Good morning! 😀 It’s that time again for The Secret Recipe Club! Once a month, everyone in the club is assigned to another blogger, secretly, and we all make one of that blogger’s recipes! No one knows who had who until reveal day, and today is that always exciting day!

 

 

This month I was assigned to a wonderful blogger named Marsha, and her blog, The Harried Cook, which got it’s name because of the same way I feel sometimes, too, that she eats, sleeps, breathes, and dreams food 24/7! Which of course, makes her feel quite “harried” at times, plus chasing after two small children to boot, I can see how tiring that could make anyone! Luckily for us, she takes the time to share all of her recipe creations and created her blog to leave to her two daughters! 😀 I’m sure someday, when they are a bit older, they will will cherish each and every word and recipe. 😀

Marsha has quite a lot of fun recipes, and as always, it took me quite awhile to decide on which one to make!  I so wanted to make her Lime Curd Cupcakes, as they’re her favorite and looked fabulous! But limes here cost a small fortune and we have to have a new roof put on, so…..I knew that I would just save that one to make on another rainy day! 😉 Others that caught my eye that I thought you will want to check out also, are her recipes for her gorgeous Pomegranate Pound Cake , her creative Mars Bars Chunk Cookies , her decadent and eggless Rocky Road Ice Cream , her Asian-style Coca-Cola Chicken , and her amazing-looking, dark and rich Smokey Barbecue Sauce that’s perfect for this time of year! Be sure to pop over to her place and check out many more of her wonderful recipes, too!

Last month I made some incredibly decadent sweet rolls for my assigned blogger, so this month I thought to make some savory rolls that ended up fighting for the limelight with our grilled steaks! Yes, they were that good!! 😀 (I also took Marsha’s advice, and doubled the recipe!)

I wanted to share a few with the neighbors, plus I knew my that my hubby would inhale them faster than I could enjoy one (or two!) for myself! Doubling was definitely going to be a must!!) 😉 😀

So let’s get started! 😀

I almost didn’t make these Bacon, Chive and Cream Cheese Rolls due to a few minute mistakes in the recipe, but I’m pretty practiced at making bread, and thought, hey, it’s just bread. Ancient civilizations have been baking bread practically since man could walk and build a fire. I can surely figure this out. And I’m so glad that I did! (It makes me cringe to think how many mistakes I’ve probably made on my own blog, though!) Yikes.

The dough was simple enough, but a problem came up when it said to “add remaining flour” and there wasn’t an amount to add. I figured that the amount at the top of the recipe ingredient list couldn’t possibly have been the full amount required, as the dough was still very “soupy”, so I simply started adding more flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until it looked pretty darned good to me according to what the directions described. I probably could’ve added even more, but I figured that I could incorporate more later by kneading some in if it needed it.

 

As you can see, it’s very soft and still quite sticky after a full cup more flour was added, but ok to proceed, no problem. 😉

 

 

So I just scraped it down, but then instead of letting it rise in the bowl and just covering it…

 

 

….I decided to add an extra step of transferring the dough to another clean, oiled bowl, and sprayed the top lightly so that it wouldn’t dry out at all during rising. I couldn’t really turn it to coat it as it was way too soft, so I just sprayed the top with butter-flavored spray. This worked really well, actually.

(*This is the way I’ve always done bread doughs, so I wanted to just stick with what worked well for me.)

 

 

I’m so glad that I did, because just LOOK at the rise I got! *I always cover the bowl with sprayed plastic wrap and pop the bowl into my oven with the light on to rise. It creates such a nice, warm, draft-free environment that’s perfect for proofing yeast, and works like a charm every time! 🙂

 

 

HELLO, gorgeous! 😀

 

 

After punching down the dough (I love that part!), I floured the surface well, because this dough was VERY soft. I was a bit worried at this point that it would be too soft, but it pressed out nicely and I pressed on. 😉

The filling had an amount missing for the cream cheese, so I just guessed. It worked just fine, but call me greedy, next time I might make even more, and even play with it a bit, as it was delicious! 😀

 

 

Chives from my garden, nice lean, crisp, thick bacon….and – – jarred garlic. Oops.

I swear, I will NEVER buy that stuff again. (What do they cure it in….kerosene??)

Luckily it was a minimal  ingredient in this recipe and a nice way to use more of it up. But stick with real garlic, trust me, don’t buy that stuff. 😉

 

 

I think the amounts that I used balanced well, but use more bacon, chives, pepper and garlic, of course, to make your own tastebuds happy. 😀

 

 

I figured the best way to get the filling on was going to have to be to add it on in dollops and GENTLY spread it out connecting the dots.

*Make sure your filling is VERY soft. Microwave it if you have to. You don’t want to wreck the dough at this point! 😉

 

 

VERY gently spread out the filling using an offset knife, and, you really shouldn’t have any trouble at all. 😀

 

 

I won’t lie to you, this part was NOT easy, as the dough was extremely soft. But keep going. It works. You just have to be very gentle with it while rolling it up, and work fairly quickly. No rush, though!

 

Remember that movie…..”Tremors”…..with Kevin Bacon….

Behold….my rolled dough with the “head” and “tail” cut off. 😀

 

 

Take your time cutting these!! Use a very sharp knife, do not press, and use a sawing motion gently going back and forth until you reach the bottom so that you don’t squish them.

*Don’t pitch those end pieces, either! Bake them, too. They won’t have any filling in them, or barely any, but they make for GREAT sandwich rolls! 😉

Most of the rolls! One more spiral, plus the ends, went into a pie plate.

The directions said to “lay them on their sides”. I wasn’t perfectly sure what she meant by that, but I figured that to mean “cut side-down”, and that’s how I wanted them anyways. Plus, I pinched the bottoms closed first so that the filling wouldn’t leak out and scorch on the bottom of the pan. I wanted to see the swirls on top, yet not have all of that yummy goodness melt down and burn on the bottom. Cast iron pans get hot! But they bake everything so beautifully!  😉

 

 

Then simply baste them…..

 

 

….and bake! 😀

*I decided to sprinkle mine with some poppy seeds first just for extra fun! 😀

 

 

And……drumroll……

…..TA-DAH!!!!!!! 😀

 

 

These. Were. GORGEOUS.

I was so very happy, (and a bit relieved), at how they ended up turning out!! 😀

And speaking of, I was actually able to get them out of the pan after cutting one and simply slipping an offset knife underneath and around the edges to loosen it and place that beautiful loaf onto my cake stand!

What a FABULOUS presentation this was, and would also be quite an impressive side dish for company, too! 😀

 

 

My hubby enjoyed his with a little butter, but I just ate mine “plain”, pulling those ever so tender, still warm pieces away… just. As. It. Was.

Tender bites of glorious, homemade bread….with bacon….and cheese….is there anything better? 

 

 

Overall, this is a fantastic recipe! Marsha just needs to fix the two tiny little mistakes, and  I would suggest to make more filling, (unless I just plain didn’t make enough the first time.) The bread has just a touch of sweetness, is light and fluffy, and as tender as tender can be! THE perfect dish to make on a dark, cold and stormy day! 😀

Would I make this recipe again? In. A. HEARTBEAT.

It truly was delicious!!!

Thanks so much to Sarah who owns The Secret Recipe Club for keeping this wonderful club organized and having us all, and to Marsha, for her amazingly fantastic rolls that will be made and enjoyed for years to come! As always, I had a blast! 😀

Be sure to pop over to Marsha’s blog, The Harried Cook,
to see all of her wonderful recipes!

 

 

 

And that concludes this month’s recipe pick! Hope you enjoyed, and be sure to check out all of the other wonderful recipes made by the club members below! If you see a recipe and photo that looks good, just click on the individual picture to go straight to the recipe! 😀

 

Adapted from The Harried Cook.

Yield: 8 rolls

Bacon, Chive & Cream Cheese Rolls | The Secret Recipe Club

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Ingredients

For the Dough:

• 5 cups all purpose flour, [i]divided[/i]
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
• 1 cup milk, plus 2 extra Tbl. for egg wash
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup oil
• 2 extra large eggs

For the Filling:

• 1 (8 oz.) brick + 2 oz. cream cheese, room temp
• 400g bacon, cooked and crumbled (about 3/4 to 1 cup or 6-8 strips crumbled or snipped)
• 1/4 cup snipped fresh chives, (or use about a 1/3 - 1/2 cup green onions, snipped)
• 2 tsp. finely minced garlic
• fresh cracked black pepper, to taste (I used an 1/8 tsp. coarse ground)
• dash salt, to taste

Instructions

In large mixer bowl, whisk 4 cups of the flour, salt, sugar and yeast until well mixed, set aside.

Combine the milk and water in a saucepan and heat until lukewarm. (*I nuked it until warm, but not hot.) Don't overheat this, or it will kill the yeast. Let it rest if you accidentally get it too hot.

Crack eggs into a small bowl and whisk them lightly but well mixed. Remove two tablespoons of the egg into another small bowl and set aside (for basting top later). Add the remaining beaten eggs and the oil into the milk mixture.

Pour the milk mixture in to the mixing bowl with the flour, and mix until the batter is smooth. Continue beating for a further 3-4 minutes.

Add the remaining 1 cup of flour a little at a time, until you have a soft but sticky dough.

Switch to a dough hook, and knead the dough for another 8 -10 minutes or until the dough no longer sticks to the bowl and is nice and elastic.

Spray or oil a large mixing bowl with butter-flavored no-stick spray or vegetable oil. Scrape dough into bowl, spray or oil top of dough, cover top of bowl with sprayed plastic wrap, and set aside to rise for about an hour. (*I let my dough rise in my oven with the light on.)

Remove dough, and preheat your oven to 200º C (400º F). Punch down dough and transfer to a well-floured work surface.

Using your hands (flour them first) or a floured rolling pin, form the dough into a rectangle about 1/2 thick. (Mine rectangle measured 12" x 18". Does not have to be exact).

Combine the filling ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

Spread the filling over the surface of the dough, leaving a 1/2" on all sides.

Starting with the long side of the rectangle that is furthest away from you, roll the dough toward yourself and pinch the seam closed.

Slice roll into 8 (or more) slices, and transfer them into a greased cast iron skillet or baking dish, cut side-down.

Take the reserved egg and whisk with 2 tablespoons milk. Brush mixture over top of rolls.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until the bread is springy and golden brown.