Sheet Pan Breakfasts

Crack a dozen eggs into a bowl with a splash of milk, salt and pepper, whisk, and pour it into a greased rimmed pan. About 15 minutes at 350°F and it sets into one big flat sheet you can cut into squares. A deeper glass dish like this one works too, it just needs a few more minutes.

Those squares are the whole point. They go on English muffins, into tortillas, or next to toast, and they reheat in the microwave in under a minute.

Not everything on this list comes off one pan, and this plate is the proof. Slice smoked sausage into thick coins and roast them on a sheet pan at 400°F for 15 to 20 minutes, flipping once, while you make a stack of pancakes on the griddle and soft scramble the eggs right at the end.

The sausage is the part you’d otherwise be standing over, so letting the oven handle it frees up the stovetop. Scrambled eggs should be cooked until there’s no liquid egg left.

Here is everything laid out before it goes in the pan: thick sliced bread, eggs, milk, butter, vanilla, cinnamon and a few berries for the top. Whisk the wet stuff with a spoonful of maple syrup, pour it into a buttered sheet pan, and lay the bread in it in a single layer.

Flip each slice once so both sides soak, then bake at 400°F for about 20 minutes, flipping halfway. Day-old bread holds up better than fresh.

Granola is a sheet pan job anyone can handle: oats, a handful of chopped nuts, a little oil and honey, a pinch of salt, spread thin and baked at 325°F for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring once. Let it cool on the pan without touching it and it clumps.

Then it’s just a bowl of yogurt, cut strawberries and a scoop of granola, like the one here. Make a full pan on Sunday and keep it in a jar.

Whisk a dozen eggs with a splash of milk, salt and pepper. Divide chopped spinach, peppers, onion and a little cheese among a greased 12-cup muffin tin, pour the eggs over, and bake at 350°F for 20 to 25 minutes, until they’re set in the middle and read 160°F. A muffin tin is close enough to a sheet pan in my book, and it sits on the same oven rack, like the batch here.

They keep 3 to 5 days in the fridge. I’d reheat 2 at a time in the microwave for about 30 seconds.

Brown a pound of breakfast sausage, drain it, and spread it in a greased pan with a couple of handfuls of sharp cheddar and some sliced green onion. Pour about 12 beaten eggs with milk, salt and pepper over the top and bake at 375°F for 25 to 30 minutes.

It is done when the center doesn’t jiggle, and egg dishes are safe at 160°F according to the USDA’s safe minimum temperature chart, if you’d rather check than guess. Cut it into squares like the one on the plate here and it travels well.

Roast seasoned ground meat or chorizo with chopped onion on a sheet pan at 400°F, breaking it up halfway, and bake a few eggs in the same oven. Warm corn tortillas on the rack for the last couple of minutes.

Pile it all on and finish with diced tomato and a fistful of microgreens, the way these are done. The greens add a little crunch and make a plate of tacos look like you tried harder than you did.

All the inside of a breakfast burrito, minus the rolling. Roast diced potatoes and peppers on a sheet pan at 425°F for about 25 minutes and bake a few eggs alongside for the last 10.

Pile it in a bowl over greens or rice, then add black beans, pico de gallo and a spoonful of sour cream. A drizzle of hot sauce does the rest.

The bacon is the sheet pan part. Line a pan with foil, lay the strips out in one layer, put it in a cold oven, set it to 400°F and pull it at 17 to 20 minutes. No spatter, no flipping.

While it cooks, stir up a pot of soft polenta with butter and parmesan and poach a couple of eggs. Then chop the bacon and pile it on top with a few herbs, the way this bowl has it.

A Dutch baby is a big oven pancake: eggs, flour and milk blended smooth and poured into a hot buttered pan, then baked at 425°F for about 20 minutes until it puffs up and the edges go brown. It sinks a bit once it comes out, which is normal.

Dust it with powdered sugar and top it with sliced strawberries or blueberries. One pan feeds 2 or 3 people without anyone stuck at the griddle.

Slice or cube potatoes small, because small pieces brown faster. Toss with oil, salt, garlic powder and paprika and roast at 425°F for 30 to 35 minutes, turning them once, until the edges look like the ones on this plate.

Leave space on the pan. Crowded potatoes steam instead of crisping, so use 2 pans if you have to.

Cold butter cut into flour, baking powder and salt, then just enough buttermilk to bring it together. Pat the dough out, fold it over itself a few times for layers, and cut it into squares with a knife (no biscuit cutter, no scraps to reroll).

Squares bake up a little rough around the edges, like the ones on this plate. Crowd them close together on the sheet pan so they rise up instead of out, and bake at 450°F for 12 to 15 minutes. Split one and add a sheet pan egg and some sausage for a breakfast sandwich.

Not an everyday breakfast, I know. But a pan of cinnamon rolls is the kind of thing you make the morning after a long run, when you’ve earned it (or at least that’s my excuse).

Roll out the dough, spread it with soft butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, roll it up and cut it into thick slices. Pack them close together so they rise into each other, and bake at 350°F for 25 to 30 minutes. Icing goes on while they’re still warm.

Tortilla chips spread in a single layer on a sheet pan, then tossed with warm red or green salsa and some black beans, and baked at 400°F for about 8 minutes, just long enough to soften the edges. Top it with crumbled cotija, pico de gallo and guacamole.

A fried egg on top makes it breakfast. Not exactly a weekday meal, but a fine one for a lazy Saturday.

Tear 3 or 4 day-old everything bagels into chunks and spread them in a greased pan with diced ham or cooked sausage and shredded cheese. Pour over a custard of eggs and milk, let it soak for 15 minutes (or overnight in the fridge), then bake at 350°F for 35 to 40 minutes until it puffs and browns on top like this one.

It goes further than you’d think. According to the FoodSafety.gov cold storage chart, casseroles with eggs keep 3 to 4 days in the fridge after baking and 2 to 3 months in the freezer, so cut it into squares and save some.

Coffee cake earns a place here because it bakes in a quarter sheet pan (or a 9 by 13) and cuts into squares you can grab on the way out the door. Make a basic sour cream batter, spread it in the pan, cover it with a crumb of brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and cold butter, and bake at 350°F for 30 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

A slice next to a short coffee, like this one, is a light breakfast that doesn’t need a plate of eggs to go with it.