Mini Bacon & Swiss Quiche Cups

This month for the Improv Cooking Challenge our hostess Kristen of Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker has challenged the participating bloggers to make any recipe of their choosing using the specified ingredients of bacon and eggs!  My mind went off in so many directions with these ingredients, of course first thinking about breakfast and then going to the sweet side thinking about my Piggy-Out Cookies which contain bacon and eggs or my over the top Kicked Up Piggy-Out Cookies which also contain eggs along with my Spicy Brown Sugar Bacon…YUM!!  In the end though I decided to go the breakfast / brunch / anytime hold-it-in-your-hand, easy-to-reheat, great-on-the-go route with my Mini Bacon & Swiss Quiche Cups.   I love that I can bake up a batch of these, they can be eaten right away or saved for later as they reheat beautifully in the microwave.  Eammon likes when I have extra as I’ll freeze them so he can, pull out, reheat and enjoy one or two anytime he desires.  I hope that you’ll give these easy to make Mini Bacon & Swiss Quiche Cups a try.

Mini Bacon & Swiss Quiche Cups

5 slices bacon
1 brick (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
2 TBS milk (I used fat-free)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese
2 medium green onions, chopped
1 can (12 oz) flaky refrigerated biscuits (10 biscuits)

Heat oven to 375F.  In a skillet cook the bacon until crisp and then drain on paper towels. Take two strips and cut each into 5 equal pieces.  Crumble the remaining three slices and set aside.  In a bowl the beat cream cheese until smooth. Add the milk and eggs, beating on low speed until smooth. Stir in the Swiss cheese and green onions. Set aside.

Spray 10 regular-sized muffin cups with cooking spray.  Separate the dough into 10 biscuits. Press biscuit to form a 5-inch round. Place one biscuit round in each muffin cup and firmly press into the bottom and up sides. Divide the crumbled bacon between the 10 dough lined muffin tins, placing it into the bottom of dough-lined muffin cups. Spoon the cheese mixture evenly into cups.  Bake 21 to 26 minutes or until filling is set and edges of biscuit cups are golden brown. Remove from the oven and into the top center of each Quiche Cup, stick a piece of the cut bacon for decoration.  Remove biscuit cups from pan and serve.

These do really well being reheated in the microwave so a great do-ahead breakfast meal-to-go.

Enjoy!

My previous Improv Cooking Challenge entries:

March 2013  Carrots & Peas:  Mom’s Beef Vegetable Soup 
February 2013  Hearts & Flours:  Three Ingredient Fudgy Nutella Brownie Bites
January 2013  Bananas & Nutmeg:  Baked Bananas 
December 2012  Chocolate & Marshmallows:  White Chocolate Marshmallow Cranberry Cashew Bark    
November 2012  Sweet Potatoes & honey: Sweet Potato Glass Noodles with Honey Garlic Lime Shrimp 
October 2012  Oatmeal & Raisins:  S’mores Granola Bars   
September 2012  Zucchini & Brown Sugar:  Zucchini with Onion & Brown Sugar 
August 2012  Tomatoes & Peppers:  French Fries Hash Browns 
July 2012  Corn & Butter:  Fritos Crusted Pollock 
June 2012  Cherries & Almonds:  Dried Cherry Almond Tart 
May 2012  Strawberries & Cream:  Strawberry Soup 
April 2012  Peanut butter & Jelly:  Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars 
March 2012  Potato & Cheese:  Loaded Potato & Buffalo Chicken Casserole 
February 2012  Ginger & Carrots:  Shrimp & Avocado Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing 
January 2012 Lemon & Sour Cream:  Ponderosa Lemon & Sour Cream Tart 
December 2011 Eggnog & Cranberries:  Eggnog Popovers with Cranberry Butter 
November 2011 Pumpkin & Cream Cheese:  Praline Pumpkin Cheesecake
October 2011 Caramel & Apples:  Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies

Malted Pretzel Crunch

WARNING:  Do not make this recipe!

I swear this is the sweet & salty snack version of “crack” because after just one bite you’re addicted and before you know it you’ve eaten the entire batch, are jonesing for more and thinking up excuses to make another batch or three or four so that you can actually share some while getting your fix.  My bloggy pal, Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives posted her Malted Pretzel Crunch for Super Bowl Sunday a mere ten days ago and I’m embarrassed and not going to admit how much of this “crack” I have made and consumed.  If my Spicy Brown Sugar Bacon wasn’t addiction enough, now I have a new one so thanks a lot Lisa, thanks a lot!

Add the pretzels and dry ingredients to a bowl.

Mix in the melted butter,

Spread the mixture onto a Silpat lined baking pan.

One hot delicious mess straight from the oven,

Malted Pretzel Crunch (recipe from here) 

4 cups salted mini pretzels – about 1/2 of a 16-ounce bag
1/2 cup tightly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons milk powder
1/4 cup malt powder
1 teaspoon salt
14 tablespoons butter (1 stick, plus 6 tablespoons), melted

Preheat the oven to 275 F.

Pour the pretzels in a large bowl and crush them with your hands to one-quarter of their original size. Add the brown and granulated sugars, milk powder, malt powder & salt and toss to mix. Add the melted butter and toss to coat. As you toss, the butter will act as glue, binding the dry ingredients to the pretzels and creating small clusters. (I did not get small clusters but once baked, it formed a sheet of pretzel crunch that I broke into pieces).

Spread the clusters on a Silpat or parchment paper lined sheet pan and bake for 20 minutes, until it looks toasted and smells buttery. 

If you can wait long enough before starting to snack, cool the pretzel crunch completely. Once completely cooled, if there’s anything left, break into pieces.  Store the crunch in an airtight container at room temperature, the crunch will keep fresh for 1 week (not in this house mind you); in the fridge or freezer, it will keep for 1 month. Lisa’s comment and I agree,  “I think these would be fantastic in cookies with chocolate chunks OR pour or drizzle melted chocolate over the top of the sheet of pretzel crunch, let set, then break into pieces – like toffee.”

Enjoy!

Kicked Up Piggy-Out Cookies

So the other day I made Spicy Brown Sugar Bacon and before Maisie gobbled down the entire pound of bacon I decided that we needed to use some of it in a kicked up version of the Piggy-Out Cookies that we made a few weeks ago.

Plus, look at all that gorgeous sweet & spicy bacon fat just begging to be used in something special.  Also, see why I advocate the use of foil, it makes clean up *SO* much easier.

Liquid gold…the bacon fat that I poured off from the pan and the perfect amount for my cookies.

Maisie watched to make sure that all the ingredients mixed together properly.

Then it was time to mix in the chocolate chunks and Spicy Brown Sugar Bacon. 

Ready for the oven.

Maisie proudly showing off her Kicked Up Piggy-Out Cookies.  Oh and these cookies kicked some piggy tush…Awesome!

Kicked Up Piggy-Out Cookies (Adapted from here)

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp cinnamon
pinch of chile powder
1/4 tsp Kosher salt
5 strips of Spicy Brown Sugar Bacon or cooked bacon, diced or crumbled (I used hickory smoked) ~ plus more for the cook and helper to snack on
2 tbsp reserved bacon fat drippings (see that container behind the butter, well I keep bacon dripping in my freezer and every time I make bacon I just add to my stash)
4 TBS butter (room temperature)
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter 
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chunks

Preheat the oven to 350F and line two baking sheets with a Silpat or parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, chile powder and salt. With a stand mixer, beat the butter, peanut butter and reserved bacon fat drippings on medium-high until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the white and brown sugars and beat until creamy, about 4 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the egg and vanilla and continue beating about 2 minutes.

Reduce the speed of the mixer to low and add the flour mixture. Mix until just combined and then by hand stir in the chocolate chunks and crispy bacon.  Using a medium scoop portion out the cookies onto prepared baking sheets. (I got 22 cookies)  Flatten the cookie balls slightly with your fingers and then bake for 12-14 minutes until golden brown. Let the cookies cool for about 2 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack. The cookies were wonderful when they were still a bit warm from the oven but I preferred them even more the next day.  I stored them in a zipper bag in the fridge over night and the next day were awesome, a bit crispy around the edges and chewy in the middle.  I’m telling you, make these cookies then pour yourself a giant glass of milk and prepare to pig-out on these seriously sinful cookies.

Enjoy!

Spicy Brown Sugar Bacon

I saw a recipe on Zestuous for Brown Sugar-Chili Bacon and I knew that I had to make it.  She warned that if you already have an addiction to bacon she can't be held responsible if this recipe feeds your addiction and leaves you craving it morning, noon and night and I am going to second her on that.  This recipe was off-the-charts crazy good and surprisingly the person who couldn’t keep their fingers off of it was Maisie. 

Thankfully I knew not to follow the original recipe and only use a half pound of bacon and went whole hog for the full pound and it’s good that I did because Maisie ate a good half pound worth on her own. 

The recipe was so very easy, only three ingredients.

• thick sliced bacon
• brown sugar
• dark chili powder

That’s it!

Mix brown sugar and chili powder in a bowl.

Add the bacon and toss to coat.

Lay the bacon out on a foil lined baking sheet.  (Use foil, it makes clean-up so much easier!)

After 25 minutes in a 400F oven it looked like one hot mess!

Working in batches, very quickly place the bacon on paper towel to remove some of the extra grease and then remove the bacon from the paper towel before it sticks.

This was bacon candy.  Crispy, smoky, sweet and just a tiny bit spicy.  Not one healthy redeeming quality but off the charts crazy delicious.

Spicy Brown Sugar Bacon (recipe from here)

1 pound thick sliced bacon, slices cut in half
1 cup brown sugar
2 TBS dark chili powder

Preheat oven to 400F.  Mix the brown sugar and chili powder together in a large bowl.  Add the bacon and toss to mix.  Lay the bacon on a foil lined baking sheet and then bake for about 25 minutes.  Once the bacon looks like all the fat has been rendered out and it’s one hot bubbly mess remove from the oven.  Working quickly and in batches, drain the excess fat from the bacon on paper towels.  Quickly remove the bacon from the paper towels before it starts to stick.  As the bacon cools completely it will become crispy hard like candy.

Other than just eating this like candy, what do you do with it?  On Zestous she suggests to use it on a BLT, a grilled bacon cheese sandwich or crumble it up and toss it on a salad.  What did I do with the bacon that Maisie didn’t inhale?  That is coming in a future post so you’ll just have to come back and visit again.

Enjoy!

Piggy-Out Cookies

I was of course reading through some of my favorite cooking blogs and on Haley’s The Girly Girl Cooks I came across a recipe for Pig-Out Cookies which are chocolate chip cookies with BACON!!!  Now bacon added to sweet foods seems to be a really hot thing to do right now but I’ve always sort of said to myself…”WHY???”  Something though with this recipe just screamed, MAKE ME!!! So I did and now I know the answer to “why” bacon is the hot new trend in sweet foods as these cookies totally rocked and everyone who tried them just couldn’t stop having just.one.more so we did pig-out on the piggy cookies. 

I didn’t notice this until I uploaded my pictures but doesn’t that cookie on the right sort of look like a cute little piggy face??

When I first read through the recipe I thought that the relatively small amount of chocolate wouldn’t be enough but I used just the 1/3 of a cup listed and trust me when I say, it was the perfect amount.  I actually loved that these cookies weren’t chock full of chocolate as they were so incredibly rich and the flavor so intriguing that more chocolate would have spoiled the balance.  Speaking of balance, the cookies weren’t overly chocolaty, or peanut buttery or bacon(y), the cinnamon and chili powder were there but the cookies weren’t spicy…these were perfectly balanced and wonderful cookies and I’ll be making them again and again.  

My adorable, talented and always willing helper Maisie Miao Maio.

Piggy-Out Cookies (Adapted from here)

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp cinnamon
pinch of chile powder
1/4 tsp Kosher salt
5 strips of cooked bacon, diced or crumbled (I used hickory smoked) ~ plus more for the cook and helper to snack on
2 tbsp reserved bacon fat drippings (see that container behind the butter, well I keep bacon dripping in my freezer and every time I make bacon I just add to my stash)
4 TBS butter (room temperature)
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chunks

Preheat the oven to 350F and line two baking sheets with a Silpat or parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, chile powder and salt. With a stand mixer, beat the butter, peanut butter and reserved bacon fat drippings on medium-high until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the white and brown sugars and beat until creamy, about 4 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the egg and vanilla and continue beating about 2 minutes.

Reduce the speed of the mixer to low and add the flour mixture. Mix until just combined and then by hand stir in the chocolate chunks and crispy bacon.  Using a medium scoop portion out the cookies onto prepared baking sheets. (I got 22 cookies)  Flatten the cookie balls slightly with your fingers and then bake for 12-14 minutes until golden brown. Let the cookies cool for about 2 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack. The cookies were wonderful when they were still a bit warm from the oven but I preferred them even more the next day.  I stored them in a zipper bag in the fridge over night and the next day were awesome, a bit crispy around the edges and chewy in the middle.  I’m telling you, make these cookies then pour yourself a giant glass of milk and prepare to pig-out on these seriously sinful cookies.

Enjoy!