Christmas morning, a Saturday when the house is full or the Sunday you said you would bring something to church. Sausage egg and cheese breakfast sliders are what I make on those mornings, when everybody needs to eat at about the same time and I would rather not stand at the stove scrambling eggs in three rounds.
I fill a whole pan of Hawaiian rolls at once, with scrambled eggs, a sausage patty on every roll and cheddar above and below the sausage. Butter and maple syrup go over the tops, the foil goes on, and half an hour later I cut the sliders apart.
How To Make These Ahead Of Time
If we have company or the morning is going to be busy, I put these breakfast sliders together the night before. They go into the refrigerator assembled, with the glaze being the only thing left to do.
I’d highly recommend not brushing the glaze on the night before. It will soak through the rolls until you get up.
In the morning, I like the sliders to come to room temperature because the middles are cold. I set the dish out while the oven heats and glaze them after that.
NEXT RECIPE
Biscuits And Gravy Breakfast Casserole
The biscuit dough gets cut into 2-inch pieces and goes on the bottom, so it bakes up into the casserole instead of sitting on top of it. Sausage, eggs and cheddar over that, and the country gravy is the last thing poured on.
Ingredients I Use, And Which Ones You Can Sub
Hawaiian Rolls
The size of the dish you have will ultimately determine how many sliders you can get. I typically buy a 12-pack as well as a 4-pack of King’s Hawaiian.
Sub: Any bakery dinner roll works as long as it comes joined in a block, or you can bake a pan of fluffy dinner rolls yourself.
Pre-Cooked Sausage Patties
I buy the patties already cooked, one for each roll, so all they do in the oven is heat through.
Sub: Crispy bacon or sliced ham both work.
Eggs
I scramble 10 large eggs in butter and whisk in just a little salt and pepper (optional), no milk and no cream.
Sliced Cheddar
I use about ¾ pound of Tillamook medium cheddar from the pre-sliced package. Slice counts run different from brand to brand, so buy the cheddar by its weight and not by the number on the front of the package.
Sub: Grated cheddar works, and so do Swiss, provolone and pepper jack if you want the sliders sharper or hotter.
Salted Butter
Five tablespoons of salted butter do two jobs here. Two tablespoons scramble the eggs and three go into the glaze.
Pure Maple Syrup
A quarter cup of pure maple syrup goes into the melted butter to make the glaze. I don’t recommend using pancake syrup as a substitute. It’s just corn syrup and caramel color, and it does not taste the same.
Assembling The Sliders
Never pull the rolls apart first. Separated rolls have to be filled one at a time, and the eggs end up in small piles instead of one even layer.
Then the tops come off the whole block in one pass with a long serrated knife, palm flat on the bread, sawing rather than pressing.
The rolls go into the dish first, before I slice anything. They sit against each other the way they came out of the package, with no room to slide around.
The Eggs Come Off The Burner As Soon As They Are Set
I keep the burner at medium-low and take my time with them.
They are ready when there is no loose egg left in the pan and the curds still look soft. Take the skillet off the heat right then.
I move the eggs onto the roll bottoms straight from the skillet while they are still hot, and push them out to the corners of the dish with the back of the spatula so the end rolls get as much as the middle ones.
Five whole slices of cheddar, some full, some halved, reach right across the 9×13 dish and every roll gets covered.
Then the sausage patties go on, then the second five slices of cheddar halved the same way, and the sheet of tops goes back over everything.
The Maple Butter Goes On Right Before It Bakes
The butter melts in a bowl in the microwave and the maple syrup goes straight in after it. I pour the glaze over the tops and push it around with a pastry brush, out to the corner rolls and down the sides where the pan meets the bread, until the bowl is empty.
The foil goes on for the first 20 minutes and comes off for the last 5 to 10, which is when the tops brown. That is long enough to make an iced mocha, or an iced caramel macchiato if you want the sweeter one.
Leftovers can go back in the refrigerator covered. If I am warming a plateful at once I put them back in a 300°F oven under foil for 15 to 20 minutes, which warms the middle without drying out the bread. If I am reheating one or two, they reheat in the microwave in 30 seconds to a minute.
I let them sit a few minutes before I cut them. The rolls have already marked the lines, so the knife just runs down the seams.
Another Easy Breakfast
Assemble this baked French toast the night before and bake it in the morning. Whole slices of French bread with a cinnamon sugar topping.
Breakfast Sliders With Sausage and Cheese
Ingredients
- 5 tablespoons salted butter, divided
- 10 large eggs
- 15 Hawaiian rolls
- 15 pre-cooked sausage patties
- 10 large slices cheddar cheese, divided in half to give 5 slices per layer (about ¾ pound)
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat.
- Whisk eggs in a medium mixing bowl until fluffy and combined.
- Pour eggs into the melted butter and cook over low to medium heat, scrambling the eggs by gently lifting with a silicone spatula until all the eggs are cooked through.
- Place the rolls into a 9×13 casserole dish and divide/adjust the rolls to fill the casserole dish.
- Remove the rolls from the pan to slice the tops off the rolls in one full slice.
- Place the bottoms of rolls back into the casserole dish and set tops aside for later.
- Spread the scrambled eggs over the rolls.
- Cut the cheese slices in half and lay the halves over the scrambled eggs, fitting them together so the seams do not line up.
- Top with sausage patties – one sausage patty per roll.
- Top the sausage patty layer with the remaining cheese slices, halved and fitted the same way, then place the tops of the rolls back into place.
- Melt the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter in a microwave-safe bowl.
- Add the maple syrup to the melted butter and whisk the mixture together.
- Pour the butter and syrup mixture over the rolls, using a pastry brush to spread evenly.
- Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes until the cheese is melted and rolls are heated through.Remove the aluminum foil and bake for 5-10 minutes longer until the tops are browned.
Notes
- Cooking scrambled eggs low and slow is the key to making them creamy, and soft.
- If you’re looking for a convenient, make-ahead breakfast without the bread, you want my Sausage Breakfast Casserole. It uses the same 9×13, same sausage and eggs, serves 12.
- If you’d rather leave your oven free on a holiday morning, my Crockpot Breakfast Casserole is the recipe you’re looking for. You can put it together the day before and it cooks while you’re sleeping.
Nutrition
This post was originally published in February 2022. It was updated with new photos in September 2026.
Comments
Gloria says
Very easy and fun breakfast idea!
Joe says
Can you make this up to cover with top bun cover and refrigerate overnight. Top with butter And maple syrup and Finnish in the morning?
Layne Kangas says
Hi, Joe – that will work, enjoy!
kimberly k johnston says
could u make this recipe by adding soft flour tortillas on the bottom instead of the rolls and if so, instructions please. im trying to count carbs here so i would use the low carb tortillas
Amy Tandiko says
Hi Kimberly, we haven’t tried making this recipe that way, but if you do, please let us know how it goes!