Turduckery.

Over Thanksgiving Break, my mom and I went to St. Louis to tour Le Cordon Bleu and go shopping. While we were there, we picked up a food magazine called Feast that featured a recipe for Bacon-Wrapped Turducken. Our minds were immediately made up and we decided that we would finally attempt and conquer the Turducken.



I'm happy to say we both created and conquered the Turducken with relative ease. Finding the duck proved harder than we both thought, but was well worth the effort. This meat-roulade turned out to be delicious. Wrapping it in bacon added another dimension. The bacon dimension. And we all know that that is the tastiest dimension of them all.




Bacon-Wrapped Turducken
Makes about 12 servings

6 cups water
1/3 cup kosher salt
1 boneless, skinless turkey breast
2 boneless, skinless duck breasts
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
12 slices hardwood smoked bacon
Butcher’s twine
2 tablespoons olive oil
Bring water and salt to a boil in a large pot, and then remove from heat. Once cool, submerge turkey breast in brine for at least 1 hour, up to 12 hours. Remove turkey and pat dry.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place turkey breast on a large cutting board and cover with a large piece of plastic wrap. Using a meat mallet, gently pound the turkey to an even 1/4-inch thickness. Do the same with the duck and chicken breasts.

Season the turkey, duck, and chicken breasts with fresh herbs, salt, and pepper. Lay the turkey breast flat, and then top with the duck breasts. Top the duck breasts with the chicken breasts. Bring the sides of the breasts up into a log shape and press together to hold, creating a roulade. Set aside.

Layer the bacon, slightly overlapping, on the cutting board. Place the roulade on top of the bacon, seam side up. Bring the bacon up around the roulade, overlapping the ends. Truss with butcher’s twine to secure.

Place the olive oil in a large nonstick pan over high heat. Once hot, add roulade and turn on all sides to sear bacon. Place roulade on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 90 minutes, or until an internal temperature of 170 degrees is reached. Allow to rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

Too Much of a Good Thing

My boyfriend has two simple favorites when it comes to food: peanut butter and bacon. In fact, he was the person to introduce to me the Peanut Butter and Bacon sandwich. As the girl that bakes for him on a regular basis, I am always trying to find more recipes that he will go nuts over. This cookie meets both of those qualifications.



Although I also really enjoy both peanut butter and bacon, I did not enjoy these as much as he did. I felt like the bacon added a somewhat unpleasant meaty flavor to the cookie, as opposed to a more smoky accent. This could also be due to the fact that I used extra bacon to make it extra bacon-y delicious.



Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies
Makes 1 1/2 dozen cookies

1 cup chunky or smooth peanut butter
1 cup sugar (1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup granulated sugar)
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
6 to 8 slices of bacon, cooked, cooled and dices

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a skillet over medium high heat, fry up bacon until cooked through and let cool on paper towels until cool enough to dice. Dice up and set aside.

Grease a baking sheet with butter and set aside. In a mixer combine peanut butter and sugars until well combined, about 2 minutes. Add egg and baking soda and mix for another 2 minutes. Fold in cooked bacon. Roll into large walnut sized balls, roll in granulated sugar, and create a criss-cross pattern with a fork. Bake for 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool on a baking sheet for five minutes.

Still in School

Sometime last year, I found a recipe on Recipezaar for Maple Muffins. gb loves maple syrup, but he loves bacon even more, so I decided to add that into the mixture. They were a pretty big hit; he likes to add extra maple syrup to them and eat four or five in the morning, and the bacon provides manly protein to keep him going until lunch.



He also helped me make these muffins by cooking the bacon while I assembled the yummy muffin-y parts. Then he crumbled it up, still cracklin' with his bare hands and didn't wince once. He sure is tough.



These are surefire for people who like bacon and/or muffins, and they would be a great addition to a brunch buffet. They have a texture that is reminiscent of cornbread, but the syrup adds sweetness while the bacon adds a combating little jolt of savory.



Maple Bacon Muffins
Makes 12 muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour
10 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
3 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 egg
½ cup milk
½ cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup maple syrup

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, combine flour, bacon, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, whisk the remaining ingredients together. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.