The Rebel Within is one of the more interesting “stunt” items on a menu in San Francisco. It’s named after a Hank Williams song and sold at the Craftsman and Wolves restaurant in the Mission district.
The Craftsman and Wolves Rebel Within is an Asiago cheese, green onion, and Easton sausage-flecked muffin with a wet poached egg in the center. My “paleo” grain-free and therefore gluten-free Rebel Within is made with coconut flour, green onion, and breakfast sausage.
The seriously tricky part of this recipe is keeping the egg runny even after being baked. It’s all in the timing, baby. The graphic below is featured on the Craftsman and Wolves site and supposedly lays out the anatomy of the thing, but wasn’t super helpful when I actually set out to recreate the recipe.
Rather, this exhaustive breakdown of the process was the key to success.
If this recipe seems ridiculously finicky and you’re not up for a challenge in the kitchen, by all means, give this a pass. Although… honestly it might be easier than it looks. I put it together while loading the crockpot with chicken to cook low and slow, plus re-testing a layer of my Allergy-Friendly Sex in a Pan and it still came out just fine! So if you want a breakfast/brunch item that can seriously impress, give these a shot.
One more thing. If you don’t like the name “The Paleo Rebel Within”, you can also call this “The 14-Egg Breakfast Recipe”.
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The Paleo Rebel Within
- Prep Time: 30 min
- Cook Time: 17 min
- Total Time: 47 min
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 14 eggs
- 1 cup coconut flour
- 1 tsp cream of tarter
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 4 tbsp coconut oil, softened, plus more for greasing pan
- 4 links of breakfast sausage
- 1/2 cup diced scallions
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Place the raw eggs (unbroken) in a large bowl. Fill the bowl with warm water to raise the temperature of the eggs. Bring water to a rolling boil in a medium pot. Working as quickly as you can, drop six of the pre-warmed eggs into the boiling water. Boil for four and a half minutes.
- While the eggs cook, add 2 cups of ice cubes to cold water. Once the eggs have boiled for 4.5 minutes, spoon them quickly into the ice bath (the cold water keeps the eggs from cooking any more). Tap the eggs lightly against a hard surface on their wider end. Then peel them very carefully under a thin trickle of water (this helps separate the shell from the egg). Do not rip the delicate egg white, or the liquid yolk inside will spill out.
- Once peeled, lay the eggs on a paper towel-lined plate to dry and chill in the refrigerator. To make the muffin dough, slit the casings of the sausage links and add the sausage meat to a skillet over medium heat. Cook, breaking up with a spoon periodically, until browned (approximately 5 minutes). Let cool.
- In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the coconut flour, cream of tarter, baking soda, and salt. Using the tines of a fork, cut the softened coconut oil into the dry ingredients until it’s crumbly. Briefly mix the remaining warmed (raw) eggs into the batter. Add the cooled sausage meat, then transfer the batter to a food processor. Whirl until the batter is broken down into a smooth enough batter to pipe out of a cake frosting tip. Add the diced scallions.
- Grease a 6-cup popover mold with coconut oil, then press 2 tbsp of muffin batter into the bottom of each cup. Make a divot in the batter and press a chilled soft-boiled egg into each. Load a reusable pastry bag (fitted with a ¾” round tip) with the remaining batter. Pipe around and over the chilled, soft-boiled eggs in a circular motion. Bake in the preheated oven for 17 minutes. Remove, let cool for 15 minutes and enjoy.
The Comments
Brooke
Could I just use breakfast sausage not in links – approx how much would I use (i.e. most of the packages come in 12oz)?
Rachel
BrookeYou’d use approximately 13 oz. (12.8 to be exact).
mullai
Rachel,
Amazing. Do you have a secret to getting your eggs to easily peel?
Rachel
mullaiJust dunk them in an ice bath, but peel under a trickle of running water (so the peels come off more easily) while they’re still warm.
monika
mullaiSome people swear by adding baking soda to the water when cooking the eggs…
Peggy
mullaiI also suggest that you use eggs that are at least a week old.. When they are really fresh is when you will have the most problems peeling them..
Michelle
Why do you need 14 eggs if you are only making 6 of the muffins?
Rachel
MichelleMichelle, you add the rest of the eggs into the muffin batter. That’s what I’m referring to in the directions when I say “briefly mix the remaining warmed (raw) eggs into the batter.”
monika
MichelleThe instructions, I’m sorry to say, are needlessly complicated.
I simply boiled 6 eggs to a soft boil (for the inside “filling”) and left the remaining 8 intact/raw and added them to the muffin batter.
Worked.
★★★
Grok Grub
monikaGlad you discovered a short-cut…
Marguerite
So, you only place 6 eggs in the fridge and leave the remaining 7 eggs to place in the batter?
Grok Grub
MargueriteRemaining 8 eggs in the batter! 🙂
Jade
Hi – An Australian here.. what is links breakfast sausage? I have googled it and the images are of normal sausages. Is there a difference? Thanks Jade
Grok Grub
JadeHaha, I corrected it to read “links OF breakfast sausage”… I just mean breakfast sausage.
Melissa
Just wondering, if you’re not concerned about a runny yolk, would these keep for a few days? I’ve seen cold meat pies with hard boiled eggs inside, so I wonder if these could hold up the same way for make-ahead breakfasts!
Nicole
MelissaI’m wondering the same thing as Melissa!! I’d be the only one eating these in my house.
Grok Grub
NicoleWhoops, sorry for the lack of reply! I think they will keep for a few days. If they get dry, I’d just split in half and spoon salsa over them!
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Erin
I need to try this! Wow! Impressive!
Pam Kidd
Doesn’t cooking the soft boiled egg in the muffin for an additional 17 min end up cooking the yolk. I actually tried these with Jiffy cornbread mis and cooked the eggs for 3 min. but after being in the oven for an additional 17 min, the yolk came out hard. How do you keep them runny?
Grok Grub
Pam KiddTakes a long time for the chilled dough to warm up…
Sean
Instead of the batter in this recipe, can I just use the meatloaf mix? I’m thinking of making scotch egg-kind of muffin, mainly due to it being more meaty.
monika
Would the muffin batter still work/hold together without the meat? Could I use 12 ounces of something else?
I don’t want to use meat… Thanks!
★★★
Maria
Hi can you substitute coconut oil with ghee?
Grok Grub
MariaHmmmm, have never done that so cannot give you a real answer! If you experiment, let me know how it turns out.
Bb
In the middle of trying the recipe. So far it’s working out ok but there are a few things that would have been helpful to note in the recipe. First, that this requires a pop over pan. I don’t have one so I’m improvising with a muffin pan. Hope it works out! Second if you could not the weight of sausage that is required since sausage links can vary in size. Last, it would be helpful to not to “add the remaining 8 eggs” since someone never working with coconut flour before would think that there was something they were getting off in the recipe.
Good recipe all around so far and I look forward to sinking into one of these rebels! Thanks for sharing !
Grok Grub
BbThanks for the feedback! Did the muffin pan work?