Bacon Parmesan Twists

Puff pastry spread with Dijon and sprinkled with Parmesan, then twisted with streaky bacon, is baked till it's crispy, puffed and golden. Bacon Parmesan Twists are a divine savory snack!

A number of years ago, I discovered refrigerated puff pastry sheets and I began a crazy period when they featured almost daily in my baking repertoire with sweet fillings, savory toppings and all the permutations between the two. I even taught a small class for a few of my Malaysian friends who had never used puffed pastry and wanted to be able to duplicate some of my treats for their families. The beauty of puff pastry sheets is that you can throw them in the freezer (if they haven't already come frozen) to extend their use-by date because they thaw so quickly, even as you are preheating your oven. Then they bake to golden crunchy perfection!

Bacon Parmesan Twists

I’ve adapted my recipe from this one on the BBC website. You can cut the twists into smaller pieces once baked to make the perfect snacking nibbles with cocktails. Even handier, these savory treats can be frozen once baked and rewarmed in the oven when ready to serve. Keeping a supply of puff pastry sheets in the freezer is like paying your insurance premiums. Except in this case, it is a delight to be able to take advantage of being paid up.

Ingredients
1 x 14 oz or 400g puff pastry sheet
Plain flour, for dusting, if not using parchment to roll your pastry
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup or 45g freshly grated Parmesan
8-9 slices good-quality streaky bacon (not thick cut!)
1 egg, lightly beaten

Method
Line a baking tray with baking parchment.

Lay one slice of bacon along side your sheet of puff pasty and roll the pastry out on a lightly floured surface or another piece of baking parchment so that it is as wide as that slice is long. (There is no need to remove the plastic sheet the pastry was probably rolled up with in the package. Just leave it on.)

You can see the original blue plastic sheet that the puff pastry was rolled up in underneath.
That's how big the sheet was originally.

Turn the pastry so that the longest side is facing you and spread on the mustard.

Sprinkle with the cheese.

Line the pieces of bacon up on the pastry, leaving a small gap between them.

Use a sharp knife to cut the pastry between each slice of bacon.

Carefully start at one end and twist each piece of pastry 4-5 times.

Place them on the prepared baking tray, leaving at least two to three inches in between the twists to allow space for the puff pastry to expand. You may have to bake these in two batches, depending on the size of your pan. Chill the pastry twists in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400°F or 200°C.

Remove the twists from the refrigerator and brush with the beaten egg.

Bake the twists for 20-25 minutes, or until the pastry is well risen and golden-brown and the bacon is crispy.

Remove from the oven and set aside to cool a little. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Enjoy!

Sweet and Spicy Bacon Cocktail Sausages

If you are looking for an easy appetizer that will disappear in record time, may I suggest these sweet and spicy bacon cocktail sausages! With chili sauce and bacon wrapped around little sausages they are then topped with brown sugar and baked till sticky.

This recipe is easily doubled or trebled. The only limiting parameter is the size of your baking pan because you don’t want to crowd them in too tightly or the bacon won’t get crispy. I was home alone so I just made a dozen. At a time. Ahem. The photos you see here are actually batch number two. The package of cocktail sausages was 300g so it didn’t take me long to get through them all. It is hard to resist these sweet and spicy bacon-wrapped morsels once you've tried them the first time.

Sweet and Spicy Bacon Cocktail Sausages

An easy but delicious appetizer with bacon, cocktail sausages and chili sauce. These are highly addictive. Be warned.

Ingredients
1 dozen or about 90-100g cocktail sausages
2-3 tablespoons extra hot chili sauce (We love ABC brand from Indonesia.)
4 thin slices or rashers streaky bacon
2-3 tablespoons dark brown sugar

For serving: extra chili sauce for dipping, if desired

Method
Preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C.

Put your bacon slices between two pieces of cling film and gently roll them out with a rolling pin from end to end. You can do a couple of slices at a time. This will stretch them so that they are even thinner so each little sausage can still be rolled in bacon twice around but it will still bake up crispy.

Cut each slice of bacon into thirds.

Smear a little chili sauce on one end of each piece of bacon. Roll them around the cocktail sausages and secure with a toothpick or, if you are feeling fancy, call them cocktail sticks.

Lay them out in a big baking pan and sprinkle on half the brown sugar.

Bake for six or seven minutes and then remove from the oven. Turn the sausages over and sprinkle on the balance of the brown sugar.

Cook for about six to seven minutes more or until the bacon looks crispy enough for your liking.

Remove from the pan and rest them briefly on paper towels to drain the fat away. I tend to use one sheet of paper towel (so the newsprint doesn’t get on the food) with newspaper underneath.

Serve with extra chili sauce for dipping, if desired. It’s a must at our house.

Enjoy!

You try to take photos without snitching one!  Can't be done. 

Cheesy Bacon Baked Onions

Onions stuffed with cheese and herbs and then roasted so that the fat from the bacon on top can melt divinely into them, are a treat, an unusual side dish that elevates the onion from bit player to a starring role.

Onions are used in so many recipes as a seasoning or base flavor that I think we forget that they can be a side dish. Is there anything more delightful alongside a steak as some grilled onions? And onion rings done right, that is, lightly battered and crispy, are a joy. But we hardly ever think of onions as something to stuff or roast or bake with cheese on top. And that’s just a shame.

For my second post for week two of Bacon Month, I’d like to share with you a recipe from Jamie Oliver’s very first cookbook, the one that made his name a household word, The Naked Chef*, published almost 14 years ago.  Bacon is essential to a lot of recipes but never more than in this one where it flavors the onion as it bakes, as well as adding crunch to the finished dish.

Cheesy Bacon Baked Onions

Ingredients
4 tennis ball-sized yellow onions (about 1.1 lbs or 500g in total)
1 1/2 oz or 40g Parmesan or Pecorino Romano
Black pepper
Cayenne
1 1/2 – 2 tablespoons olive oil
4 slices smoked streaky bacon
1 tablespoon minced mixed fresh herbs. I used rosemary and parsley but thyme and marjoram or oregano would work as nicely.

Method
Peel the onions, leaving the root side intact.

Boil the onions in a pot of water for 15 minutes. Drain and set aside to cool.

When the onions are cool enough to handle, preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C.

Cut the root end off of the onions so that they can sit upright securely. Hollow out a nice sized hole in the top of the each onion and chop up the bits you take out.

Grate your cheese with the small holes of your grater.

Mix the herbs, cheese and chopped onions together and add a few good grinds of black pepper.

Add in the olive oil and mix thoroughly.

Divide the onion/cheese mixture up into four equal parts and stuff it back in the onions.

Cover the top of each onion with a slice of bacon, folded in half.

Sprinkle each with a little cayenne pepper, if desired.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until the bacon on top is crispy.

Enjoy!

How to Make a Classic Bacon Butty

This classic British sandwich is mobile breakfast fare at its finest, often served out of a food van at car boot sales, weekend markets and school sporting events. The bacon butty is simple deliciousness: Crispy back bacon, piled high on a bread roll and topped with lashings of brown sauce.The best ones come with heaps of bacon.

In the spirit of bacon making everything better, even hotter-than the hinges-of-the-gates-of-hell August in Dubai, I’ve joined a great group of bloggers for a month of bacon recipes! Organized by Julie of White Lights on Wednesday,  this second annual Bacon Month will include bacon-centric recipes, both sweet and savory.

But, meanwhile, I couldn’t make a Bacon Month announcement without sharing some bacon goodness. I had my first bacon butty in Aberdeen many years ago, while visiting some dear friends from our Brazil years. It was an early Sunday morning and as we arrived at the Thainstone Market, the excitement of the treasure hunt was in the air, along with the fabulous aroma of frying bacon. I have never had a bacon butty to match that one, although I’ve been trying to ever since. A floury bun filled with bacon is the best!

Ingredients
Olive oil
5-6 slices back bacon
1 floury round roll, halved
Butter (optional)
1-2 tablespoons HP or other brown sauce

Method
Drizzle a little olive oil in your pan. Add bacon and cook, until browned and crispy.

Meanwhile, butter your bread roll, if desired.

Place bacon on the bottom half of your roll and top with HP Sauce. Yes, it's a lot of bacon for one sandwich. No, it's not too much. There can never be enough bacon.

Cover with roll top.

That’s it! Simple, bacon-full and delicious. Enjoy!

Bacon Month is going to be epic!

 

Check out my other delicious recipes for bacon month:

• Bacon Parmesan Twists
• Bacon-wrapped Jalapeño Popper Stuffed Chicken
• BLT (Bacon Lettuce Tomato) Muffins
• Cheesy Bacon Baked Onions
• Sweet and Spicy Bacon Cocktail Sausages