Bacon Week is over, y’all. Are you sad? I’m sad. I’m also a little relieved. It’s gotten to the point where I can actually feel all the bacon grease clogging my arteries. It’s not pretty.

That didn’t stop me from devouring a few of these muffins for breakfast this morning though. That being sad, these were not my favorite breakfast muffins. Don’t get me wrong, they were very tasty. They just didn’t feel like breakfast food. These would, however, be amazing along side a salad or a bowl of soup.

The texture of these was much more like a biscuit, but I hesitate to call them biscuits as they are baked in a muffin tin. Whatever you call them, I’m sure you’ll find they’re delicious. I’m definitely making these the next time soup is on the menu. These would perfect dunked in a bowl of something hot and cheesy.

Now let’s move on to your favorite bacon recipes! I’m feeling a bit sad and lonely and weepy because not too many of you played along for Bacon Week. Where’s the love, people? Where’s the love?

For those of you that did play along, I love you from the bottom of my bacon clogged heart.

To start, we have an amazing recipe for Bacon Stuffed Avocados from How Sweet It Is.  As someone who is just discovering the yumminess of avocados, this recipe just blows my mind. It sounds so tasty! Luckily for me, I have an avocado sitting on my counter just waiting for me to do something tasty with it! I think this may be the way to go.

{photo from What It Is}

I feel like a bit of a failure sharing this recipe for Bacon Salted Caramel Brownies with you from What It Is. I mean, I am a baker. I love bacon. I love brownies. I love caramel. Why, oh why, have I never made these myself?

And up next we have a tasty, cheesy, oniony, bacony recipe by The Balloon Whisk and Pyrex Dish. This dish is getting made very soon. Like tomorrow.

This next recipe is for pizza. I don’t know about you, but I love pizza. Pizza is my life. Pizza with bacon is even better. This pizza is from The Townsend Bakery and I’m pretty sure it tastes divine.

Okay, before I share the recipe for the Bacon, Cheddar, and Chive Muffins, I just have one more thing to share. Have y’all ever heard of a Bacon Takedown? Well, neither had I, but then I received an email with the subject line “Bacon Gladiators Wow Crowds @ Bacon Takedowns Across the Country” and I peed my pants laughing. I’m sorry, but that is the best subject line I have ever read. Bacon Gladiators. I love it!

Anyway, Bacon Takedowns are basically bacon cooking competitions. There is a Bacon Takedown coming to the Twin Cities on July 18 from 4-6pm at O’Gara’s Garage. The cost is $15 to taste and judge all of the bacon entries and a percentage of the sales support Feeding America. Hormel is also matching the donations to Feeding America. (This is not a sponsored post, I just thought I’d share the information!) So, uh, if you live anywhere near the Twin Cities? You might wanna attend the Bacon Takedown. I’m completely bummed that I won’t be there. Imagine the fun blog post that would follow something like that!

Thanks for participating in Bacon Week with me, y’all! It’s been fun!

Bacon, Cheddar, and Chive Muffins
adapted from allrecipes.com

• 8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tbsp white sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tbsp chopped chives
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese (I used the powdery kind)
• 1 cup grated sharp Cheddar cheese
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup canola oil

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin tins and set aside.

In a large bowl combine all of the dry ingredients. In a small bowl combine wet ingredients. Add wet ingredients to the dry and mix just until moistened. Batter will be very thick, wet, and sticky. Spoon into prepared muffin tins.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a huge fan of dips, but I’m not sure if I properly conveyed my deep love and affection for a good dip. You see, dips are so creamy and cheesy and dippy. They are fun to eat and are generally filled with some of my favorite things. Dips are fun. They take me to my happy place.

So, please, don’t tell me that it was wrong that my kids ate this dip, and only this dip, for lunch yesterday. It has four major food groups in it! Dairy, protein, grains, and vegetables! Well, I guess the vegetable group probably isn’t properly covered when you consider I only added a 1/4 cup of a very finely chopped onion, but I’m okay with overlooking that. We should all live on the wild side once in a while! Besides, dip doesn’t need to be healthy. It just needs to be delicious.

Trust me on this. This dip? Is outta this world. I’ve made a bacon dip before and it was good. Now, however, I know what good really means and this dip blows that other dip outta the water.

Besides, it’s served in a bread bowl which makes this dip infinitely cooler than those other dips that rely on bowls for serving.

Please. Make this dip. It’d be perfect for lunch. Or, if you’re more reasonable than me, perfect for your next get together. I guarantee people will beg you  for the recipe.

This recipe is a part of Bacon Week, the best week there ever was. If you’d like to participate, please send me a link to a bacon recipe on your blog and I’ll feature it here at the end of the week. Email the link (and feel free to include a picture sized 625px wide or smaller) by July 1st to karly[at]bunsinmyoven.com[dot]com.

Hot Bacon Cheese Spread
slightly adapted from Taste Of Home Bacon Recipe Cards, June 2010

• 1 unsliced round loaf bread
• 2 cups (8 ounces) Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
• 1 cup (4 ounces) Parmesan cheese, shredded
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup finely diced onion
• 7 bacon strips, diced and fried
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 tsp crushed red chile flakes

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Slice the top quarter off the loaf of bread and set aside. Carefully hollow out the inside, leaving a 1 inch shell. Cube removed bread and set aside for dipping.

Combine remaining ingredients in a large bow, spoon into bread bowl. Place on an ungreased baking sheet and cover with the reserved top quarter of the loaf to prevent the dip from becoming to brown while baking.

Bake for 45 minutes or until heated through. Serve with bread cubes and crackers.

Bread. It’s a beautiful thing. All floury and chewy and warm and, well, bready. I love bread. So do my kids. My daughter has been known to order a cheeseburger at a restaurant and then eat nothing but the bun. We’re bread people.

This bread is a bit different. It’s full of blueberries. I’ve had banana bread and pumpkin bread, but I’d never had blueberry bread before this. I’m not sure what the heck I was waiting for. This stuff is delicious. It’s also the healthiest dang bread recipe I’ve ever made. Even more shocking, it didn’t start out all super healthy, I adapted the recipe to make it that way. Usually I adapt recipes by adding more butter or sugar, but this time I was replacing oil with applesauce and using whole wheat flour in place of white. I’m not sure what was going on. Alien abduction? Mind control? Who knows.

Even with all the healthifying I did to this recipe, it was still delicious.

The next time I make this I’ll add in a cup of chopped walnuts. Walnuts just belong in fruity breads. It should be a law.

Blueberry Bread
adapted from Betty Crocker

• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 large eggs
• 2 1/4 cups King Arthur white whole wheat flour
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Heat oven to 350 degrees and grease the bottom of an 8 or 9 inch loaf pan.

In the bowl of your mixer, add sugar, milk, applesauce, oil, and eggs. Mix well. Mix in the remaining ingredients except for the blueberries and mix until combined. Fold in the blueberries.

Pour in the loaf pan and bake for 45-55 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack.

When was the last time you made breakfast for dinner? I’ve been trying to make it more often, just because it’s quick, simple, and budget friendly. I usually make eggs, bacon, biscuits, and potatoes. This week I decided to make doughnuts.

You heard me.

I made doughnuts for dinner. No eggs, no bacon. Just doughnuts. My children think I am the best mother ever. Or, at least they did, while they were eating, but then I shouted at them to clean their rooms not too long after dinner and I went back to being mean mommy. It was nice while it lasted, though.

Doughnuts definitely take a bit of time and effort, but that first delicious bite you take makes it all worth it. These aren’t difficult, by any means, just a bit more involved than I usually like. There was the rising, the flouring, the rolling, the cutting, the rising, the frying, the topping, and then, finally, happily, thankfully, the eating.

I know a lot of people are scared of yeast, but don’t be. If I can make yeasty treats, so can you. Besides, watching my flat little doughnuts magically puff up made me feel like some sort of superhero. A Superhero of Yeast.

The hardest part was getting the risen doughnuts into the hot oil without deflating them. Deflating. Is that the right word?

I found that it was best to stick my thumb through the hole and gently lift them up. It took me quite a few tries before I really got it.

I like variety, so I made glazed doughnuts, cinnamon and sugar doughnuts, and doughnuts with chocolate frosting. I’ll share the frosting recipe with you tomorrow. It’s the frosting my mama puts on brownies and I’ve been wanting to share it with you since the day I started this blog. It’s good. It’s real good.

Anyway, the glaze recipe that I used was bit chunky for some reason. They still tasted good, but they looked kinda funky.

I snapped this picture, shouted for my kids that their dinner was ready, and then, in just a matter of seconds, this is what my plate full of doughnuts looked like:

Crispy and Creamy Doughnuts
Recipe from allrecipes.com

• 2 (.25 ounce) envelopes dry active yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
• 1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup shortening
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 quart oil, for fying

Pour the warm water into the bowl of your mixer and sprinkle in the yeast. (I always add a pinch of sugar to feed the yeast at this point. Not sure if that actually does anything or not, but I like to think it helps.) Let the yeast mixture stand for 5 minutes or until foamy.

Pour in the warm milk, sugar, salt, eggs, shortening, and 2 cups of the flour. Mix on low for a few minutes. Beat in remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl. Knead for 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic.

Put the dough into a greased bowl and allow to rise until doubled in a warm place (your turned off oven works great for this!).

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gently roll out to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut with a floured doughnut cutter. Cover with a towel and let rise until double.

Heat oil in a deep fryer or large pan until it reaches 350 degrees. Carefully place doughnuts into the oil and fry on each side until they are golden. Drain on a wire rack.

Glaze

• 1/3 cup butter
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 4 tbsp hot water (as needed)

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth. Remove from heat and add water, as needed, to thin the icing out.

I can pretty much guarantee that now that I have discovered the beauty of scones that you will all get sick of them and wish that I would stop posting scone recipes. Please, just indulge me for a bit longer okay? I need to thoroughly explore the world of the scone and I promise to only share the very, very best scones that I make. These fit in that very, very best category.

Bacon. Cheddar cheese. Green onions. Those are a few of my favorite ingredients and each one of them is hidden away inside these delightful little scones. Well, okay, so these weren’t “little” scones. They were big. Big and hearty and filling. They’re perfect for breakfast, but I think they’d go just wonderfully with a bowl of soup for lunch.

These were a bit fussier than my last recipe for Chocolate Chip Scones, but they were so worth the extra effort. We’ve been grabbing scones for breakfast every morning this week! They are quick to reheat in the microwave, but they are even tastier heated up in the oven for a bit.

Just look at these! They’re like a clean, compact little breakfast sandwich! In fact, I think I might go eat one now. For dessert. Don’t even try to stop me.

Bacon and Cheddar Scones
Recipe from The Pastry Queen

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup chilled butter, cut into small cubes
• 1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese
• 4 green onions, thinly sliced
• 10 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 3/4 to 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• 2 tbsp water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Fit your mixer with the paddle attachment and add flour, baking powder, salt, and black pepper to the bowl. Mix on the low speed. Slowly add cubes of butter to the flour mixture and keep mixing until it is crumbly and your butter is in small pea sized pieces. Add the grated cheese and mix until blended in.

(If you don’t have a mixer just stir dry ingredients together and cut butter in with a pastry cutter or two knives and then stir in the cheese.)

Add the green onions, bacon, and 3/4 cup of buttermilk to the flour and cheese mixture. Mix by hand until all the ingredients are incorporated. Do not overwork the dough! If the dough is still to dry to hold together, add in more buttermilk 1 tablespoon at a time, until you can form the dough into a ball.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a ball. Using a well floured rolling pin, flatten the dough into a circle about 8 inches wide (mine was closer to 10 inches) and 1/2 inch thick. Cut the dough into 8 to 10 equal wedges depending on the size of scone you want.

Whisk egg and water together and brush the tops of the scone with the egg wash. I sprinkled a bit of kosher salt on the tops because I’m wild and crazy, but the original recipe didn’t call for this.

Place scones on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 18-20 minutes or until they are golden brown and no longer sticky in the centers. Serve warm!