Pastry Cups with Bacon and Cheese Recipe

Phyllo cups, puff pastry shells, pastry cups; whatever you call them, they are versatile. We can make plenty of different appetizers, all with pastry cups. One of the best recipes to try is the pastry cups with bacon and cheese recipe.

This easy pastry cups with bacon and cheese recipe is fancier than it sounds and more delicious with every bite. Pastry dough is such a versatile dough. We can roll it out thin and shape it however we want.

Then, we can fill those pastries with sweet or savory fillings to completely change them. For example, you can get crescent rolls from a can, which are pastry dough.

We cut the designated shapes, roll them up, and then bake them until they are golden brown. But what if you rolled them up after spreading a layer of Nutella on them?

How about layering some shredded cheese and your favorite pizza toppings? Basically, pastry dough is versatile and makes for the perfect appetizer, no matter the occasion.

Holiday parties or events with a big crowd give us the perfect excuse to use pastry dough in a recipe. Delicious puff pastry cups won’t cost much to make and will be easy to work with, even if it is your first time.

Just remember, egg wash can help you get that golden brown, flaky dough from the tasty shell. One recipe to try is the pastry cups with bacon and cheese recipe.

This recipe sounds simple, and it is, but it is a fancy appetizer recipe that can be served on any occasion. The store-bought puff pastry or mini muffin tins can be elevated into something amazingly delicious.

Of course, we are skipping the sweet ingredients, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be enjoying the savory ingredients just as much.

Pastry Appetizers

Using pastry dough to make appetizers is nothing new. There are numerous detailed instructions on how to make something amazing once the puff pastry thaws. The question is, does any puff pastry dough work? The answer is yes!

One way people usually find puff pastry dough is at the local grocery store. Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Sheets come in, well, sheets. They come frozen and need to be thawed correctly before they can be used to make an easy appetizer.

However, did you know that those tubes of Pillsbury crescents can be used in similar ways as puff pastry dough? The biggest difference between puff pastry and Pillsbury tubes of crescents is the yeast.

The crescents come with yeast, which helps them rise and become flaky. Puff pastry dough leaves the yeast out, which is how we get the airy puffs from the dough.

This recipe uses Pillsbury crescent dough to make for a more flaky crust.

Bacon and Cheese Pastry Cups Ingredients

• Pillsbury Crescent Rolls: Everything starts with the crescent rolls. We will be using the dough cut into the same number of equal squares. This means however many crescents the tube can provide you is how many pastry cups you will get.
• Thick-Cut Bacon: Thick-cut bacon works best here. Some of us like crispy bacon, and others like soft bacon. However, these cups will benefit from softer bacon. The bite won’t be as enjoyable if the bacon is too crispy. 
• Dry Red Wine: The dry red wine you pick should definitely be a cooking wine. In fact, the only time we will be using the red wine is to boil the figs and soften them up. After that, you will be tossing the wine out. Let’s not make it an expensive bottle for that reason.
• Organic Honey: Honey is going into the wine with the figs. Together, the wine and the honey will add amazing flavor to the figs and make it easier to cut them.
• Dried Figs: Dried figs alone aren’t many people’s favorite. However, these figs are going to be flavored with red wine and honey. They are not your normal, everyday figs in this easy recipe.
• Honey Chevre Goats Milk Cheese: We can pick whichever type of cheese we’d like for this part. However, goat’s cheese works best with the bacon and the figs. We can find cheese with honey, which gives the tart shells a savory flavor with a dash of sweetness. 
• Jalapenos: There was a time when you could easily find goat’s cheese with honey and jalapenos in it already. That is the cheese we would normally use. However, those don’t seem to be available anymore, so we will need to dice up some jalapenos and add them to the cheese mixture.
• Half and Half: We want the goat’s cheese to be a bit more creamy than it comes. This is why we mix the cheese with half and half. 
• Thyme: We can’t make a savory treat without some seasonings. We will be skipping the salt this time around, a cardinal sin, we know. However, the bacon sure can provide us with all the saltiness we need.
• Black Pepper: Bacon can give us a salty taste but not a pepper flavor. Let’s add some pepper to keep our food seasoned.

How to Make This Pastry Cups with Bacon and Cheese Recipe

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (or 350 degrees for dark or nonstick pans). Unroll Pillsbury Original Crescent Roll dough and cut it into 16 squares.

Spray the mini cupcake pan with non-stick cooking spray and lay the square dough into a mini muffin pan so the edges come up on the sides, forming a cup.

Bake for 8 to 9 minutes or until golden brown.

Once you remove the pan from the oven, take a small spoon and reshape the dough so you can fill it with your ingredients. Remove cups from pan and cool.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Arrange 4 thick-cut pieces of bacon on a baking pan lined with foil and then bake until crisp, about 10-12 minutes. Let the bacon cool, and then cut it into small pieces.

In a medium saucepan, stir wine and honey together. Then add figs and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to simmer, then let the figs cook for about 15 minutes until tender. Remove figs from the saucepan and cut them into small slices.

In a small bowl, beat together the goat cheese, drained and diced jalapenos, and half and a half until smooth.

Now, you’re ready to assemble your bacon, fig, and jalapeno goat cheese pastry cups. With a small spoon, put a dollop of the goat cheese mixture in the Pillsbury cup. Then add a few dried figs and sprinkle a few pieces of bacon on top. Garnish with a little thyme on top and serve!

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