The Elvis Roll

You ever have a bad idea that you knew was a bad idea, but you thought it should be good? No? Well, that must be nice for you. So I had this idea for an Elvis Roll. Inspired by the story that Elvis Presley used to enjoy peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwiches. The basic idea is a whole banana, covered in peanut butter, wrapped in bacon, and baked into a flaky delicious crust. I gathered up an unusually straight banana for easy wrapping, some bacon, some peanut butter and some Pillsbury crescent rolls.

I started with a bacon weave. I had never done this before, so I was worried, but it's ridiculously easy. Just laid out 5 strips of bacon all lined up and then worked another 5 in between them. Put it on a baking sheet covered in foil and pop it in the oven at around 400. I checked on it probably too frequently, but I was worried it would get a little overcooked and crispy, which would cause trouble when I needed to wrap it around a banana. Also of note here, I used some really cheap bacon. That was a mistake. This was just the store brand, which I hoped was good because I shop at Wegmans which is so awesome you just don't even understand, but it turned out to be a little disappointing. My current bacon of choice is Oscar Mayer's Hearty Thick Cut Bacon.

So once it's out of the oven I simply spread the peanut butter on the weave. In hindsight, I should have used more peanut butter. I was worried about it melting and leaking in the last step, but I believe my fears were unfounded. Then on goes the banana and just roll the bacon around it. The peanut butter makes this easy since it will hold everything together for you.

Now for the flaky delicious crust. One package of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls worked out well for this. A package contains 8 crescent rolls that are in 4 rectangles that are split up into two sheets. I took the first sheet and laid it flat on a baking sheet and placed the rolled bacon log in the middle of it. I kind of held the sides up to wrap around the bacon log and put the other sheet on top, folding it so that the top sheet overlapped the bottom sheet and held it all together in a roll shape. Into the oven for about 15-20 minutes at 375 until the crust turns a nice golden brown.

All in all, it was kind of odd. Not terrible, not something I would have again, but I did finish the whole thing. I was happy to have an excuse to try out a bacon weave and a Pillsbury crescent roll crust. Those are two things that I'm definitely going to use in other meals. So I feel I had some alright experience with this, which is half the reason I made it.