Breakfast Platter Scones

I've been waking up baker-early on my non-baking days to lessen the shock when I do have to get up at 1am.  Most of the time, I roll over for another two hours.  That still gives me two hours before a 5am shift to have breakfast at home.  It has made a huge difference in my day.  For one thing, I've had at least one cup of coffee before getting behind the wheel.  I'm not hungrily looking forward to my oatmeal, which doesn't even keep me full past 10am.

So now I'm looking for better variety and things I can make the day before and reheat.  It takes longer than I usually want to make sausage or bacon.  I went through a batch of Bacon and Apple Pancakes and started revisiting other protein-based baked goods I'd made over the years.

This is a variation of the previously posted Bacon and Cheese Scones.  It's kind of a double batch of it on steroids.  I wanted to make this more than just decadent, but actually nutritionally balanced.  Only eat one.  I don't calculate calories in these recipes, but I'm pretty sure this is over 500.

*2 C frozen shredded potatoes
*1/2 lb uncooked bacon
2 eggs
*4 oz cheddar cheese, shredded or finely diced
1-1/2 C flour
1/2 C rolled oats
1/4 C margarine
1 Tb baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 C cream
1/2 C milk

1.  Bear with me.  This step will make sense by the end.  Preheat oven to 375º and spread out potatoes on a rimmed cookie sheet.  Place a rack over them and lay all but one of the strips of bacon on it.  Bake until the bacon is done, turning periodically.  The fat will replace the oil the bag of potato recommends, and grease the pan for later.

2.  Take that reserved piece of bacon and pan-fry it in a medium skillet.  While that's going on, beat the two eggs with two tablespoons of water.  Remove the cooked bacon and use that fat to make scrambled eggs.  Don't cook them until dry, because they're going in the scone dough.

3.  In a medium bowl, stir together flour, oats, baking powder, salt, pepper, and sugar.  Cut in margarine until you can't tell it from the oats.  Stir in the grated cheese.  Chop the bacon into small pieces and stir it in.  Then stir in the cooked scrambled eggs.

4.  Turn oven up to 425º.  Stir milk and cream into flour mixture to make a sticky dough.  On the baking sheet, arrange the hash browns into 8 sections.  (For smaller scones, divide hash browns into more mounds.)  Drop the dough onto the hash browns.  Brush tops with a little more cream and bake for 24 minutes, until lightly browned.  Remove to a rack to cool for a few minutes, then serve.

Serves 8

Difficulty rating  :)