Very Gouda Bacon & Maple Stuffed Croissants

When The Boy touched down from a week away in Marbella this morning, the last thing I wanted to do was spend the day in the kitchen.

I wanted breakfast to be special, quick and more importantly, bacon flavoured. 

After a rummage around the fridge I had just the ticket. I pinky promise you'll only make these once before they become your luxury breakfast go-to.

Each batch makes six good croissants. My recipe stuffs them with bacon, cheese and maple syrup, but you can substitute this for whatever you like. Cheese and ham? Marmite? A dollop of jam and fresh raspberries? Whatever you darn well crois-want.

You're going to need:

1 tube of ready Jus-Rol ready made croissant dough 

1 pack of streaky bacon, the best quality you can afford

A few glugs of maple syrup 

3 slices of good melting cheese (gouda is my weapon of cheese-oice)

Start off by crisping off your bacon under a hot grill for 8-10 minutes. 

Whilst that's on, grab your can of dough and pop that baby open.

Note to self: this is probably one of the most satisfying experiences a girl can enjoy without taking her clothes off. You are very, very welcome.

Carefully roll out your dough into one long strip and snip along the dotted lines.

You should be left with six deliciously perfect triangles.

 When your bacon's done, remove it from the oven and keep somewhere warm.



Now for the fun part.

One by one, roll up your dough parcels to form crescent shapes. Don't panic - it's much more simple than it looks. Let me walk you through it.

Step 1 -  Grab your dough triangle and pop a bacon rasher on top.

Step 2 - Lay over half a slice of cheese and trim to fit.

Step 3 (and by far my favourite) - Drizzle over a glug of maple syrup.

Step 4 - Roll up your croissant from the base of the triangle to the tip, squashing your fillings down as you go. It doesn't have to look like a masterpiece so don't worry. Everything will puff up in the oven, just make sure it's wrapped up as snug as a bug.

You should be left with a crescent shaped hunk of dough a little bit like this:

Repeat with the rest of your croissants and pop them in the oven for 10 minutes until golden brown and flaky.

What you choose to do with them at this point is totally up to you. 

Personally, I like to sit down in front of the television and play how-many-croissants-can-Charlotte-fit-in-her-mouth, but that's just little lady-like old me.

M1LK & Pancakes. & Eggs, Smoothies, Bacon...

My favourite kind of breakfasts are the ones which revisit you in your daydreams for the rest of the week, over and over and over again.

Last week, ladies and gentlemen, I had one of those breakfasts.

I grabbed my Pops and headed to Balham to meet A and M. Spot the sister, eh?

We were ushered to our seats outside of a little place on the corner called M1LK.

(Don't believe everything you read, folks. Turns out 'Alma's' is a full on fib.)

We were handed menus on clipboards and seated side-by-side to a bunch of locals, regulars who had spent more afternoon's in M1LK than they wished to divulge.

I spotted fruit smoothies served in milk bottles and was naturally compelled to order one of each flavour. The Billie, a mangoey dream, was my absolute favourite. 

Slurpy juice in hand, I set off to see what we were working with.

I'd heard the M1LK chefs bake fresh cakes and cookies all day, every day.

Turns out I'd heard right. That right there is the Strawberry Milk Cake, fully equipped with crushed Party Ring rubble and strawberry butter cream icing.

And look at this! Pistachio cake with yuzu butter cream and oxalis petals. Stunning.

We helped ourselves to fruit infused water before returning to our seats.

And were greeted with tea, milk bottle smoothies and juices. Hand pressed, homemade and down right delicious.

Quite similarly to the grub.

First up, The Convict. A buttery muffin loaded with locally sourced sausage and bacon, eggs & cheese and topped with Hangover Sauce.

I genuinely need to know what is in that sauce.

Mouthwateringly good and a dream to photograph.

A went for Eggs Two Ways, an eggy, spicy sausage, crispy spinach and feta omelette tucked away below a creamy, gooey poached egg and sourdough slices.

And M chose Billie The Wild, honeycomb, goats cheese, sourdough and flowers. Simple, sweet, stunning to look at and really, really lovely to eat.

Just like the pancakes.

Oh the pancakes.

Light, fluffy cakes served with mascarpone, berries, brittle & sticky maple syrup. Sadly these beauties don't appear on the regular menu, but head down on a Saturday morning and you might just be lucky enough to find them on the specials board.

A beautiful combination of sweet and savory, my favourite.

If you find yourself in the area, you can find M1LK right here. I'd say it's well worth a visit, just be prepared to wait your turn to be seated and spend all of your pocket money on a slice of each cake. You won't be disapointed.

Caution: excess pancakes munching and smoothie slurpin' can result in leg malfunction and giggle overload when under the influence of a camera.



I hope you had a nice weekend - what did you get up to? Any memorable breakfasts to tell me about?