Bacon Rounds

We're back home! A little rougher around the edges, a lot happier after a bunch of coconuts, some amazing tacos, and some quality time at the greatest wedding I've been to in ages, and happy to be done with long plane rides for awhile. But we had an amazing time, first at the wedding in California and then in Tulum, Mexico, where we ate a lot of shrimp, swam in the sea in the shadows of Mayan ruins, and generally relaxed after a long and stressful few weeks of work leading up to our holiday.

And since we both stayed up all night on the plane ride home and thus slept for fourteen hours on Saturday night, I really thought I might have escaped the jetlag unscathed... but then the week rolled around, and for the last two nights, I've been awake from 2am until 5:30am, just laying in bed and wishing I could start my day. Then at 7am when my day ACTUALLY starts, I can barely hold my eyes open (I'm yawning as I write this).

Do you know what helps with jetlag? Breakfast. (No, seriously.) Eating real food-- something besides just coffee-- helps reset your body clock and get you back on schedule, so I've been relying on these bacon rolls to do the job for me. They may not be the same thing a Scot thinks of when he thinks of a bacon roll, but they're pretty tasty, and they pair amazingly well with raw salted butter.* (Also, if you promise not to tell anyone, they also taste pretty great with a thin smear of apricot preserves. Try it, no one is going to judge!).

These rolls may not be the classiest breakfast (or the healthiest one), but they make a nice change from the 'lukewarm cup of instant coffee at the office' trend that I find it really easy to fall into, and because they're so easy to grab on your way out the door, you don't even have to wait for a weekend to take advantage of them. Bonus: they keep really well, so you can take one to work every day all week and they'll taste just as warm and fluffy on Friday as they do on Monday. If you can find two 1-pound ovensafe coffee cans, this recipe should technically be made as two small loavess in those cans. Coffee cans that I found are all either cardboard or painted, and either way I couldn't put them in the oven, so I just popped these into a standard muffin tin and got exactly 12 rolls out of the recipe.

Finally, let's just note that the bottom of this recipe pamphlet, which I'm pretty sure was a freebie that came with a bag of flour or a packet of yeast, includes an ad for silverware if you mail in coupons, along with a coupon for 5 cents off a tub of margarine. Ew.

*Bacon rolls are as close as you can get to a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit in the US, but they only include bacon-- no egg, no cheese, and they're served on a roll that has kind of the texture of ciabatta, and they're topped with brown sauce, which is like a sweeter version of A1. I'm pretty indifferent to them because of the lack of cheese, but also because, I mean, if you're going to have a breakfast in Britain, wouldn't you rather have a cream scone? I know I would.

The verdict:

3 out of 5. They're delicious, but I'll always prefer a biscuit or a scone when it comes to breakfast food.

The recipe:

Bacon Rounds

the directions:

Grease 12 muffin cups.
In large bowl, dissolve yeast in hot water.
Add 1 1/3 c flour and all remaining ingredients.
Stir until only pea-sized lumps remain, about 15 seconds or so.
Stir in remaining flour thoroughly, scraping sides of bowl until mixture is almost smooth (as my mom taught me, you want a few lumps to remain or the rolls won't rise).
Batter will be very sticky, so avoid going at it with your hands; instead, use a large spoon to scoop heaping spoonfuls into the greased muffin tin, then smooth out the tops of each portion.
Let rise in warm place (aka anywhere in my apartment this time of year) for 50 minutes.
Batter will rise slightly but not double.
Heat oven to 176C/350F, then bake 20 minutes or until golden brown and firm on top.
Immediately remove from pan and serve warm, if possible.

If saving for later, reheat with a pat of butter and a sprinkle of salt, and a tiny spoonful of jam if you're feeling daring.

the ingredients:

4 ½ tsp yeast
¼ c water, very warm
2 1/3 c flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp soda
1 c sour cream
1 egg
½ c lardons, fried until crisp and then drained on a paper towel