free moment to get my foodie fill! I hosted an Easter Brunch and couldn't decide what to make, so I made everything that I wanted-- two savories and two sweets. I went grocery shopping on Saturday (almost broke my arms off carrying everything back to my apartment), cranked up J.Mayer right when I got home (he's really good at setting the mood), and got right to mixin' n choppin' and slicin' n dicin'. I spent Saturday evening and all of Sunday morning in kitchen therapy, and it was wonderful! My roommate/co-host kept asking, "What can I do? How can I help?" And my response was: "Nothing. This is what I do." And it be the truth. To me, cooking is not a burden or a chore; it's my little escape from reality.

So enough about me and more on this delicious food that you're looking at right now. Please allow me to introduce you to the star of the brunch show: The Individual Sausage, Egg and Cheese in a Sourdough Bread Roll.  

This was a pinspired recipe, but I modified it a little and made a triple batch of the egg mixture, bought a double batch of the rolls, and had to double the amount of cheese that the recipe originally called for... per serving. Come on! We can all agree that twice as much cheese is always necessary, am I right?! Anyways, this recipe yielded 24 rolls, and 8 people consumed them all. Needless to say, they were very, very yummy! So cute and convenient. No utensils necessary, and perfect for a brunch party! 

Ingredients:

- 24 sourdough bread rolls

- 8 oz sausage (I used Jimmy Dean, half hot and half regular)

- 18 eggs

- 1 cup cream

- 8 to 12 oz sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

- 6 scallions, chopped small

- 1 heaping tsp salt

- 1 tsp hot sauce (optional)

- a few grinds black pepper

Directions:

Brown sausage until cooked through, then set aside to cool. 

While the sausage is cooling, cut the tops off of your bread rolls and hollow out the insides-- make sure you don't puncture the crust!

Also, leave enough breading to soak up some of the egg mixture, but not too much. You want to achieve the right balance of texture and flavor. For instance, you don't want too much crunchy, chewiness from the bread to take away from the rich, eggy, cheesy, sausagey center of the roll.

When the rolls are finished, beat together your eggs, cream, scallion, salt, pepper and hot sauce. Add in the sausage once it has cooled. Be careful with this, because if it is not cool enough, it will curdle the eggs.

Spoon a generous amount of the egg mixture into each bread roll. Be sure to get a little sausage, scallion and LOTS of cheese in each scoop. As you can see, I made a few veggie friendly rolls. They were also very good, but I prefer the pig.

After assembling the rolls, let them sit for at least an hour to give the egg time to bind with the bread.

Then pop 'em in the oven at 350F for 30 minutes.

If you insert a knife in the middle of the egg mixture and it comes out clean, they're done! I kept getting melted cheese all over the knife when I was checking, so it was a little hard to tell.

Serve straight out of the oven and prepare for all the praise you'll be receiving from your guests/family/friends/whatever while they gorge themselves on these perfect, little masterpieces.

PS - I hope you like my nail polish.