These sizzling bacon pinwheels are a combination of everything delightful: bread, cheese and bacon. The perfect New Year’s appetizer!

If you’ve stuck around this here blog for long, you may remember the Sugar Rush of last year and the year before.

It just happens to be the time of year to be talking sweetsy treats, right? And I’ve loved doing just that over the last few years.

Bacon wrapped cheese bites on a cooling rack.

Well, this year, I’m changing things up a bit.

I figure that since there will be a plethora of mighty delicious sugary sweetness rolling around the blogosphere, I’ll spend the next two weeks sharing my favorite appetizer recipes that might fit in with holiday entertaining (or just personal indulging).

So consider this year to be the year Sugar Rush has been reinvented to fit into the more savory side of things.

Never fear, though! On each tasty, savory post, I’ll be highlighting one of my past Sugar Rush recipes (see the green box below for more evidence). You know, so you can get salty and sweet all in one place. Perfect!

So let’s start.

This appetizer may just be one of my favorite of the season. Seriously. A throwback…a little old school…these sizzling bacon pinwheels are a combination of everything delightful in my book: bread, cheese and bacon. Amen.

Slices of thick bread are rolled thin, spread with a fabulous, lightly spicy creamy cheese mixture and wrapped in bacon. The morsels are broiled to toasty perfection, leaving the flavorful cheesy filling melted and piping hot and the bread and bacon crisp and golden.

I dare you to eat just one!

Bacon wrapped cheese bites on a white plate.
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Sizzling Bacon and Cheese Pinwheels

4.34 stars (3 ratings)

Ingredients

  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 6 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (1 1/2 cups)
  • 2 ounces thinly sliced deli salami or ham, chopped fine
  • 3 green onions, finely minced
  • 1 tablespoon hot sauce, like Tapatio
  • 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
  • 12 slices hearty white or wheat sandwich bread, crusts removed
  • 12 ounces bacon, halved crosswise

Instructions 

  • Adjust an oven rack about 6 inches from the broiler heating element and heat the broiler. Set an oven-proof wire rack in a rimmed baking sheet. In a food processor (or with a hand mixer if you don’t have a food processor), mix the cream cheese and cheddar cheese until smooth and well combined. Transfer to a bowl and stir in salami or ham, green onions, hot sauce and mustard. Mix well.
  • Working with one slice of bread at a time, roll the bread as thin as possible with a rolling pin (don’t forget to remove the crusts!). Evenly cover the bread with about 2 heaping tablespoons of the cheese mixture. Starting at the short edge, roll the bread into a tight cylinder. Cut each rolled bread log in half crosswise to form 2 smaller rolls and wrap each half in 1 piece of the bacon (that has also been cut in half crosswise), covering the bread completely. The bacon should stick to itself as it is rolled around and stay secure, but if not, feel free to secure with a toothpick. Repeat with the remaining bread, filling and bacon.
  • Place the rolls to the wire rack on the baking sheet. Broil until the bacon is crisp, 10 to 12 minutes, flipping halfway through broiling. Let the pinwheels cool for 10 minutes. Serve warm.
Serving: 1 Pinwheel, Calories: 168kcal, Carbohydrates: 8g, Protein: 6g, Fat: 13g, Saturated Fat: 6g, Cholesterol: 29mg, Sodium: 314mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 1g

Recipe Source: adapted slightly from Cook’s Country Oct/Nov 2011