Bacon Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Glaze

For the dough:
In a large bowl, combine the water, yeast, 3 cups of the flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, butter and salt until they form a very wet dough. Stir in another cup of flour with a rubber spatula. Then mix in the final half cup by hand. Knead the flour into the dough and continue to knead until the dough is nice and smooth. Throughout the whole dough making process you can keep the dough in the bowl. It makes for less cleanup, and, well, who doesn’t like that?

Cover the dough, still in the the bowl, with a towel and let it rise for about an hour and a half (this is the time it took in the bread proof sitting of my oven, with the heat off) or until it is puffy and has risen. It doesn’t need to have doubled.

Just before the dough is done rising, begin to make the filling. Add the bacon to a pan over high heat and cook, stirring often, until the bacon is crisp and mahogany in color, about three minutes. Cover a plate with two layers of paper towels and spread the bacon bits out in a thin layer to drain off the excess grease. In a small bowl combine the sugar and cinnamon.

Once the dough has risen, preheat the oven to 375 F. Roll the dough out so it is about a foot long and 1/4 inch thick. Spread the cinnamon-sugar on the dough, leaving 2 inches uncovered around the edge all the way around the piece of dough. With your hands, crumble the bacon just a little bit further, so that the pieces are about 1/4 inch in size. Sprinkle the bacon evenly over the cinnamon-sugar.

Starting from the long, foot long end furthest from you, roll the cinnamon roll dough towards you and around the filling. Basically you are rolling it into a log. Cut the log of rolled dough into ten equal pieces. I like to use my knife to make indentations in the dough where I am going to cut each roll before I start. Place the cinnamon rolls into a greased 13 by 9-inch baking dish, spacing them evenly in the pan with the cut edges facing up. Bake for 35 minutes or until the rolls are a deep golden.

While the rolls are baking make the glaze. Combine the powdered sugar and maple syrup in a small bowl. You may also want to add just a dash of water to loosen the glaze a bit.

Once the rolls are done take them out of the oven and use a spoon to drizzle the glaze over all the rolls so each gets an even coating. Enjoy!