- 1
Ingredients
- 4 eggs, 1 reserved
- 1 tablespoon milk or half and half
- 1 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1/4 cup shredded KerryGold Swiss cheese
- 1 tablespoon shredded Parmesan cheese, plus more for topping if desired
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- black pepper to taste (optional)
- 2 thick slices deli ham, diced (I used Honey Roasted. You could also use quartered Canadian Bacon slices)
- 2 tablespoons fresh minced red pepper, if desired
- 1 8-ounce tube Pillsbury Crescent butter flake dough
- melted butter
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Mix 3 eggs, milk, and heavy cream in a large plastic or glass mixing jug until well combined. Egg yolks should be completely broken and mixed in. Add shredded Swiss cheese, Parmesan, and salt and mix again until thoroughly distributed throughout the egg mixture.
Microwave the egg mixture in 30 second increments on high, stirring after each increment until you have a sort of solid, slightly runny scrambled egg mixture. In my 1000 watt microwave oven, this took 4 increments of 30 seconds.
This tightens the eggs enough so that the dough at the bottom will cook, and the dough at the sides and top will not fall into them. Add diced ham, black pepper and red pepper (if desired), stirring through the egg mixture so evenly mixed throughout. Set aside.
Sprinkle a clean surface with flour, and unroll the crescent dough. Do not separate the pairs of triangles. Instead, pinch with your fingers along the seam so that 2 triangles become 1 square of dough. You will only use 4 out of the 8 triangles included in the tube of dough. Set aside leftover dough, do not discard or pinch together.
Flour the square of dough on both sides, and a rolling pin. Roll out the dough, turning dough once clockwise after each roll. Always roll in the same direction, directly out from yourself, until you have a square that is approximately 6″ x 6″.
Melt about a tablespoon of butter in the microwave. Brush melted butter inside two 4″ ramekins, and then carefully line each with the 6×6 square of dough, leaving excess hanging over the edge of the ramekin.
Fill each ramekin and dough with equal amounts of egg mixture. Sprinkle with more Parmesan cheese, if desired. Fold dough over the egg mixture so it is no longer hanging over the sides of the ramekin.
Break and whisk the remaining egg, then brush over dough in each ramekin. This will give the dough a golden color and shine as it bakes.
Place ramekins on the center of a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
Bake for 15 minutes. While the soufflés are baking, roll the remaining crescent dough to package specifications. After 15 minutes, remove tray from oven and place the spare rolled crescents onto the baking tray around the ramekins.
Return to oven and bake for 10-12 minutes more, until the souffles are golden brown and bubbly, and egg appears to be solidly cooked.
The remaining crescents may need a few extra minutes, so remove the ramekins from the tray and return the tray to the oven, if necessary.
Allow the soufflés to cool for approximately 5 minutes. You may eat the soufflés directly in the ramekins, or remove them and serve on a plate. They should remove easily since the ramekin was brushed with butter.
Serve with extra crescents, jam, and fresh fruit for an excellent Saturday morning breakfast or weeknight Brinner!
Tagged as:
Breakfast,
copycat recipes,
eggs,
ham,
Panera Bread,
souffle,
swiss
{ 54 comments }
oooh, I LOOOOVE the egg souffles at Panera!! thanks Amber these look fantastic!
Gorgeous photos, Amber! These look like Sunday dinner to me. ;)
So beautiful, Amber! The photos are perfect. And the souffles look creamy and flaky.
Yum! Great lunch idea!
This looks like breakfast heaven to me. I wish we had KerryGold around here. And I agree that ham and cheese is the best combo!
I have never had a Panera Egg Souffle, but now I am tempted to wake up early tomorrow to go get one. These look insanely delicious. Love the photos too.
I have never actually had the souffles at Panera… But, now I don’t need to! Love the look of these… They are just beautiful!
Mmmmm! Yummy! I will have to try these. They remind me of an item we used to make in Culinary School. We’d take croissant dough and place ham, gruyere, bechamel and spinach in the center and fold the dough over. It was amazing. Can’t wait to try this!
Yum! That looks wonderful!
As a baker at Panera I can tell you that your recipe is far better than anything you can get at Panera. (Really all it is is frozen egg mix, sliced ham and swiss cheese)
I’ve yet to have the pleasure of eating at Panera Bread, but my Dad talks about it all the time! Now I can have it at home. These look super fantastic!
I love their baked egg souffles, I can’t wait to try this recipe. Thanks, Amber!
Oh my goodness you weren’t joking were you. I’m soooo in love with this idea!
I think these would be really perfect for brunch! Love your Panera tradition but there is nothing better than homemade treats :)
I’ve never had Panera, so I am excited to have a chance for at least the DIY version. I have a sad tale for you btw, the DH will NOT, I repeat, WILL NOT touch an egg!
I can one up on you on that one, honey. My husband hates cheesy sauces, and any block cheese beyond cheddar.
Oh no! Now thats just SHAMEFUL ;)
These sound fantastic and can’t wait to try them this weekend! :)
Hi Amber! I had one of these this morning after an early morning hockey session and I just have to say “YUM!” I came home and did a search and after seeing several using puff pastry (huh?) I saw that you had this recipe posted. Since I regard you as a trusted source, I will be giving this a try in the very near future. I hope it is ok if I post on my blog and link back to you. I’m new at this blogging thing, so I hope that is acceptable. Thanks for the great blog. Happy New Year! Lisa
Only change I made is that we like thin slices of ham, perfection!
Sandra, I’m glad you liked them. They’re sooo good!
I can’t wait to make this for my mum’s birthday! Great recipe, but I have one question. I know you said the ramekin measurements should be 4×4 but how deep is it? I have the 4×4′s but they seem shallow compared to yours. Thanks for any help :)
Renaire, I had to find a measuring tape! Hah. They’re about 2 1/2 inches deep. I think a more shallow ramekin will still work, you’ll just have more crust at the top. I hope your mum has a wonderful birthday. But then, she’s off to a great start – her daughter’s making her breakfast!
Thank you so much! I’ve been measuring for the past hour until I decided to ask you *why didn’t i just do that* lol. I have a Panera Bread pretty close by but I really wanted to add things she loves. Hopefully I can be as successful as you’ve been. Thanks again.
I work at panera bread and these are way better! Real eggs out of the fride? Sign me up!
Completely forgot to post after my b’day brunch for my mom. They were so delicious everyone talks about them every Saturday morning! Only had a few tweaks; used chopped turkey sausage and bell peppers with aged cheddar, and instead of microwaving the eggs I cooked them in the skillet until they were 80-90% cooked and then put them in the ramekins. Thanks again!
Just had the swiss and ham souffle at panera for the 1st time! I was drooling, I loved it. Thanks so much for the recipe as I agree, this souffle would be great for dinner as well. Lori :)
Hope you like it at home, Lori. If you want to make the same sort of thing on a bigger scale (say for a large brunch crowd), check out my recipe for Grandma Mack’s Breakfast Delight. Same flavors and textures, just in casserole form.
I tried this recipe 3 times and each time a tiny tweak. I keep buying Panera to compare them. This recipe although fabulous is NOT Panera’s recipe by a long shot. I precook my eggs less each time and increase baking time slightly making the texture and crust falling into a slightly more liquid center is similar to a Chicken Pot Pie than a crescent surrounding an well done omelet. To each their own but the precooking time greatly changes the texture of the final product. My changes are- Double spinach, 1/2T Parmesan on top of the covering dough and a pinch of sugar to the mix. Less precooking the eggs because of texture and the dough has never falling into the egg mixture yet.
Okprepper,
I really appreciate you taking the time to comment, though as you can see from other comments left here by Panera employees, Panera actually uses powdered eggs for their souffles. Using real egg instead is never going to give the same results.
I will also mention that this recipe was adapted directly from a “copycat recipe” commissioned BY Panera Bread by a chef. The only things I changed were the add-ins – the ham, cheese, and red pepper.
I am glad to hear you’ve made this recipe your own, and I really like the idea of Parmesan to top the dough.
- Amber
They only thing I can eat from Panera bread is the four cheese souffle, I LOVE them. So I was very excited to find this recipe! Looks like you did an amazing job. I tried to make them tonight and its was ok but just not as good as Panera. I can’t figure out if it was the cresent or if i cooked the eggs a little to long. I will keep trying because I don;t live my a panera anymore. And they cost so much to buy. Thanks for posting this recipe.
I made these today and we were very disappointed. On a scale of 1-10 I would only give this a 4 or 5. The crescent dough is not like the pastry of panera, and the filling doesn’t taste the same either. I’ll keep searching and experimenting.
Rebekah,
I’m really sorry you didn’t care for the recipe, but I appreciate you leaving the feedback. We didn’t seem to experience the same thing, and as I said in the post, the recipe is adapted from a recipe commissioned from a chef specifically by Panera Bread. Maybe this is the closest they’d allow the chef to get in terms of recipe development. Also keep in mind that the filling at Panera Bread is made from frozen egg product, so the texture/flavor is always going to be different than using fresh eggs. Would love to hear more about your experimentations!
Amber
Made these and they are good. However, this recipe is not the Panera recipe. So if you are looking for the exact Panera recipe this is not it.
I just wanted to take the time to thank you for doing this! It’s my new favorite thing, considering the panera egg souffles are my favorite.
Devon, thanks so much for your kind words! I love those Panera Souffles too. These are just for when I can’t get them! ;)
Ill will have to give this a try. The ham and Swiss is the only one I like. And it is now off the menu replaced by sausage and Gouda :(
Thanks for the great recipe! I was so disappointed when I couldn’t get the Ham and Swiss Souffle at my Panera. This has helped fill the void! I’ve made a couple of changes, using country ham and puff pastry. Comes out delicious every time!
It’s pretty good. :) I think next time I’d pre-cook the egg mixture less, and bake longer. The texture was too much like scrambled egg.
This is a perfect recipe.
Thank you so much, Erin!
What would you recommend for making ahead instructions?
Hey Erin,
Really, the only thing you could do ahead of time with this recipe would be to have your mix-in ingredients ready to go. Chop the ham, dice the red pepper or any other vegetables that you’re going to use. Baking is what takes the most time, and that you can’t really do ahead. :)
Good recipe… Just made these this morning. Next time I would add more Swiss cheese,maybe anotherb1/8 of a cup? Also I had to bake it about 25 minutes longer than the recipe so that the eggs would cook. My husband loved it too!
I’ve been using this recipe and tweaking it as I go, it’s pretty tasty. I don’t have ramekins so I’ve been using silicone cupcake pans, which works ok. I double the filling and use the whole tube of crescent rolls, it makes 8 little soufflés. My favorite combo so far is egg, ham, Swiss, laughing cow light and nutmeg. The laughing cow cheese adds some creaminess without too many calories.
For the naysayers – this recipe uses crescent rolls from a tube. Of course it’s not going to be identical to Panera, any more than tube crescent rolls are identical to bakery croissants. But it’s a pretty easy and tasty substitute for the Panera soufflés that you can make at home for about 1/4 the cost. And now that Panera has taken the ham & cheese off the menu, its even better to be able to make at home.
the results will be a lot more like panera’s if you use the Pepperidge Farm puff pastry dough. yup.
Made this for breakfast, a bacon and cheddar variety for him, turkey and provolone for me. Both were hits! I overcooked his egg in the microwave slightly, and he still enjoyed it tremendously! Posted a pic of mine to Twitter: https://twitter.com/Floyd_Tori/status/374201829204037633/photo/1
Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Tori, your photo looked delicious! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment. I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe. :)
I went searching for a recipe after trying the sausage and Gouda soufflé at Panera and falling in love with it. We don’t have a Panera in Calgary. Made it this morning. Used Gouda cheese, dried onion flakes (too lazy to chop onions) and Johnson’s Italian Sausage meat. Fantastic! Thanks for sharing the recipe. It was amazing and definitely making it into my breakfast recipe book.
Anna, I haven’t tried that sausage and gouda version yet, but now I’m inspired to make my own! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment, I’m really glad you enjoyed your breakfast. :)
Any experience with freezing these? It would be great if I could pop one of these in the microwave or toaster oven as I get ready for work, and then grab it as I run out the door in the mornings :)
Hey Angela, thanks for your question. I haven’t tried freezing them, but my understanding is that Panera’s are frozen before they bake them. The nice thing is, croissant dough and eggs aren’t all that expensive in terms of ingredients. Why not make up a few and freeze one, and see how it works out? I’d love to know too! If I get a chance to try it myself, I will. But as I’m due with a new baby in a week, you may get a shot before I do. :)
Made this recipe this morning, and it was delicious! Thank you for taking the time to share your update to the recipe and to the other postings for different ideas/add ins :)
Leah, I’m so glad you enjoyed them! Thank you for taking the time to come back and leave a comment. It always means so much to get the feedback.
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