I fell into a terrible habit of getting a McDonald’s breakfast almost any time I left the house before 11am, and as a result, I’ve put myself on a total McDonald’s ban in order to preserve my bank balance and my diet.
So when I saw that Aldi was stocking a breakfast sandwich maker that makes a DIY McMuffin ‘dupe’, I knew that it was the perfect way to still get my sausage and cheese fix at a fraction of the cost.
The budget retailer’s latest Specialbuy is the Drew and Cole breakfast sandwich maker, which costs £29.99 - £10 cheaper than at Currys and Amazon .
Available in stores from May 7, Aldi’s Breakfast Muffin Maker lets fast-food fans recreate popular McDonald’s McMuffins at home for just 78p per serving. Those looking to start their day right will need to be quick though as with all Specialbuys once they’re gone, they’re gone.
A sausage and egg McMuffin will set you back £3.79 on its own - that’s without making it a meal with a hash brown and a drink, but Aldi also has everything you need to make an affordable supermarket alternative.
Here’s everything I needed to make a DIY breakfast muffin from Aldi:
Village Bakery White Toasting Muffins (4 muffins) – 75p
Everyday Essentials Cheesy Singles (15 cheese slices) – 83p
Oakhurst Breakfast Pork Patties (6 pork patties) – £1.89
Merevale British Free Range Medium Eggs (6 eggs) – £1.29
To make my DIY McMuffin, I shallow fried my pork patties in a pan first to make sure they were properly cooked from frozen, before slicing my muffins, adding half to the lower part of the sandwich maker. To the muffin I added a cheese slice, on top of which went my pork patty.
The Drew and Cole sandwich maker has three heating plates that cook each layer perfectly at the same time, complete with a non-stick coating to make cleaning up easier. The centre plate comes down on top of the half-assembled muffin so that you can crack an egg, with a sliding plate that allows the egg and top bun to then sit on the rest of the DIY McMuffin without making a mess.
My homemade muffin took around five minutes to make, which is far quicker than the drive thru on a busy Saturday morning. always find the meat to bread ratio is off at McDonalds, but at home, everything was much more even.
The Aldi Muffins work out at 78p per serving, which saves around £3 on the price of a McMuffin - not to mention the petrol it would cost to collect it. This saving means that after just eight muffins the device will have paid for itself.
The homemade breakfast was far tastier than McDonalds, and my family loved them. I know I’ll be treating myself to these on weekends instead of heading to the fast food restaurant.
While you don’t necessarily need a kitchen gadget to make these, the Drew and Cole breakfast sandwich maker did make cooking the eggs a doddle and kept everything warm in the meantime.
The breakfast muffin maker is currently £29.99 at Aldi, in store only, or £39.99 on Amazon here.
