The Reckless Chef

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But what if you’re not super hungry?

Ta-da! It’s Tiny Breakfast! Everything on this plate can fit on one fork. Magic!

The fork is for scale. Click to zoom in and make the breakfast bigger than it is in real life! Clockwise from top left: Tiny Breakfast Sausages, Tiny Pancakes, Tiny Omelette, Tiny Hash Browns.

The Recipe

Tiny Breakfast

1 egg
1/2 cup flour
1 tbsp butter
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp milk
2 tbsp Sprite (or other lemon-lime soda)
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 slice American cheese
1 onion
1 small potato
breakfast sausage (I used Bob Evans’ brand, the kind that comes in a tube)
maple syrup
salt & pepper

Do This
Crack the egg into a bowl and beat gently with a fork. Set aside 1/4 of the beaten egg.
In a small bowl, mix 1/2 cup flour, 3/4 tsp baking powder, 1/8 tsp salt, 1 1/2 tsp butter, 1/4 tsp vanilla, 1/4 of the egg, and 2 tbsp of Sprite. This is your pancake batter - it should be thick but bubbly, and all of the dry ingredients should be dissolved.
Peel the onion and the potato. Cut a small slice from each, and reserve for later (3-4 servings of a complete Tiny Breakfast require one 1/4″ ring of onion and 1/8 of a small potato) - you can save the rest and make Normal Sized Hash Browns if you like. Chop the onion and potato into the smallest bits you can. Also, take the slice of cheese out of its wrapper and chop it into small bits.

Click to zoom in on the little bits of cheese and onion!

Open the breakfast sausage package and pinch off a small piece of sausage. Roll tiny (larger than a pomegranate seed, smaller than a blueberry) balls of sausage and flatten into little patties.
Your prep work is done! Hooray!

Grab a small frying pan. Turn the burner to medium heat.
Tiny Pancakes: using a regular teaspoon (not the measuring kind - the tapered end of the flatware variety works to your advantage), spoon tiny dollops of batter (no bigger than a nickel) into the pan. When the edges start to turn golden brown, flip them with a spatula and cook for another minute or so. Transfer to a plate to cool, cover in maple syrup, and put a Tiny Butter Pat on top.

Six pancakes in a pan at once! Click to zoom in.

Tiny Omelettes: pour a tablespoon of milk into the beaten egg, and whip with a fork. Put a bit of butter (less than a tsp) into the frying pan, and when it is melted/bubbling, spoon the whipped egg into the pan. It should spread out, but not much more than 2-3 inches wide (if it’s bigger, you’re using too much egg!). When it’s cooked to the point that the egg is opaque, flip it over with a spatula. While the other side cooks, put little bits of onion and cheese on top. Use the spatula to fold the omelette in half. Cook for a few more seconds (until the cheese melts) and transfer to a plate. Sprinkle with salt or pepper if desired.
Tiny Breakfast Sausages: place the tiny sausage patties into the frying pan. Allow them to cook for a few minutes on medium heat, until one side is browned. Flip over and cook until each patty is brown on both sides. If the patties are resistant to browning even after several minutes, pressing down on them with the spatula tends to help.
Tiny Hash Browns: put a teaspoon of butter into the frying pan. When the butter is melted and bubbling, place the bits of potato and onion into the pan. Season with salt and pepper, and use the spatula to flip the potatoes and onions occasionally. When the Tiny Hash Browns have reached a rich brown color, transfer them to a paper towel and pat out some of the butter.
Enjoy your Tiny Breakfast on a small saucer - or on a dinner plate if you want to feel like a giant!

My first excursion into Tiny Food was very fun! There was a bit of trial and error, especially with the Tiny Omelette (it’s not easy getting the egg to spread out where you want it…I might try using a cookie cutter for “boundaries” next time), but everything tasted just as good as its normal sized counterpart. I also learned that I need to invest in some better knives, because my onion and potato bits could have been a little bit smaller.

Future Tiny Breakfasts might include Tiny French Toast, Tiny Fruit Salad, and Tiny Bacon.