Fat Elvis

Illustration by liahartati through Fiverr

During the summer of 2020, folks were stuck at home, and things got weird.  Instagram was flooded with images of people baking oreos wrapped with bacon.  This was particularly popular in the BBQ community.

@MeatChurch was definitely on board

@p3_bbq submitted some beautiful oreos

@WorldStar Hip Hop reported on the trend!

Even @Oreo supported the effort!

Needless to say, this was a big deal!  Not one to be left out of a delicious food trend, I masked up and went right to my friendly local Publix to pick up the necessary ingredients...  Oreos and Bacon.

When I got to the store and gazed upon the huge selection in the cookie aisle, my mind started spinning.  There were so many desserts that I could wrap with bacon.  I, of course, picked up some oreos (Double Stuffed, if I remember correctly), but also grabbed Twinkies, Nutty Buddys, and...Nutter Butters.

My oreos were not as pretty as @MeatChurch and @WorldStar

The Nutter Butter got a little stiff.  It was OK, but not something I would necessarily eat again.

Bacon wrapped twinkies, on the other hand, are absolutely worth exploring in a little more detail...experimenting with flavors in the future.   The cream filling baked into the yellow pound cake, creating an ultra rich bacon fat drenched cake that I would absolutely eat again and again.  I have a few ideas to make it better.  But, more about that later.  This was epically good, but wasn't the winner of the evening...

The stand out was absolutely Nutter Butters! This was my original instagram post for the nutter butters.  lol

This made sense... Peanut Butter and Bacon go together really well (I make a great peanut butter bacon fudge...I'll add that recipe later).  I was thinking...banana goes really well with peanut butter, too.  In fact, wasn't there a famous sandwich with these same ingredients??  Thats, right, the Elvis Sandwich!

I swapped out the plain Nutter Butters for DOUBLE NUTTY Nutter Butters (for that extra peanut buttery goodness), added a diagonally sliced slice of banana (so it would be almost as long as the cookie, and wrapped lengthwise with a half slice of bacon. (I didn't use anything fancy...just plan ol thin cut bacon.  One half pack of bacon is usually enough for one box of Double Nutty Nutter Butters. A whole pack can wrap 2 packs of cookies).  Wrapping lengthwise was key, as it helped maintain the integrity of the cookie.  As it cooks, and the oils from the bacon soften the cookie, the baken starts to shrink, and the rectangular shape slowly squeezes into a square.  It really is magical!  lol

The final missing ingredient was BBQ Rub, to give it that little extra kick.  I'd imagine you can use whatever rub is your favorite.  We've experimented with quite a few and found that our favorite is a brown sugar espresso rub made by VooDoo Chef out of Tampa, FL called Dirt.  It is amazing stuff.

We bake these indirect on our Big Green Egg at 350F (but you should be able to use any indirect cooking setup...and probably your oven (I'd recommend cooking them on a wire rack over a tray so the bacon can drip/drain).

We like to oil a stainless grill grate and place the cookies on that, before placing on the actual grill grates (so they are easier to remove all at once). Lately, we have been using oiled silicone bake mats, which work really well to keep the cookies from sticking, too.)

They have been crowd pleasers at the couple of EggFests that we have brought them to...and will likely be our go-to simple dessert for years to come!