Don’t tell your cardiologist!

Egg…cheese…bacon…biscuits…your arteries may not thank you, but your mouth sure will! In a continued effort to explore the different types of breads a panini grill can support, I decided to venture into refrigerated dough. Want to skip ahead? Click here for the final recipe.

Egg, Cheese & Bacon Biscuit Panini - Attempt #1

• Bread: Biscuits
• Condiment: None
• Cheese: Cheddar
• Meat: Omelet, Bacon
• “Goodies”: None

THE INSPIRATION: Some of my fondest memories of growing up took place on our annual weeklong summer family vacations. They weren’t extravagant by any means - mostly road trips, visits to amusement parks, renting a house by the lake and the like. One hallmark of these vacations was fast food breakfast - we never ate it at any other time of the year but during our vacations we had it almost every day! Now, with my oh-so-refined palette I know that these meals should have been nothing to write home (or blog) about. But now they’ve taken on a highly nostalgic meaning to me. My favorite: the Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit at McDonald’s - a savory, gratifying concoction that just made you feel good. When contemplating options for a breakfast panini sandwich recipe, my mind turned immediately to this childhood fave.

THE PREPARATION: I know that panini sandwiches generally ought to require relatively little prep and that the easiest form in which to present the eggs would be to scramble them…but I was somewhat reluctant to have loose pieces of egg. So I decided to do an omelet instead. I whisked 6 eggs with 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt, 1 teaspoon of dried basil, 2 tablespoons of milk and 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper. When I looked at the mixture, I was a little concerned over the volume of basil - there was a whole lot of green floating in there! Oh well, it’s an experiment.

I sprayed an 8″ saute pan with cooking spray, poured in the eggs and cooked them over medium heat for 8 minutes. The bottom was well cooked, but the top was still pretty runny so I finished it off in the oven at 400 degrees for another 5 minutes. When it came out, I had a 1/2″-thick little basil frittata. I inverted it onto a cutting board and divided it into four pieces.

THE CONSTRUCTION: With the eggs prepared, it was time to build the sandwich; I turned on the panini grill to 350 degrees. I wanted to see whether it would be possible to simultaneously bake the biscuits and grill the sandwich on the panini grill. So I took an uncooked biscuit off of the roll of refrigerated dough and cut it in half lengthwise with a pair of scissors to create top and bottom halves and lay them on a piece of parchment paper. Starting from the bottom, I layered the bottom biscuit half, a piece of the omelet, ready-cooked bacon (one trip ripped into two halves), a slice of mild cheddar cheese and the top biscuit half.

THE RESULTS: I could tell this wasn’t going to work before I even got the sandwich to the grill! The hot omelet had begun to melt the bottom biscuit half from the moment the two made contact - by the time I’d finished assembling the sandwich and lifted it up the bottom biscuit was a stretchy mess. Nevertheless, I went ahead and put it on the panini grill, in the 4th height position - may as well see it through! The cheddar melted after about a minute, but the biscuit was obviously not even close to done. The first Panini Happy failure

Egg, Cheese & Bacon Biscuit Panini - Attempt #2

For Attempt #2, I decided to start with biscuits that were already baked. I also lowered the height to the 3rd position.

THE RESULTS: Terrific! The grilled biscuit got a nice crispy, toasted exterior while remaining soft inside. I had previously been concerned about how much basil was in the eggs, but I had no reason to worry - it gave great flavor while not being overpowering. The cheddar melted well and the bacon’s salty-sweet flavor was a wonderful complement. If only the biscuit hadn’t gotten so smashed - the bread had gotten bit thinner than I’d have liked, due to the pressing. So I decided to go for one more Attempt.

Egg, Cheese & Bacon Biscuit Panini - Attempt #3

Attempt #3 was nearly the same as Attempt #2, except I raised the height of the panini grill back to the 4th position.

THE RESULTS: Winner! With the higher grill height, the biscuit got crispy without getting too smashed down. Balance achieved!

Click here for the final recipe!