Bacon-Wrapped Mushroom Poppers

So. I've got an hour and a half of free time. Well, not really free time. I could be doing something school-related, but I feel like blogging instead. Remember my loaded portobello mushrooms? I do. I loved them, especially because they gave me tons of new ideas. This mushroom-craze I've been having is seriously weird, though, because I always hated mushrooms growing up. I'm still trying to wrap my head around my new fascination.

Anyway, I bring you mushroom poppers. Why mushroom poppers instead of jalapeño poppers? Well, simply because I wanted my poppers to be reliable. I love the idea of jalapeño poppers. I love peppers, cheese, and bacon. I've made poppers plenty of times, including making batches for family. However, I have found jalapeños to be far too unpredictable for me. I'm not used to a lot of hotness, so if I get a batch that turns out to be particularly spicy... well, consider me a baby when that happens. With mushroom poppers, not only can I still have them spicy, I can control how spicy they are!
 

Funny story, though...

I actually didn't make these for myself. That's right, I wanted to make something delicious for other people. Actually, for my dad. He and the rest of our immediate family came over to my house for dinner to celebrate his 60th 59th (hehe...) birthday. There was so much food! Hamburgers, hot dogs, salad, traditional deviled eggs as well as avocado-bacon deviled eggs (made by yours truly), black forest cake (my mum made it for the first time!), and new-york style low-carb cheesecake (also made by yours truly). 

Uh, but I also made these bad boys. They were the first thing I made, and I was super excited to share them because my dad and brother really enjoy mushrooms. I tossed them in the oven (not to bake, just so they didn't take up space) and, well. Yeah. I completely forgot about them. It wasn't until I got ready for bed and thought "Did I turn the oven off?" when I realised... I hadn't used the damn oven! My mushroom poppers, nooooo! I'm not used to having more than two extras over for dinner, so any time family is over to eat I get a little stressed. Oops!

Ingredients

• 12 small-medium white button mushrooms 
• 12 slices of bacon 
• 6 tbsp (1/4 c + 2 tbsp) cream cheese, flavoured if desired (softened, or use spreadable)
• ~200g cheddar cheese (~15g per mushroom)
• 1 tbsp hot sauce (I used Frank's Redhot)
• 1/2 tbsp red pepper flakes (1/2 tbsp plus the Franks creates a medium spice level)

If you want to make more or less than one batch, match the ingredients to the number of mushrooms you have. That is, 1 mushroom + 1 slice of bacon + 1/2 tbsp of cream cheese + 15g of cheddar cheese. Adjust the spice level to your preferences! 

Nutritional information, per serving (1): 179 cals, 2g net carbs (2g carbs, 0g fiber), 16g fat, 8g protein

Nutritional information, whole batch: 2152 cals, 18g net carbs (21g carbs, 3g fiber), 190g fat, 90g protein

Ingredients	Calories	Net Carbs (g)	Carbs (g)	Fiber (g)	Fat (g)	Protein (g)
~200g white mushroom	44	5	7	2	1	6
12 slices of bacon	1140	6	6	0	108	36
1/2 cup cream cheese	240	6	6	0	21	6
~180g medium cheddar	720	0	0	0	60	42
1/2 tbsp red pepper flakes	8	1	2	1	0	0

Directions

If you're like me and enjoy a firmer piece of bacon, cook it ahead of baking. I put my bacon on the stove while I prepped the other ingredients, cooked it to the point where I would eat it, and I could still move it without breaking it apart, so not very crispy (see the second picture posted above). We'll be baking these bad boys later, so the bacon will finish off nicely.

Preheat your oven to 375F. 

While your bacon is cooking, rinse and dry your mushrooms. Remove stems and gently scoop out the gills. I say gently because mushrooms are delicate and we don't want to split them right in half. A couple cracks won't hurt, though. 

Rinsed, dried, stems removed.

I used a strawberry huller to scrape out the gills and a little flesh, too. (not my flesh!)  

Check your bacon for doneness, making sure you don't cook the strips to a crispy level. 

Also cut your cheddar cheese into 12 cube-like pieces (or however many you need), small enough to fit inside the mushrooms. You could also shred the cheese, but this is way easier.

These are ~15g each

In a small-medium mixing bowl, mix cream cheese, hot sauce, and red pepper flakes. I used a hand mixer for about 2 minutes during this step. The mix was super creamy and had no lumps of still-cold cream cheese. 

Next, we're going to fill the mushrooms. Again, the mushrooms are delicate, so I highly recommend using a piping bag. If you don't have one, put your cream cheese mix in a plastic baggie and cut the tip off. Pipe the mix into the mushrooms, about 2/3 full, leaving room for the cheese cubes.

Oops. Some of these are not 2/3...

Then top with cheese cubes.

Next, I cut each of my bacon pieces at the 2/3 mark and placed the 1/3 pieces over the mushrooms. This is totally optional; I did it because the strips were too long for a simple wrap-around. Regardless, wrap your cheese mushrooms with bacon and secure using a toothpick. Note: Don't use mint flavoured tooth picks :(

I used cupcake liners to minimize the greasy mess when baking!

Bake at 375F for 10 minutes, or freeze. If freezing and cooking later, I'd add an extra 3-5 minutes on the cooking time. 

Mmm!
xo, Jennifer