Bacon Cinnamon Rolls. Uh huh.
I’ve wanted to do this for, well… EVER.
Put bacon in gooey cinnamon rolls and call it breakfast food. I mean… why not?
It’s Friday and I’m presenting you with a giant pile of bacon cinnamon rolls. It’s a present. Me to you. The best Friday present ever, possibly.
And you know what?
It wasn’t until I was ACTUALLY MAKING THE ROLLS that I realized, um, hello, I could use BACON GREASE instead of butter. Bacon grease!! Granted – I didn’t use it in the entire recipe, but it’s certainly in the filling annnnnd maybe in the glaze.
So, like, you really need to love bacon to love these.
And if you do, then we can obviously be the best of pals.
These cinnamon rolls are adapted from the whole wheat cinnamon rolls from my cookbook. I love a good homemade cinnamon roll but let’s me tell you a secret: I also don’t really mind the ones that come from a can. Most likely because they taste like my childhood – my mom would make those cinnamon rolls or even better – the orange rolls! – from the can on special Saturday mornings and sometimes even on Christmas day when we were rushing to open presents and go visit family. They taste all nostalgia-y and stuff.
But now.
These bacon ones may turn me into a bit of a cinnamon roll snob. I will say this – there isn’t much worse than a stale cinnamon rolls in my eyes. Kind of like a stale donut? Ew. Nothing worse. Remember the entire research segment of the movie The Five Year Engagement where they serve people stale donuts but say “if you can wait for five minutes, there will be fresh ones!” ????? I’d like to think that I would totally wait for the fresh ones. However, I have very little patience.
The point is – you can make this dough the night before but don’t bake these babies until right before serving. Hot and gooey cinnamon rolls are incomparable.
Sooooo. We’re gonna do this. Yes?
Bacon Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 3 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for your workspace
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3/4 cup loosely packed brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 cup reserved bacon grease
- 8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
- melted butter, for brushing
glaze
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 2 1/2 tablespoons milk
- 1 tablespoon reserved bacon grease, warmed
Instructions
- Heat the milk and water in a small saucepan until just warm. Place it in the bowl of your electric mixer and add the melted butter, the yeast and honey, stirring to combine. Let sit for 15 minutes until the yeast is foamy. Add in 2 1/2 cups of the flour, the egg, vanilla, salt and cinnamon, then turn your mixer onto low speed with paddle attachment. Once everything is combined, add in another 1/2 cup of flour and mix. Switch to the dough hook and knead the dough for 6 to 8 minutes, gradually adding in the remaining half cup of flour.
- Add the dough to a well oiled bowl (you can totally use bacon grease!!) and cover. Let rise in a warm place for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
- Once the dough has risen, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Punch down the down and place it on a floured surface. Roll the dough out into a large rectangle, at least 12 inches long and 6 inches wide. Brush the dough with the reserved bacon grease. In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon, then sprinkle it all over top of the dough. Add the crumbled bacon evenly over top. Starting at the bottom, tightly roll the dough up into one long roll. Use a sharp knife to cut the roll into 1-inch pieces. Place the rolls in a baking dish and cover, allowing them to rise for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, brush the rolls with melted butter. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden and set on top. Immediately remove from the oven and pour the glaze over top. Serve!
glaze
- Whisk all ingredients together until smooth and creamy. Mixture may look lumpy at first but just continue to stir and it will come together – even for 2 to 3 minutes. If too liquidy, add sugar 1 tablespoon at a time. If too thick, add milk or water 1 teaspoon at a time.
Did you make this recipe?
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I appreciate you so much!
annnnnnd I’m done.
84 Comments on “Bacon Cinnamon Rolls. Uh huh.”
I never thought of using bacon grease until I bought your book, and I read that you had some in your fridge. What a fantastic way to incorporate the bacon flavor!
Would you recommend forming the rolls and then storing overnight (in the fridge?), or just make the dough and form in the morning? I’ve made cinnamon rolls from scratch once and haven’t since because they’re time consuming and, in my mind, they’re totally a breakfast treat that I’m not willing to wait to eat breakfast for 2-3+ hours to eat, lol.
i would form the rolls the night before! do everything you need to do besides bake.
Wooooah these look unreal! I agree, nothing more disappointing than a stale cinnamon roll. I like mine very heavy on the cinnamon!
OMG, slight freak out b/c I literally just finished publishing a post about canned Pillsbury cinnamon rolls (ah, the orange!). Apparently, parenting breakfast philosophies were similar back in the day, because those + The Price is Right were my every summer morning in childhood. The can has got nuttin’ on this bacon bliss!
When you say you can make this dough the night before would you stop after the first proofing or would you advise to make the rolls and up to the last step..
i would make the rolls up until the last step, then throw them in the fridge until morning!
Every now and then I buy the canned ones (and a giant Entenmann’s danish), takes me right back to those special weekend mornings too. Memories are tasty!
You’re crazy. But I’m strangely okay with it.
I. Have. No Words. These are just incr-EDIBLE. Screw oatmeal. These are breakfast. Pinned!
How long do you keep bacon grease in your fridge??
OMG. I am dying. These look incredible! Can’t wait to try them out. Then live in yoga pants forever.
Oh yes. We’re gonna do this! It had to be bacon. Bacon, ftw. These looks awesome. The orange cinnamon rolls. I love those too and we also make them holiday mornings in my fam. I also just happen to make them this past weekend! :) Thanks for sharing this recipe!
This is insane. Also, I have a secret infatuation with those canned cinnamon rolls too. CHILDHOOD!
bow down. these are magnificent.
Holy crap!!! This is insane. And delicious. And insane!
I have to admit, I grew up eating fresh cinnamon rolls whenever we ate them (thanks, mom!) and I can’t stand the canned ones… If I’m honest I am a bit of a cinnamon roll snob!
Has anyone ever tried the Ikea cinnamon rolls? They are really quite tasty. Really. And inexpensive!
Philly
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Oh god, look at those! I’m starving x
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When I saw the cinnamon rolls in the cookbook (that I may have MADE my boyfriend take to you to get signed in NY) I thought I was dead and in heaven…. this. this… IS LIFE EVEN REAL ANYMORE? I can’t.
This is what foodie dreams are made of. love, love, love!
Oh yum, these look absolutely amazing!
My 1001 reason I like you. Cinnamon rolls with Bacon!
You really think out of the box,no out of this universe…….wait out of this century!
I have been stock-piling bacon grease in my fridge for a week now, but have not had any ideas of what to use it in. DING DING DING!!! These are show stoppers!!! xoxo
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Obviously “healthy” is not associated with this amazing recipe (which i’m totaly okay with) but if i wanted to lighten it up, could i swap whole milk for Almond?
Something about this just seems soooo right.
the glaze looks insanely delicious.
O.M.G. I can’t even think of these calories in these, but they seem sooooo worth it. LOVE homemade fresh cinnamon rolls, but those orange canned ones, they are THE bomb! Still love them, even if I do taste all the chemicals they are made with! :)
So, a non-cinnamon roll related comment (if you even allow those), but I totally accidentally stumbled on one of the sets of “The 5 Year Engagement” when they were shooting on location in San Francisco. I was out walking my dog in the Marina and was like, what are all these cameras and trailers doing here? Then I googled the crap out of it to figure out what movie it was for. And I STILL haven’t seen it.
Back to cinnamon rolls now: please don’t ever stop using bacon. Those pictures are making me drool.
Whyyy do you torture me so? Cinnamon rolls are my favorite, and, well, bacon in anything? TOO GOOD
Lord have mercy! Now THIS is a balanced breakfast! XO
They look awesome and I don’t even eat bacon! Pinned! I made cinn roll dough last night, and it’s on it’s 2nd rise right now and I’m about to go bake it and shoot them! Seeing your rolls make me excited to get this photo shoot done so I can eat :) I love your images, so, so pretty!
Ohhh my goodness. You are SUCH a genius! I’m always using bacon grease in homemade mayo and pretty much anything else savoury but I haven’t ventured into sweets yet… I think this might have to be my introduction!
YESS!!
This is amazing! What if instead of crumbling the bacon you laid the strips down before rolling it up..each cinnamon roll would have an ENTIRE piece of bacon rolled up inside it! You can’t have too much bacon, can you?!
FMLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
heaven.
says it serve 8 but its really 1.
Did you know that there are people who throw away their bacon grease?
We need to pray for them.
I had no idea to keep it….I will be keeping it now!! :)
You had me at Bacon,
You stole my heart with Bacon Grease &
You made me weep with sugar glaze!
You just made me fall in love with you all over again!
Double WOW! These cinnamon rolls look and sound so amazing! This is definitely my dream breakfast…:D
Adding these to my must-try list!
If you are going to eat bacon on the side, you might as well put them in the rolls! Delicious, I love it!
Oooomg, dying over these! Cinnamon rolls are my favorite breakfast treat of all time and adding bacon into the mix sounds completely amazing. And adding bacon grease? Totally genius!
OH MY ACTUAL LAWD.
I want to try to cook it !!! so beautiful !!
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Whoa! This was an insanely good idea. Bacon and cinnamon rolls, count me in. I’ll take a couple with my coffee. :)
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They sound divine but I just know there is something I might also add just because I love bacon with MAPLE! Oh yeah…maybe in the glaze. Maybe in the filling but definitely somewhere! Great idea; really. Wish is were morning!
… so these are gorgeous!
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