Bacon Maple Muffins

We devoured these. Original recipe is here.



BACON MAPLE MUFFINS

8 slices bacon, fried and diced
2 C flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 C milk
1/2 C vegetable oil
2/3 C maple syrup (the real stuff; no skimping, y'all)
brown sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 400. Mix ingredients together in a bowl, reserving brown sugar. Spoon muffins into baking cups, then sprinkle brown sugar on top. Bake about 20 minutes, until well risen and golden brown.



We consumed ours with coffee and a side of fresh fruit. If you have leftovers, make sure to refrigerate them, what with the meat and all.

Bacon Rice Croquettes

Yes: the farmer's market is closed, the marking is on our desks, and we are back in bacon business. You may see a few other recipe types on here this year -- Cinnilla and I have a hankering to try some Coke cake -- but so far bacon is still winning as our ingredient of choice.

For the first recipe of the year, I turned to Mr. Breakfast and pretty much used their recipe for bacon rice croquettes, with two small changes. I added green onions, and ended up rolling the rice balls in dried bread crumbs (because adding an egg to the bread crumbs as originally suggested just made for a clumpy mess).

BACON RICE CROQUETTES

2 C cooked rice, cooled
3/4 pkg bacon (we cooked the whole package and used the rest for "snacking bacon")
1/3 C freshly grated parmesan
3-4 green onions, finely chopped
1 egg
1/2 C fine dry bread crumbs
1/4 tsp pepper
vegetable oil (I used canola)

Fry bacon & chop into bacon bits. Add together bacon, rice, parmesan, green onions, pepper, egg. Press into small patties, then roll in bread crumbs (I had imperfect luck even with the dry bread crumbs; may have needed another egg in the rice, but at that point I was out of eggs.)



Fill a large pan with an inch or two of oil (I used a big metal stew pot, as I did not want oil splashing all over the kitchen -- please be careful here). Heat oil, then drop in patties and fry for a few minutes on either side. Drain hot croquettes onto a paper towel.



A few of the croquettes did crumble in the pan, but for the most part they held together pretty well -- and they were delicious. The leftovers were also great cold.



Served with blueberry banana pancakes, and Cinnilla's sweet potato bacon hash (recipe incoming).

Bacon Potato Scones

This was not an official Bacon Saturday, but Cinnilla and I were scrambling to get video clips edited for some conference presentations, so we really needed to... er, cook with bacon.

The original recipe was from Mr. Breakfast -- I tweaked it a bit, mostly due to the fact that I misread and added too much flour to mine, then had to compensate. The results were very tasty -- like a thick potato pancake.

BACON POTATO SCONES

1 1/2 C cooked plain mashed potatoes (no butter/milk)
8 pieces bacon, fried crispy and crumbled
Bacon drippings (leave in pan)
1 T butter
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 C flour
Optional garnish: sour cream, applesauce

Combine flour, pepper, salt, eggs, bacon bits, and mashed potatoes. Stir into a thick dough.

Add butter to hot bacon drippings in pan, and let melt. This is totally healthy. Add scones (large spoonful of batter each) and fry on medium heat until golden on both sides.





You could serve these quite nicely with maple syrup, we think; we used sour cream and applesauce, which were also very good. Veggie side dish provided by Cin -- very tasty, but your guess as to ingredients is as good as mine!

The Elvis

We have run into mention of this sandwich at several places, but I first remember hearing about it around 2006 when visiting the Peanut Butter & Co. restaurant in NYC. It is a grilled peanut butter sandwich with bananas, honey and bacon. We were skeptical but game.

PEANUT BUTTER BANANA BACON SANDWICH

A nice bread -- we used fresh multigrain Italian bread, cut thick.
Sliced bananas
Bacon (fried to crispy)
Honey
Peanut butter (we used smooth; crunchy should also be fine)



Slather peanut butter on bread, then add bananas and bacon. Drizzle honey lightly over top, then add second slice of bread (uh... "make a sandwich") and grill.





Simple and tasty. Also, good for any meal of the day, really -- probably more of a breakfast/lunch thing, but we had ours for dinner due to scheduling issues.



For dessert, there'd been a sale on fresh strawberries so I whipped up a strawberry shortcake and garnished it with bacon just for the hell of it. It was fine, as long as the bacon was eaten separately. We would not recommend the bacon/vanilla ice cream combo, which should prove interesting for our upcoming (wait for it!) attempt at bacon ice cream.

Praline Bacon

Alternate title: "The Louisiana diet will kill a man as surely as the sword." (King of the Hill)

This recipe requires slightly more dedication than our usual lazy options.

PRALINE BACON

First, fly to New Orleans.

Next, get a cab to take you to the corner of Chartres and Gallier, in the Bywater district.



There, you will find a restaurant called Elizabeth's. Make sure to arrive when breakfast is being served.

Order the praline bacon.



When the nice waitress brings it to you, consume it.

You might follow it up with sweet fried rice cakes, French toast (stuffed with strawberry cream cheese), or a giant waffle (with strawberries and whipped cream).

Then, walk half an hour to the French Quarter. You will need the exercise in order to prevent your arteries from immediately hardening with delicious, delicious goo.

Spiced Bacon Twists

This Saturday's experiment was the spiced bacon twist recipe from allrecipes.com -- essentially, take some bacon, press it into a mixture of brown sugar, mustard, cayenne, cinnamon and nutmeg, then bake it in the oven (on a metal rack, on a cookie sheet) for about half an hour at 350.

Overall, these were pretty good, although there were a couple of hitches: the spices didn't adhere as well as I'd hoped when I dipped the bacon in, and I had to resort to just sprinkling them over top before putting the bacon into the oven. Even then, a lot seemed to run off -- and since I couldn't pat the bacon down when it came out of the oven, it got pretty greasy when it cooled (answer: make sure you serve it hot, of course).

Served with Cinnilla's mother's most excellent French toast recipe.

Bacon Risotto

Our resident history professor started off with this recipe, then modified it to suit his own nefarious purposes. Essentially: double the wine, leave out the saffron, and use bacon instead of sausage. Also, you can try adding some chopped garlic when frying up the bacon and onions.



BACON RISOTTO

1/2 stick butter
1/2 package bacon
1 small onion, chopped
2 bay leaves
1 C short-grain white rice
1 C white wine (we used Painted Turtle)
3 C chicken broth
1/3 C grated parmesan
1/3 C chopped parsley (optional)
1 T chopped garlic (optional)
Salt, pepper

Melt butter in pan. Add bacon (sliced into medium-sized pieces) and garlic. Cook bacon. When bacon is cooked but not yet crispy, add onions. Cook onions. Add rice. Add wine and boil until wine is evaporated. Add chicken broth and bay leaves, bring to boil, then simmer about half an hour until risotto is cooked and creamy. Mix in cheese and parsley. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Verdict: Delicious.

Breakfast Bacon Cupcakes

My mother was horrified by the very thought of this recipe, and I was also engaged in debate as to whether these are "cupcakes" or "muffins with icing." My position is that cupcakes are basically muffins with icing. So: for bacon corn muffins, leave out the icing. For bacon cupcakes, glaze away.



The idea came from this web site. The basic corn muffin recipe came via my friend Red. These muffins are even low fat (er... until you add bacon).

BACON CORN MUFFINS

1 C whole wheat flour
1 C cornmeal
1/4 C sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 C applesauce (one of those little 'snack cups' is fine)
1 C milk
1 egg
~1/2 C fried bacon, chopped

Mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl. Beat the egg lightly into the milk. Add the applesauce and milk mixture to the dry mixture and stir to moisten evenly. Pour into muffin cups and bake at 350-375 for 20 minutes.

BACON CUPCAKES

Make as above, then add icing:

1 C icing sugar
1 small tub cream cheese
1/4-1/3 C maple syrup
1-2 T butter
Few slices fried bacon (for garnish)

Cream together everything but the bacon; adjust icing sugar to taste. I left it a bit tart.

Ice your cupcakes and add a bit of bacon to the top of each one. This not only looks nice, it also serves as a warning to unwary munchers.

Verdict: Delicious (we were surprised too).

Bacon Pancakes

This one was very easy; I used the basic pancake recipe from my grandmother's old copy of "The New Purity Cookbook," which is probably my most treasured cooking possession. It's been republished in many iterations over the years.

BACON PANCAKES

1 1/2 C flour
1-2 T sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 3/4 C milk
2 T vegetable oil
Approx. 1/2 package bacon

Fry up the bacon until it begins to get crispy. Remove from pan, pat dry with paper towel. Chop up into bacon bits. (If you like, fry up the other half of the package and serve your bacon pancakes with a side of bacon. Which, um, might be what we did.)

Combine ingredients for pancake batter. Add your newly-created bacon bits. Pour batter into preheated pan and cook as usual (flip over when bubbles appear on top of pancakes).

Serve with butter, maple syrup (real maple syrup -- we're Canadian, here!) and whatever optional toppings or sides you like.

Verdict: Delicious.