Bacon-Filled Cinnamon Rolls + Giveaway Winner

First things first: I was giving away a $75 Whole Foods gift card last week, and had lots of friends hoping they'd be chosen. But there could only be one ... oh, if only I were Santa and could generate bunches of 'em! But instead, I went to Random.org to generate a winner, and here are the results (with apologies for it not formatting properly, techno-dolt that I sometimes am, such that I simply had to type in the information):

True Random Number Generator
Min: 1
Max: 55
Result: 4
Powered by RANDOM.ORG

MAZAL TOV to Nikki K.!!! Put the card to good use and be sure to tell me about the fabulous dishes you cook with the goodies you buy!

Okay, now on to the food ... :)

My friend Beth frequently sends me recipe ideas, and they always seem to include bacon. Considering that we work together at a synagogue, this is fairly amusing to us! You hire shiksas, and look what happens ... oy!

So, Beth recently sent me an idea she'd found online in which a commercially-prepared refrigerated cinnamon roll dough is unrolled, a strip of bacon is laid over it, and the entire thing is wrapped up again into a spiral and baked into salty-sweet, pork-filled goodness. We drooled over our keyboards.

But as I thought about it, I thought the strip of bacon might not cook fully since it was buried in the dough; and as it cooked, to whatever degree of done-ness, it would ooze bacon fat and possibly make the cinnamon rolls soggy. So, I took the inspiration and I tweaked it a bit. I pre-cooked the bacon 'til crispy, rolled the crumbles into the dough, then baked away. The fragrance in the kitchen was astounding!

And so, for a Christmas breakfast, a weekend brunch, or "just 'cause," I give you Bacon-Filled Cinnamon Rolls - ridiculously easy to make and worth far more than their weight in gold. How can you not love a 2-ingredient recipe at this busy time, especially when it includes BACON???


Bacon-Filled Cinnamon Rolls

1 12.4-ounce can refrigerated cinnamon rolls
4 strips of bacon

Preheat the oven to 400F. Grease an 8"-round baking pan.

Open the can of dough and reserve the icing. Unroll the dough and lay it onto a countertop or cutting board.

Cook the bacon until crisp, then chop it into crumbles. Sprinkle the crumbles over the cinnamon roll dough, then roll each strip into a spiral and place it into the baking pan.

Bake for 15 minutes, until the cinnamon rolls are golden. Remove from the pan and let cool a bit, then drizzle with the reserved icing.

Makes 8 bacon-filled cinnamon rolls.

Cinnamon Roll Sundae

I recently ate at The Avenue, a family restaurant in Royal Oak (a Detroit suburb), which serves good old-fashioned comfort foods: enormous omelettes and other breakfast staples (with such generous portions that there are often 1 or 2 side dishes to provide all the food!), burgers, sandwiches, pasta dishes. There's a tremendous variety, and everything I've eaten there has been very satisfying.

Although I wasn't hungry by the time I'd finished my meal, I still had to peruse the dessert menu and sigh a bit over it. Pies and ice cream desserts were happily offered; but then I saw something a bit different. It was a sundae, but it wasn't just a standard issue one. There was a base, and then it was topped with the requisite sundae makings.

And what, precisely, formed the base of this intriguing dessert?

A cinnamon roll, slightly warmed so that it would transport anyone nearby with its enticing aroma.

Well, I immediately stated to my dining companions that I would have to replicate this thing of beauty that I didn't even order and was still seduced by. And so, the next day, I did!

I took a purchased cinnamon roll, as I wasn't quite motivated enough for my fix to actually wait for yeast dough to rise for a homemade version. A scoop of French vanilla ice cream, a drizzle of caramel sauce ... and each of these simple ingredients worked in perfect harmony with the others.

This is one of those recipes that is fun and festive, but which also can be thrown together incredibly quickly if you're ever in a bind. Everyone will be so impressed by how fabulous it is that they won't care in the slightest that it only requires 3 ingredients and a brief minute of your time to put it together!

Cinnamon Roll Sundae

1 4" cinnamon roll, slightly warmed in the microwave
1 scoop French vanilla ice cream
1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
whipped cream, if desired

Place the cinnamon roll on a dessert plate, and top with the ice cream. Drizzle with caramel, and top with whipped cream if desired.

Voila!

Serves 1, but can easily be multiplied.

A Most Decadent Delight

Is that a gorgeous photo, or what???

Let me assure you -- as beautiful as that fruit tart looks, the visuals can't begin to compare to how luscious it was!

Tom had gone to our favorite bakery, Decadent Delight, to pick up some Luv Bugs -- the adorable filled and frosted pastries we'd enjoyed so much last Valentine's Day that we absolutely wanted to have them again for our celebration.

But -- gasp! Decadent Delight was closed that day; they had been swarmed over the weekend, but we hadn't thought to go shopping quite that early ... we'd thought mid-morning on the day itself would be sufficient. Nope -- the word has gotten out, and pastry chef extraordinaire Bryant Stuckey's treats are now in high demand!

The Luv Bugs had made my AnnArbor.com listing of 5 Fabulous Favorite Foods Found in Ann Arbor as well as my Food Floozie 10 for '10 top ten list for the past year. They're sorta glorified and sophisticated Twinkie-like goodies, cakes with filling and frosting and adorable little faces. Alas, we will have to wait until next year ... :(

Instead, Tom went back over the weekend and bought two of the exceptional cinnamon rolls. (You do know that the proper way to eat these, of course, is to unswirl them, starting with the outer edge and working towards the center ...?)

But he also came back with two other treats, consolation prizes to relish instead of the Luv Bugs -- the gorgeous fruit tart above and one featuring caramelized pears.

The berries on the tart were so plump and so juicy that one could almost feel transported to summer when eating them. The colors were deep and intense, as were the flavors. And the pastry cream supporting them was truly a perfect complement -- thick, creamy and not so sweet that it competed with the stars of the show.

And then there was the crust, which was flaky and crumbly without shattering when broken either by a fork (if one is civilized) or by teeth (when one is so zealous that she picks up the tart to simply eliminate any barriers between her and her beloved!). It held its shape and supported the filling just as it should without making a mess. This excellent crust also made an appearance in the pear tart, which -- believe it or not -- even surpassed the fruit one ... who could have thought it possible?

The pears were perfectly cooked, just barely resistant to the bite, not mushy and not crisp. Pears, of course, have perhaps a 10-minute window in which they are neither hard as rocks nor slimy goo. To work within that brief time span and also poach them to an ideal consistency without overcooking them requires skill.

There was not a heavy, thick caramel layer in this tart, but rather a hint of sweetness to enhance the subtly flavored pears. And the buttery crust which wonderfully supported the fruit and pastry cream in our other lovely dessert also served the pears ideally.

So, whether you're looking for breakfast, for a treat to go with coffee, or simply an indulgence, I assure you that Decadent Delight will satisfy any whim.

416 West Huron Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
734-761-8740
info@decadentdelight.com