Instead Of Putting Bacon On Your Bagels, Put It In Your Cream Cheese

Bagels and cream cheese are a breakfast match made in heaven, and each bite gets even better if you add bacon to the mix. It's popular to toss a few strips onto a bagel with cream cheese to add some salty flavor and extra protein. But you can level up your breakfast bagel by mixing crumbled bacon into the cream cheese before you spread it out.

Plain cream cheese is delicious on bagels. It's a staple in bagel-eating households and comes standard alongside a restaurant bagel. Plain cream cheese can get boring, though. You can find dozens of varieties for sale like Philadelphia honey pecan cream cheese or Philadelphia strawberry cream cheese. But you're more likely to find bacon-infused cheddar spreads for sale than you are to find cream cheese with crumbled bacon already in the mix.

Luckily, it's easy to make your own bacon cream cheese at home, and it doesn't take too much extra time to get it right. Adding crumbled bacon to your cream cheese will give you an even spread of bacon across your bagel, ensuring you'll get bits of bacon in every bite. It makes the bagel easier to eat, too, since you won't have to chomp apart large slices of bacon with your teeth as you enjoy your bagel.

The process of making bacon cream cheese is as easy as you make it. To cook the bacon, you could fry up a few strips in a pan, or oven-bake your bacon for less mess and excellent texture. The point is to make crispy bacon that can be crumbled into bacon bits and then blended by hand or in a food processor into your cream cheese. If you want to add even more pizzaz to your morning bagel, make candied bacon (set some aside for epic BLTs) and crumble that into your cream cheese spread.

Once you have your bacon crumble cream cheese ready, you can spread it on your bagel and enjoy it, or you can pop your bacon cream cheese bagel into the oven for a toasted version. Hollow out your bagel for a little more room for cream cheese and bacon goodness. You can use up that leftover cream cheese in many ways, like putting it on a sandwich or using your bacon-infused cream cheese to stuff chicken before baking.

Plain bagels provide a good foundation for your bacon cream cheese, but you could add the mixture to all kinds of savory bagels, like onion flavored. Everything bagels are usually seasoned with salt, toasted sesame seeds, dried onion, and dried poppy seeds, making them an excellent companion to bacon cream cheese.

There are countless ways to put a twist on bacon cream cheese. You could make your morning bagel taste just like a jalapeño popper if you add some chopped jalapeño. Make smoked cream cheese to add extra meaty flavors to your bacon cream cheese bagel. Add fresh basil, sun-dried tomatoes, and chopped kalamata olives to bacon cream cheese to create a Mediterranean-inspired flavor. Create a tea-sandwich-inspired bacon cream cheese bagel by adding sliced radish, cucumbers, and sprouts. Spice it up with some fresh garlic, scallions, and onion, or add a fried egg for a traditional-style breakfast.

Use overcooked bacon and chopped Colby Jack cheese for burnt bacon cream cheese, or blend in chopped avocados for a guacamole-style take on your bagel. Dill is also great with bacon cream cheese, with a zest that gets better when you add chopped pickles. Bacon cream cheese even works as a base for Miami cream cheese, also known as Lox Spread, traditionally made with smoked salmon, dill, scallions, and lemon juice. 

Make a pear and bacon cream cheese by adding roasted pears, sweet onion, crushed walnuts, and honey on top of the bagel. Figs also taste great with bacon cream cheese. You could even combine bacon cream cheese with apple butter for a fall-inspired bagel or add some jam into the mix, using flavors like plum, blackberry, or huckleberry.