Bacon and Basil Crusted Cheese Bites

Bacon and Basil Crusted Cheese Bites

Aren’t potluck parties the best? I look forward to trying everyone’s latest creations and trying to come up with something new of my own.

For our friend’s big summer potluck I wanted to make something with bacon.

My recipe research lead me to a blog with something called, “bacon pops.”

The ingredient list called to me: herbs, goat cheese, cream cheese, pecans and bacon.

The name, I’ll have to agree with other comments on the blog, needed some work. And making them look like lollipops or even spreading it on apples wasn’t appealing.

So renamed them, more than doubled the original recipe, used fresh basil and served the little cheese morsels all by themselves on toothpicks. Absolute fabulousness.

In my first attempt I ran into that horrible dilemma that cake recipes often bring…not enough frosting. Or, in this case, I ran out of the herb and bacon mixture. I quickly searched for other options for coating the goat and cream cheese blend.

Herbs alone are prettier, but bacon is tastier.

Rachel Ray’s site suggests rolling goat cheese balls in any dry herb you have in the drawer. I tried chili powder, then cumin and then a lemon-pepper blend. Of the three, I liked the lemon-pepper blend best.

Nothing, however, came close to the awesomeness of the bacon-basil-pecan combination. Those were all gone in the blink of an eye once word got out among the guests.

Next time, no messing around with those herb-only versions. They’ve all gotta have bacon, baby

Ingredients List

• 15 slices bacon (I used Kirkland pre-cooked bacon to save time)
• 8 ounces goat cheese
• 8 ounces cream cheese (not whipped)
• 5 tablespoons chopped basil, divided
• Cracked black pepper
• 2/3 cup pecans

Method

Cut bacon pieces in 1/2 and cook in a skillet until crisp (about 15 minutes for raw bacon and about 4 minutes if using Kirkland pre-cooked bacon). When done, cool on and blot with paper towels to reduce grease.

While the bacon is cooking, blend the goat cheese, cream cheese, 2 1/2 tablespoon of basil, and about 5 turns of cracked black pepper.

Use hands to roll cheese mixture into small balls, about the size of the tip of your thumb. Set them in a foil or wax paper lined pan.

Insert a toothpick into each cheese ball and put them in the freezer for 15 minutes to firm them up a little (but not frozen solid).

In a food processor, crumble in the cooled bacon, the remaining basil and the pecans. Puree until very fine and crumbly.

Take the cheese balls out of the freezer and roll them in the bacon mixture, pressing the bacon mixture in with your fingers.

Cover and refrigerate until just before serving. I liked them best at room temperature so you may want to pull them out about 20 minutes before serving.