Maple Bacon Biscotti

On Saturday morning, I was cooking up some bacon to have with my eggs for breakfast. I love the smell of bacon. I wish that I could smell bacon all the time, except that it might drive me insane. It got me dreaming about bacon and maple things and inspired a brain storm for new mapley bacon treats. It took a bit of narrowing down, but finally I came up with these biscotti.

Then I had to make some other decisions- would bacon go right into the dough? No, that seemed too weird and I thought it might burn the bacon. So I ultimately decided on dipping them in icing and sprinkling with bacon bits. And it was mighty fine.

Start by making the dough. It was very simple: eggs, oil, sugar, maple syrup, baking powder, and flour. It's a very thick dough. Then lay it out into two relatively evenly sized, 4 inch wide, 1/2 inch thick rectangles. Shape it as best you can with an oiled spatula.

Bake them at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until slightly golden. Remove from the oven and immediately cut into one inch strips with a pizza cutter.

Lay them on one side and return to the oven for 3 minutes. Flip, then bake for another 3 minutes. They should be golden all over. Throw 'em on a cooling rack for 20 minutes and enjoy the glorious smell.

While the biscotti are cooling, cook several strips of bacon and drool even more over the glorious smells happening in your kitchen. Crumble 'em up into bits.

Then make the icing using maple syrup, powdered sugar, and milk.

Once the biscotti are completely cool, dip them in the icing and then sprinkle with the bacon crumbles. I don't recommend rolling them, it doesn't look as pretty. And I like pretty looking biscotti.

They're so tasty! They totally rival the increasingly popular male bacon donuts. And it somehow feels more justifiable for breakfast.

Maple Bacon Biscotti
Makes 18-20 Biscotti Cookies
Inspired by AllRecipes

Ingredients
1/2 cup canola oil
3 eggs
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
3 1/4 cup flour

5-6 strips of bacon

1 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp maple syrup
2-3 tbsp milk

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Beat together the oil, eggs, and maple syrup. Gradually add the sugar until combined.
3. Whisk together the baking powder and flour. Slowly add to the sugar mixture while mixing. It will form a thick dough.
4. Split into two piles on the parchment paper and form into rectangles that are about 4 inches wide and 1/2 inch tall. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until top is golden.
5. Remove from oven and immediately slice into 1 inch thick slices. Flip biscotti onto their sides and bake for an additional three mintes. Remove from oven, flip to other side, and bake for another three.
6. Transfer to cooling rack. While the biscotti are cooling, cook the bacon and crumble it. Prepare the icing by whisking together the powdered sugar, syrup, and milk, one tablespoon at a time until it forms a relatively thick icing.
7. Once biscotti are completely cool, dip them in icing and then sprinkle with bacon crumbles. Enjoy with a cup of coffee or a glass of milk!

Frosted Coconut Milk Brownies & Giveaway!

Lately, I've had an obsession with coconut milk. If it's up to me, every recipe can somehow incorporate coconut milk. It's creamy and fabulous and I love the subtle coconut flavor it adds to dishes. I've been dying to create a chocolatey dish with coconut milk and this was a homerun! These brownies are incredibly rich and fudgy- make sure you have a full carton of milk or ice cream before making them. Don't say I didn't give you fair warning.

Berry Coconut Cream Smoothie

This smoothie is crazy amounts of delicious. Like dreaming about it at night delicious. Like "Why go out for breakfast when I can have this?" delicious. Even better- it's creamy and dreamy and totally dairy-free, for all you lactose-intolerant folks.

It's a super simple, four ingredient smoothie, but I think next time I'll bump it up to six by adding carrot juice and spinach. Why not kick up the health quotient?

Seriously, make this for breakfast tomorrow and it'll have you rethinking cereal!

Berry Coconut Cream Smoothie
Serves 1-2

Ingredients
1 cup frozen berries of choice (I used a three berry mix)
1/3 cup coconut cream
1 banana
1/4 cup orange juice

Directions
1. Toss all ingredients into a blender. Blend until lighter in color and no chunks remain. Enjoy!

Chicken Pasta with Garlic Gravy

This recipe came to be when I had chicken already marinating and people coming over. I needed something quick, easy, and that used chicken similar to my lemon garlic marinated chicken. And so Pinterest led me to this pasta with garlic gravy and the world was wonderful.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Frosting

This may or may not be a belated Christmas post BUT chocolate and peppermint are delicious no matter the time of year. Boyfriend and I managed to tackle a grand total of seven Christmas events, and although I am incredibly proud of us, this left little time for blogging. Or cleaning my apartment, for that matter.

Bleu Cheese Buffalo Burgers

Boyfriend currently has an obsession with anything "buffalo", in other words containing buffalo sauce and bleu cheese. He'll ask me what's for dinner and when I respond, no matter what I've said, he retorts, "Can you make it buffalo?" This even includes a request for buffalo enchiladas. I've obliged twice so far: once with a buffalo chicken breast and another time with these burgers. I will say, this is not the worst thing that Boyfriend could ask for- I haven't minded it much at all.

Homemade Ketchup

A Duck's Oven just made the move from Eugene to Portland. It was sad and scary and really, really sad, but the adventure has been fun thus far! I'm living in a fantastic neighborhood filled with incredible restaurants and having a wonderful time decorating a new apartment. My kitchen is going to be fantastic and I'm very excited to take you on a tour of it once it's finished!

Anywho, all those lovely restaurants are what inspired this post. So many of them use local ketchup (I don't want to type ... catsup ... at least more than that one instance- it just irritates me) and that ketchup is so tasty, so I thought, why not whip up my own? And better yet, if it turns out good, why not dole it out to friends and family as a Christmas gift?