Bacon, bacon, bacon and yes more bacon. It seems that there isn’t anything left that someone, somewhere hasn’t tried to add bacon to. While I’m not the first person to add bacon to cinnamon buns, this was my first time making and trying them. I have a wicked sweet tooth and I’ve made this particular recipe dozens of times already. Now, I do LOVE bacon, like really really LOVE bacon, so why wouldn’t I add them together right? I’ll tell you why….I don’t like my sweet and salty to mix generally. I don’t add nuts to cookies and certainly would never ruin my homemade butter tarts with something like pecans. haha! But, I have to admit the bacon hype has me just a little intrigued. Well at least enough to possibly ruin one of my all time favorite baked goods.
Cinnamon Buns with Bacon
Here is the recipe that I use frequently from allrecipes.com
Clone of a Cinnabon
1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup margarine, melted
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
Directions
1. Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle; press Start.
2. After the dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon. (I just spread the brown sugar over the butter then sprinkle on the cinnamon.)
3. Roll dough into a 16×21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. If desired, sprinkle on the bacon here. Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9×13 inch baking pan. (I split the dough in half and make two rolls. Cut each roll in half and then make three buns from each quarter. I find this helps me make evenly sized buns.)
4. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). (I have a convection oven so I baked them at 375 degree F instead)
5. Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla extract and salt.
6. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.
So, what’s the verdict? How did we end up liking the bacon cinnamon rolls? As with anything else, it’s all in the frosting. To be completely honest, I couldn’t really taste the bacon very well because of the amount of frosting I like to slather on my treat. Good news is that they certainly weren’t ruined by the addition and the little bits of salty mixed in with all that sweet definitely was an interesting combination. Now whether or not I really needed the extra calories added to an already disgusting amount of sugary dough, that’s something I’m not going to think about right now.
Have you fallen prey to the bacon hype? What kinds of things have you tried to add bacon to and did you end up liking it? Leave me a comment and perhaps I’ll be adventurous enough to take on another bacon challenge.